The Power of Kroll is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 23 December 1978 to 13 January 1979. It is the fifth story in the Key to Time story arc. The Doctor and Romana arrive on the marsh moon of Delta Magna in search of the fifth segment of the Key to Time, but are caught in the conflict between the native Swampies and the crew of a chemical refinery.

The presence of a gunrunner complicates matters, and to make things worse, the Swampies intend to awaken Kroll, the giant god that lives beneath the swamps. In the far future on one of the moons of Delta Magna, Delta Three, sits a vast methane and protein collection and manufacturing refinery. The staff of four – the bullying leader Thawn, and his technical support Fenner, Harg, and Dugeen – are in charge of the operation.

A green-skinned humanoid native called Mensch, one of the Delta Magnans, serves them. These servile people were once the inhabitants of the main planet but were moved to Delta Three when the Earth Empire identified Delta Magna as commercially valuable; sadly for the green-skinned natives, known as Swampies, this is now also the case on Delta Three. Thawn becomes concerned about the possibility of insurrection when he learns both that the environmentalist group Sons of Earth has taken an interest in Delta Three and that the gun-runner Rohm Dutt is rumoured to be journeying there.

Thawn and Fenner head outside the refinery to see if he has arrived, suspecting a mysterious spacecraft which has touched down nearby is Rohm Dutt’s. The Fourth Doctor and Romana have also arrived on Delta Three, searching for the penultimate segment of The Key to Time. However, the Tracer they are using to locate the segment is giving some very strange readings that makes their quarry difficult to pinpoint.

They are ambushed by Swampies and Romana ends up getting taken away with Rohm Dutt and a Swampie patrol, while the Doctor is found by Fenner and Thawn and returned with them to the refinery. There he displays a bewildering familiarity with the methane catalysing process, with the refined protein then shot into space for delivery to Delta Magna. The Doctor is also intrigued by the position of Mensch, whom the refinery workers do not even regard as a properly sentient being.

The Doctor slips away to try and find Romana, but she has meanwhile got herself into a degree of trouble. The Swampies have tied her to a rock and are prepared to sacrifice her to Kroll, a giant squid creature that lives beneath the swamps and which they worship as a god. When it appears from the waters, Kroll is a vast squid – or rather a Swampie dressed as one.

The Doctor unmasks the fake monster and rescues Romana.

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