Holistic Review: A traditional and enjoyable tale with great performances from the regular cast and a pretty interesting race of monsters. There are those who despise it, but don't let that put you off giving it a try.
As I was watching The Krotons, I was trying to figure out why exactly I like this story so much. I'm well aware that there's a sizeable population of fans who think it's absolute muck, and I'm not exactly sure why. Granted, the guest cast aren't stellar, and there's a lot of running around, but it's just so much fun!
The first thing I want to mention is the plot, because I have a feeling that's where my real enjoyment of this story lies. I'm including Robert Holmes' writing in this category as well; it's not that I'm a raving Holmes fan, but I think his writing helps lift the plot even more. It's not just a matter of getting from point A to point B, it's also about enjoying the ride along the way, and Holmes writes some really fun scenes throughout. But the plot on its own is really quite interesting. We have a race of aliens that crashlanded on a planet thousands of years ago, and because their ship is powered by mental energy, they teach the primitive natives just enough to make them sufficiently intelligent without teaching them so much that they become dangerous. (An interesting idea here is that "the gaps in their knowledge may be significant" as the Doctor says - a nice bit of deductive reasoning, and a tantalizing clue!) Then they harvest two of the best students every year, enabling them to keep their machinery running on a basic level, and secretly dispose of the bodies so that the natives never find out what's going on. It's really pretty creepy, a story of mental vampirism with a splash of serial killer just for kicks. The fact that the aliens in question are crystalline gives the story another unique facet. (er, no pun intended!)
The regulars seem to be at a real peak here, particularly Patrick Troughton and Wendy Padbury, who get quite a lot to do. The interaction between the Doctor and Zoe is a treat to watch - they relate so well with one another on an intellectual level, and yet they have that little bit of rivalry (so apparent in this episode) that gives their banter a playful edge. ("I think I've scored more than you have, Zoe!") The Doctor is at his usual blustery, scatterbrained best, demonstrating just why I love this incarnation so much. He's never anything less than fascinating to watch, and the way he delivers his lines! Highly entertaining. Wendy Padbury is just as good, especially when she gets to portray Zoe in panicked distress. The fight scene at the beginning is a most unnecessary bit of padding, but it does give the regulars a nice moment of characterization - Zoe's plaintive encouragement of Jamie is especially nice. Wendy Padbury gets an especially good scene when Zoe's curiosity leads her to try out the Krotons' learning machines. Her impulsive decision seems very much in character; and the scene in which the Doctor finds out what she's done, and petulantly sets out to match her score so that he can accompany her into the Kroton ship, is fantastic. They also get a great scene in the Dynatrope at the end, as they pretend to argue in order to buy time for the sulphuric acid to do its thing. Frazer Hines isn't wasted either; the script emphasizes Jamie's fighting skills, resourcefulness and loyalty - and, ironically given his plotline, Jamie's intelligence! He's quite clever at distracting the Krotons, trying to argue with them logically, and figuring his way out of the ship.
The guest cast are interesting. After the first couple of episodes, I felt like they were a rather uninspired lot, with one possible exception. But by the end of the story, some of them had grown on me, to the point where I feel comfortable singling out three of the guest stars for good performances. The first is Madeleine Mills as Vana; she spends most of the story in a daze or asleep, but she does a very convincing job of portraying Vana's slightly-unhinged terror of the Krotons' mind-draining device. I also discovered that I really like Beta, who turns out to have a wonderful sardonic wit. The scene involving him, Jamie and the acid is superb ("Let's see what happens! We can only blow ourselves up."). Then there's Selris; up until the end I didn't really have much of an impression of him, but his final act was so selfless, and his death was really horrific, and I suddenly realized I was sad to see him gone. So his performance clearly did reach me, even if maybe it wasn't until the very end.
Costuming and special effects are variable. For example, I think Selris has a really neat tunic (I wish I could see a color photograph of it). On the opposite end of the spectrum, Vana... well, to be frank, the rear of her trousers looks a little rude. Maybe that's a little strong, but on first glance, it looks like she's wearing a thong. (Hooray for black-and-white television, huh?) The special effects, I think, are overwhelmingly positive, although there's a really dismal shot of a model Gond city at the beginning (some flimsy-looking buildings around roads that look like they were drawn with chalk). All the effects in the story, though, are great, particularly the various shots of the ship and the Krotons melting. The ship-melting effects have come under a lot of heat because the Doctor and company were looking at it from beneath, but all the melting was going on at the top, so how could they possibly see what was going on when they were commenting on it? Well, this seems like an easily-solved dilemma - the sphere is clearly melting as far down as the midpoint, so as long as the Doctor and his party were able to see up that high, they'd have noticed that something was happening to the Dynatrope. (For that matter, who's to say there wasn't some less dramatic effect at the bottom?)
As monsters go, I think the Krotons are great. While it's true that they can't actually do very much, there's a difference between a script that doesn't utilize its monsters well and a script that creates limitations in its monsters. In this case, the Krotons can't do a lot because they have to stay connected to their feeder tank, and on the rare occasion that they do venture outside, they must be constantly monitored and fed directions. It makes for an interesting, and somehow more realistic, monster. As I said before, the Krotons are creepy, lurking inside their spaceship like crystalline spiders, ready to ensnare the brilliant and suck the energy out of them. Their design is overall great; I especially like their large crystal heads, which make them look different from any other alien design I've seen, although I think I'd like them better without the holes. I wouldn't mind if their bodies looked a little more crystalline, too, but that's a minor issue. The only thing I really... not "dislike", but perhaps "find entertaining"... is that they appear to be wearing skirts. And while they have great voices, their accents are rather amusing. None of this really detracts from their menace, though. And their heads spin! Cool! There's also the interesting point that while they're crystalline and organic, there's an element of machine behavior in the way they think and the limitations under which they operate. They surely can't be cybernetic, but you have to wonder. One other thing I like about them is that when they find out the Doctor has a time/space machine, they don't instantly want to commandeer it and control all of space and time; they just see it as a potential threat and want to destroy it! Also, they make cool sounds when they die.
Minor points:
So, The Krotons isn't without its problems, but the story is so enjoyable that they seem like relatively minor ones. Even if you don't like the guest characters, or you think the plot is too much of a runaround, at the very least the scenes involving the regulars are a delight, and that alone makes it worth watching.