Doctor Who: ‘The Creed of the Kromon’ Review (Audio)

The Eighth Doctor and Charley meet a new companion and a new enemy. But do either of these help to make ‘The Creed of the Kromon’ remotely enjoyable?

You know how I said with ‘Scherzo’ that a story doesn’t need much plot in order to be any good? The reverse is also true. Just because a story has both a plot and arc elements doesn’t necessarily make it good. If any story was proof of this, it’s ‘The Creed of the Kromon’.

I can’t lie, this really was a frustrating story to listen to. There are some interesting ideas here. Certainly, an alien race based heavily on a typical business system could’ve been interesting.

But none of it really grabbed me. There weren’t any characters who stood out, and I never felt drawn in or felt as much genuine despair as I should have.

Equally frustrating is the fact that in a lot of ways, this feels very generic. Insect aliens ruling a world (or “zone”, in this case, which I’ll clarify in a moment); the Doctor and his companions needing to overthrow them. It’s the kind of story that’s been done many times before. And, I might add, much better, too. We’re in a brand new universe, surely we should be getting stories that are just a little bit different. ‘Scherzo’ was such a brilliant start to the season. It’s a shame that we see the Eighth Doctor’s adventures start to go backwards straight afterwards.

Philip Martin is the writer for this story, which makes it even more disappointing. The writer of ‘Vengeance on Varos’ and part of ‘Trial of a Time Lord’, he has written some rather good stories before. But none of the characters feel as colourful as Sil, or as conflicted as the Governor on Varos. How generic the whole thing feels is quite the disappointment, really.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of it is how important it is to the Divergent Universe arc. For one thing, it introduces the Kro’ka, a powerful and recurring enemy for the TARDIS crew. It also makes it clearer that the two main travellers are stuck in a kind of giant laboratory. The entire planet is divided into “zones”, with each zone’s environment running a completely different experiment on very large scales.

It’s a neat idea, especially as the Doctor and Charley are searching for the TARDIS. It’s just a real shame that one of these zones uses a pretty generic Doctor Who plot template. The Divergent Universe arc was supposed to push the series into a brand new direction, not just for the characters but also for the stories. ‘Scherzo’ was great proof of that, but ‘Kromon’ definitely wasn’t.

The most important element given by this story is the introduction of new companion, C’Rizz. He’s definitely the most interesting character here. A man who’s forced to make a very hard choice, he decides to join his two new friends on their travels. It’ll be interesting to hear how he develops over time.

Next: John Simm to Return as the Master on Doctor Who

Listening to ‘The Creed of the Kromon’ after ‘Scherzo’ almost feels like watching ‘The Twin Dilemma’ after ‘The Caves of Androzani’. It goes from one of the very best stories of the Eighth Doctor to one of the worst. Following not just a great story but also a brilliant season, ‘The Creed of the Kromon’ feels like a giant step backwards when it should be going forwards.