Doctor Who: 10 Most Underrated Villains And Monsters

Doctor Who is a show famous for its narrative ambitions often outstripping its very limited budget. This leads to a lot of moments, especially in the classic series, that are meant to come off as grand and epic but end up falling pretty flat. And The Power of Kroll is a serial that is frequently labelled as a textbook example of this.

In their hunt for the Key to Time, a legendary artefact that drives the plot arc of season sixteen, the Fourth Doctor and Romana land on a moon of the planet Delta Magna and encounter a tribe of 'Swampies' who worship a giant monster known as Kroll. The Doctor later deduces that Kroll grew so large by eating a former Swampie High Priest and a holy relic, which was actually one of the Key to Time segments.

While the story itself is nothing outstanding, although Kroll's attack on a drilling refinery is a great sequence, this scale of monster was like nothing that had ever been seen on the show before. There was still a good deal of fear generated from the idea of taking on such a giant, almost Lovecraftian, beast and the awe that Kroll inspires is sold very well by everyone's performances. It's a shame that the writing surrounding this monster wasn't as grand.