History Recap / DoctorWhoS16E5ThePowerOfKroll

'''Production code:''' 5E

Written by Creator/RobertHolmes. This four-episode serial first aired from December 23, 1978 to January 13, 1979.

* TheSkeptic: Varlik clearly doesn't buy into the Kroll myth as much as the other Swampies, and in the latter stages begins openly questioning Ranquin.

* MakeMeWannaShout: Used by the Doctor to shatter a particularly tasteless window.

-->'''Doctor:''' ''(bound to a tortuous DeathTrap that will slowly stretch him out)'' "I like to get things straightened out."
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

JustForFun/TheOneWith the Music/BlueManGroup. [[{{Metaphorgotten}} Except they're green.]]

->'''The Doctor''': Well, you'd better introduce me.\\
'''Romana''': As what?\\
'''The Doctor''': Oh, I don't know... a wise and wonderful person who wants to help. Don't exaggerate.

The one with the Music/BlueManGroup. [[{{Metaphorgotten}} Except they're green.]]

* SmugSnake: Many people might plan to wipe out an intelligent species, only Thawn would do it for a reason as petty as expanding a business (which isn't even ''his'' business, he seems to be middle management at best). His plan to sell the Swampies faulty guns and then shoot them in self-defence falls apart because a giant squid starts killing everyone indiscriminately and his staff aren't as sociopathic as him, even giving him funny looks when he starts chuckling about how all the people he doesn't like are going to die. Even the Doctor only sees him as someone to snark at. When he gets a spear in the chest, no-one gives him a second look.

Written by Creator/RobertHolmes. This serial first aired December 23, 1978-January 13, 1979.

* CrapsackWorld: it's an equal-opportunity-misanthropy depiction of colonialism where the colonists are all murderous racists or ineffectual wets, but the indigenous people are bloody-minded, backwards, sadistic, and worship a mindless monster just because it's big and scary. The ending gives the strong impression that the Doctor has absolutely no confidence in his standard "and now you must learn to live in peace together" speech and that the Swampies are either going to execute the last surviving colonist as soon as team TARDIS is out of sight, or start worshipping ''him'' for helping to kill the old god.

* GiantAnimalWorship: a giant squid is worshiped as a god. It's so big its waste is refined to fuel. It swallowed a segment of the Key To Time.

* IMeantToDoThat: Ranquin insists his people left their original planet because the high priestprophecized the ecological disaster the colonist would bring about. The Doctor states they were forcefully relocated by the colonists.

* OddlySmallOrganization: the Swampies' race apparently consists entirely of one village as it is stated in-story that destroying it would end their entire civilization.

Robert Holmes has called this [[OldShame his least favourite of the ''Who'' stories he wrote]], describing it as rather dull. He was never a fan of "big scary monster" stories, and so was uneasy with the premise he was given, as well as the way the script was executed. It also suffers from [[NoBudget budgetary issues]], even by ''Who'' standards of the time. His dissatisfaction with the story led to him not returning to write any more ''Who'' stories until "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]" six years later.

* AbsenteeActor: Sort of. K9 is absent from this story, as the prop wouldn't work on the swamp location. His voice actor, Creator/JohnLeeson, plays Dugeen.

* AbsenteeActor: Sort of. K9 is absent from this story, as the prop wouldn't work on the swamp location. His voice actor, John Leeson, plays Dugeen.

Robert Holmes has called this [[OldShame his least favourite of the ''Who'' stories he wrote]], describing it as rather dull. He was never a fan of "big scary monster" stories, and so was uneasy with the premise he was given, as well as the way the script was executed. It also suffers from [[NoBudget budgetary issues]], even by ''Who'' standards of the time.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Methane produced by Kroll proves vital to the plot. Once again, Creator/RobertHolmes works in a fart joke.

The one with the Blue Man Group. [[{{Metaphorgotten}} Except they're green.]]

* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: A reeeaaaally big one.

The one with the Blue Man Group. Except they're green.

* AllThereInTheManual: In Creator/RobertHolmes's earlier drafts of the story it's made clear that Varlik is actually the chief of the Swampie tribe, but doesn't have any real authority, thanks to Ranquin using the legend of Kroll to effectively usurp total control of the tribe. This doesn't really come across in the finished episode, but the novelization keeps this little detail.
** The moon is never named on-screen. In his novelisation of the story, Creator/TerranceDicks named the moon Delta III.

* YouLookFamiliar: Philip Madoc, who played one of the miners, and John Abineri and Terry Walsh, who play tribesmen, each had multiple guest roles in ''Series/DoctorWho'' over the years. Another of the miners doesn't ''look'' familiar, but is played by John Leeson, better known as the [[IKnowThatVoice voice]] of K-9. (This was because John Leeson was contracted as a regular cast member, but having K-9 in a story with heavy location shooting in a marsh was never going to be practical - and the actor due to play Dugeen dropped out)

* AllThereInTheManual: In Robert Holmes's earlier drafts of the story it's made clear that Varlik is actually the chief of the Swampie tribe, but doesn't have any real authority, thanks to Ranquin using the legend of Kroll to effectively usurp total control of the tribe. This doesn't really come across in the finished episode, but the novelization keeps this little detail.