| THE CREED OF THE KROMON by Philip Martin |
| Story 52 Synopsis: The Doctor and Charley are interrogated by the Kro'ka, who reluctantly allows them into the Eutermes zone. They rescue C'rizz, who has been running away from the Kromon, who rule the zone. They also meet a friendly Oroog, and are all captured by the Kromon. They try to evade assimilation, but C'rizz tracks down his mate, L'da, who has been mutated. He shoots her dead to end her suffering. The Kromon decide Charley should take her place, and C'rizz is punished by water torture. The Doctor agrees to help the Kromon develop space travel in return for his own freedom. He scorns the Kromon creed, a business practice justifying their operations. His work merely creates an explosive with which he makes his escape. Finding that the Oroog has rescued C'rizz, he wonders how to save Charley from advanced metamorphosis, and also stop the Kromon. He gets the Oroog to ask its fellows to cut off the water supplies, which put paid to the Kromon. Then the Oroog suggests that the plant roots with which he broke his own conditioning could help Charley. And they do. The Kromon rule over, the Doctor and Charley and joined on their quest to find the TARDIS by C'rizz, who has nothing left to stay in Eutermes for. |
| Review:- The mysterious Divergent Universe starts to yield some answers, though the Interzone and the Kro'ka are almost as puzzling. Are they all part of one big planet? Or is the Interzone a form of transmat? That may have to wait further investigation... Eutermes provides a new friend in the rather didactic C'rizz, lovelorn and occasionally depressing. It also counterpoints this with the friendly yet violent Oroog. Typically, the less promising character is taken on as a companion. Oh well, perhaps it'll work out... The Kromon are pretty basic insectoid nasties, terrorising the locals via their cunning business practices. After a while, even their voices provoke memories of the Thoros Betans, and it's tempting to wonder whether the author wanted to use Sil and was stopped, or intends the Kromon to reflect the same impulses but in this new universe, or just if Martin couldn't be bothered to come up with anything new. Their rather gruesome transmogrification of L'da and later Charley also is reminiscent of Vengeance On Varos. But unlike that story, there's no rebel movement to inspire, no friendly governor to encourage. Nothing, in fact, except the Oroog, who becomes a total noises-off character in the last part, providing all-too-convenient remedies to the problems of the Kromon. The sense of the formidable dominance of the Kromon is well presented, but this just makes the progress through the Sphere of the Doctor and his friends seem too tall an order, and then all too easy. Despite flummoxing the computer, their advance is halted when C'rizz puts his partner out of her misery. Then Charley is imperilled to take the late L'da's place, whilst C'rizz is strapped to a waterwheel. The Doctor uses his freedom to provide an explosive diversion, but is fortunate that the Oroog has rescued C'rizz, and created a hiding place, and a means to stop the Kromon. It doesn't bode well for the Doctor's journey through this universe if he has to rely on others to do almost all the work. Come to that, given that he seemed sure the TARDIS was destroyed in the preceding Scherzo, why are he and Charley looking for it? Haven't they reconciled to their fate being stuck here? Though the Kromon are fair enough as common-or-garden alien baddies, that's about the only good point to take away from this. C'rizz is rather unlikeable, and the miraculous recovery of Charley is symptomatic of a script which writes itself into a corner without a clue how to get out. A metaphor for the whole season? I hope not... |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |