C06S04 The Krotons

Synopsis

When the TARDIS arrives on the planet of the Gonds, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe discover a world ruled and enslaved by the Krotons.  The brightest Gonds are always chosen to serve as companions of the Krotons and are never seen again.  The Doctor and his friends decide to put a stop to their rule – but in doing so, inadvertently unlease the true power and terror of the Krotons instead...

Cover notes

The Krotons began life as a one-off science fiction script without the Doctor.  The idea was rejected by the BBC, but Head of Serials Shaun Sutton suggested that writer Robert Holmes get in touch with the Doctor Who production office with his story pitch instead.  Holmes did, but nothing came of it at the time because the robotic creatures in the script were too similar to the Mechanoids in The Chase (1965).

However, this was not the end of Holmes' long and successful association with Doctor Who.  Under a new production team, the idea was eventually developed as a filler commission in case a script fell through.  When this happened during Patrick Troughton's final season as the Second Doctor, The Krotons script was ready and waiting.

At one point, The Krotons was the only existing example of a four-part Patrick Troughton story in the BBC Archives.  As such, it was chosen as part of The Five Faces of Doctor Who, a series of repeats in 1981, shown just ahead of Peter Davison's first story as the new Doctor.

Like the Mechanoids that prevented them from appearing a few years earlier, the poor Kroton creatures would never return to Doctor Who on television, although they did go on to appear in an original Doctor Who novel and also an audio adventure.

Robert Holmes, however, would return to Doctor Who again and again as writer and later as script editor.  He is responsible for creating Autons, Sontarans and many of the most memorable cliffhangers in the history of Doctor Who.

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