The Krotons

Notes

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• Background to the Krotons as a race can be found in Alien Bodies (8th Doctor and Sam)
• One of my favourite TARDIS teams - Zoe for the brains, Jamie for the brawn (and although Zoe tends to be scantily-clad, she is at least on a par with the Doctor when it comes to intelligence, as the tests of the Krotons show).
• Several actors from Dad's Army - or rather the other way round given recording dates.
• Do none of the Gonds realise that those who enter the Kroton's craft never return? There must be hundreds of 'companions' in there by now.
• Quite liked the voice of the Krotons, wasn't too similar to anything else (e.g. Daleks or Cybermen).
• Shame that the Krotons are so immobile, not exactly difficult to run away from.
• Idea of guiding development of the Gonds and avoiding the discovery of dangerous (to the Krotons) technology was interesting, although this seems like an incredibly long game to play.
• Krotons are not the most frightening of monsters given their slow movement and their initial inability to leave their ship.
• One wonders how the Gonds are useful to the Krotons, given that they are kept at such a primitive level of development.
• 'I'm not a doctor of medicine Zoe' says the Doctor, directly contradicting what he told Polly in The Moonbase.
• The Krotons have supposedly been on the planet for thousands of years. Even allowing for their effective immortality, things must have changed in the surrounding solar system.
• James Copeland (Selris) seems to clench his fists whenever he is stood still.
• 'Great jumping gobstoppers' is a great phrase to use when surprised by something.
• Troughton plays the intelligent fool with style as always.
• As with many Troughton 'monster era' stories, the limited special effects budget means that in many ways this is a more rewarding read as the Target novelisation.
• What happened to the original Krotons who the Gonds fought? Did they disperse themselves?
• Although the Krotons have been inactive for thousands of years, they say there has not been time for another species to evolve (referring to Jamie, Zoe and the Doctor).