Doctor Who: The Creed of the Kromon (2004)
Philip Martin
Big Finish #53
Starring: Paul McGann, India Fisher, Conrad Westmaas
Still in the Divergent Universe, and picking up from the end of Scherzo, The Eighth Doctor and Charley are still walking through this non-space, when they are tied down by a disembodied voice that communicates telepathically. Unlike the monster in Scherzo, this creature speaks in English (does it know their language, is the TARDIS translating, or has it assimilated their language? Questions sadly not answered, at least yet) and it wants to know their intent before it will allow them to cross into the next land. The Doctor manages to convince The Kro’ka to allow them passage – and when they are gone it is revealed that some test is underway, and that failure means most likely death.
On an alien world with two suns, they witness a form of aircraft shooting at a man fleeing one of the nearby bio domes. The Doctor and Charley walk to the body and discover he is still alive and humanoid, one with chameleon-like abilities. His name is C’rizz and by the end of this story he will be travelling with The Doctor and Charley, out into the Divergent Universe. Before that point The Doctor tries to help C’rizz rid his planet of the insect like Kromon who are draining the planet of water and wish to travel through space, so they can devastate other worlds. But first they need a new queen, and that means genetic testing and genetic cross-breeding. And what do you know, they want Charley to become one of these queens…
After the unparalleled success of Scherzo, The Creed of the Kromon comes across badly. It is not a bad story, and it contains some genuinely creepy and funny moments, and Paul McGann brings his usual gravitas, but there was something missing here: it must be tough to create an entirely new world in two hours, and I admire Philip Martin for trying to achieve just that, but what with introducing a new villain, a new companion and a story of such complexity, it is clear something has to give – sadly the story. The plotting is weak, with a little too much running around.
I must make a few comments about C’rizz: there is a lot of potential with this character – he has to kill his lover to save her from a more gruesome fate, and that must damage him. He has some unique abilities that I am sure will be put to good use in later stories, and Conrad Westmaas plays him well. I know we will need a guide to this divergent universe, and that C’rizz fulfils this purpose, but at the end of this story I wondered how necessary he was: the interplay between the Eighth and Charley has been one of the delights of McGann’s two seasons, and I fear it might become diluted by the introduction of this new face. We shall see.
So, while not the great beginning to the divergent universe plotline we might have hoped for, The Creed of the Kromon has some good ideas and a sets things up for the future nicely. I just hope the payoff is good.
