The Doctor and Leela stop for a spot of fishing – but K9 has other things on his mind…
The current season of Tom Baker and Louise Jameson adventures heads towards its close with this rather different penultimate story, which for much of the time is a two-hander between the pair – with some very interesting interjections from John Leeson as K9. As with the best Who scripts, it addresses some moral issues (something Nick Briggs has successfully done in his contributions to this particular incarnation’s adventures over the past few years), and also emphasizes the way that this Doctor is different from some of his other selves… The recent trilogy of “locum Doctors” in the main range sometimes confirmed the old dictum about the Doctor being essentially the same person, but there are moments towards the end of the second episode here that could only really be said by Tom’s Time Lord (when you’ve heard it, consider the hypocrisy were McCoy or Smith’s Doctors to come out with such a comment!). Strong writing for the characters always brings out the best in both Baker and Jameson, and the argument between them is electrifying.
That’s not to say the story solely focuses on them: there is plenty else going on, and it’s no spoiler to say that we see a different side to K9 in this story. There’s only a small guest cast – Michael Cochrane and Veronica Roberts, both of whom give an edge to their roles.
If you want to remain unspoiled for the finale, then I strongly suggest not listening to the trailer – there are clues as to what’s going on in The Fate of Krelos, but the answers are blatant in that.
Verdict: It may seem like a small-scale story but The Fate of Krelos deals with some large issues well. 9/10
Paul Simpson
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