6.4: The Krotons
- Doctor: Patrick Troughton
- Companions: Jamie, Zoe
- Creators: Norman Ashby (Pseudonym of Writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln), Morris Barry (Director), Peter Bryant (Producer)
- Season 6
What's the rating?
Just there.
What's interesting about it?
It's Robert Holmes' first story for Doctor Who. As indicated below, the story itself doesn't warrant celebration, but Holmes would go on to be perhaps the most interesting writer in all of classic Who, so that's something.
As for this story, we're given a promising start with a story that's a combination of the classic children's science fiction story The Tripods and a bit of The Hunger Games, with the first monster we encounter being straight out of James Cameron's The Abyss (or Deep Throat -- you decide!)
The first episode and a half contains an intriguing mystery about who these unseen Krotons are that have controlled the human society on this planet for a thousand years and kill off the best and brightest for unknown reasons. But unfortunately once the mystery is answered, we're stuck with a pretty boring story and, well, the Krotons, who appear to like to do a bit of vacuuming up.
There's nothing particularly offensive about this story, and there's nothing particularly strong about it. It's just there, and as such I can't recommend it.
What is worth watching is the hour-long documentary about Patrick Troughton on the DVD, The Second Time Around, which you should ideally watch after The War Games. Also worth watching is the Frazier Hines interview.