When Robert Holmes was asked to write the story that would become The Power Of Kroll in 1978, script editor Anthony Read gave him two directions: that the script strip out the comic relief that the 4th Doctor was becoming known for; and that the titular antagonist be the biggest monster the show had ever seen. Worshipped as a god by the local natives on the habitable but swampy third moon of Delta Magna, the terrifying Kroll rose from the depths every few centuries. Kroll was a... well, how about you just watch the clip? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ZN4FRdt4k Part of the season-long Key To Time storyline that followed the entire sixteenth season, The Power Of Kroll saw the Doctor and his companion Romana arrive in the middle of a series of skirmishes between the native Swampies and the humans running a nearby chemical refinery, all the while attempting to locate the fifth and penultimate part of the Key To Time itself, a mysterious cosmic device that was supposed to do mysterious, cosmic things. The ending was unfortunately anti-climactic, as it was revealed that the single biggest monster in Doctor Who history was in fact a reasonably ordinary squid-creature that had swallowed the errant part of the Key To Time, which had bulked it up into chthonic proportions. Once the Doctor had figured that out, he retrieved the missing piece and Kroll simply ceased to be a problem. Nevertheless, giant squid monsters of unprecedented size certainly qualify as strange, and the great and powerful Kroll makes our number ten spot by a tentacle.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
