Reviewed: The Fate of Krelos

Chris Swanson is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Allow me to state out the outset that I quite liked this story. It’s not the best, but it was decent, solid entertainment, and I very much enjoyed it.

The story does, however, suffer from the problem of being part one of a two-part story, and I therefore have to evaluate it as such. As a reminder, here’s the synopsis:

There are dark skies on Krelos… and something gigantic is descending.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Leela set off for some fishing in the mountain pools of Krelos. K9 has interfaced with the TARDIS and has reactivated the architectural configuration from the days of the Doctor’s second incarnation. In passing, the Doctor notes it could do with a good clean. And there’s a familiar piece of material snagged on the console.

Far up the mountain, an aged explorer is in trouble. Will the Doctor and Leela be able to save him and his planet? And what is it that K9 has discovered in the TARDIS?

We find the Doctor and Leela (Tom Baker and Louise Jameson) arriving on Krelos, where they plan to do a spot of fishing. Meantime, K9 has been interfacing with the TARDIS computer and has somehow managed to reset the desktop theme to that of the Second Doctor. Conveniently, this theme also includes a fragment of Jamie’s kilt. Out on the surface of Krelos, they encounter a man who is also heading off to do a spot of fishing, and all appears to be well.

OR IS IT?!

Of course it isn’t, and I must say that the part leading up to the “it isn’t” is rather slow and at times seems to lose focus. It picks up quite a bit, however, once all heck starts to break lose, as the Doctor and Leela find out that over the course of only a few minutes, the planet’s primary city appears to have been completely destroyed; and that destruction seems to have happened some time ago.

The identity of the adversaries in this story is pretty obvious from the beginning, but that’s okay, because it’s fun to see how they make their appearance and how they interact with the TARDIS crew. It also makes K9’s final line in the story rather a bit chilling and does an excellent job of setting us up for the conclusion next month.

The acting in this story was, of course, excellent as always. Baker and Jameson continue their fantastic efforts, as does the too-often underused Leeson. The guest actors (including Caves of Androzani and Ghost Light‘s Michael Cochrane) did well, too, though they weren’t really given that much to do.

Written and directed by Nick briggs, as a partial, stand-alone story, The Fate of Krelos (which is available now from Big Finish) works out okay, but I strongly suspect it will be vastly improved by the second part…

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