The Power of Kroll

The Power of Kroll is the fifth serial of the 16th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 23 December 1978 to 13 January 1979.

In the serial, a methane catalysing refinery's operations in the swamp disturbs the giant squid Kroll, which grew in size after ingesting the fifth segment of the powerful Key to Time.

Kroll is revealed to be a giant squid, which surfaces to feed every few centuries and is the source of the abnormally large amount of methane being mined.

Originally a normal size squid, Kroll ingested the fifth segment of the Key to Time and began to grow, becoming a god-like figure to the Swampies and their descendants.

[1] Holmes said that he considered the idea of a large monster a mistake given the budgetary constraints at the BBC and named The Power of Kroll as his least favourite Doctor Who story.

Extensive location filming took place in Snape, Suffolk around the River Alde from Monday 18 September 1978 to represent the marshes featured in the script.

Costume designer Colin Lavers introduced a new tweed coat for the Doctor, which sported four flying duck brooches on its lapels.

[7] In their book The Discontinuity Guide (1995), Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote that The Power of Kroll was "very slow" with little humour, and "horribly acted" aside from Madoc and Abineri.

[8] In 2011, Mark Braxton of Radio Times gave a negative review of the serial, describing it as uninteresting with poor effects, "tepid dialogue and dull characters".