Episode 499 is one that I wasn’t really looking forward to
if I am being honest and that’s because of the last couple of episodes which haven’t
been the finest in Doctor Who but I was hoping that something would get me back
into the story and I am happy to say that this does happen. There is at least
some excitement to start this episode with and it comes when Kroll starts to
pick off some of the swampies.
The humans are trying to wipe out the swampies and vice
versa which just shows that this is the final episode of the story. The shot of
Kroll above the Doctor and Romana in their boat works ok but there is another
shot of Kroll on the horizon which looks a bit unconvincing. Also there is a
shot of Kroll attacking the refinery which really looks disappointing. This is
the time of the season where money starts to run out so this is where quality
starts to take a dip. There is a bit where the Doctor goes up a wobbly ladder
to mess with a little circuit board and when he slaps the lid back the rocket
wobbles. It’s always good to try and argue that walls rarely wobbled in Doctor
Who but times like this it makes my job of arguing harder.
There is a shot where John Abineri is talking to a tentacle prop
as if it the head part of Kroll. It’s due to the fact that Abineri is such a
good actor that it doesn’t come across more ridiculous than it could have done.
Whilst I haven’t been totally thrilled with the humans in this story, I thought
that they made up for it in this episode because there was a nice bit of
friction between all three of them and at one point K9 Dugeen gets shot
by Thawn. His death is sad but I thought that Thawn’s death was quite shocking
and surprisingly gory considering that Philip Hinchcliffe isn’t the producer.
Kroll is the fifth segment which perhaps shouldn’t have come
as a complete surprise. Due to the size of Kroll it was always going to be
difficult for the Doctor to save the day against something that doesn’t speak
and doesn’t communicate but somehow it works. The fact very little has been
mentioned about the fifth segment seems to be a good way of covering up the
fact that Kroll was the segment and one could argue that it was obvious when
the Doctor and Romana were talking at the beginning of episode two.
One stat for today’s episode and that is this is the 52nd
episode to be written by Robert Holmes which ties him with Terry Nation. It
will be a while before Robert Holmes returns to the show but I think that he
managed to save the day with this episode. I feel slightly more positively about
this story than I did at the end of the previous episode. I still stand that
this wont be Robert Holmes’ best story but I think that Norman Stewart did a
very good job of battling some tricky moments and making good use of the
location filming.
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