Day 498: The Power of Kroll Part 3

The Doctor, Romana and the treacherous gun-runner Rohm-Dutt have been put to death. The method of their death is to be tied up to some vines, which will slowly move and stretch their bodies, meaning that their spines will slowly be broken. This is reasonably uncomfortable to watch. bringing to mind medieval tortures such as the rack and, at least in my case, I felt like I wanted to curl up into a ball when I heard such descriptions as Romana describing her vertebrae as "they feel like beads on a piece of elastic". It's all thanks to Robert Holmes, erstwhile script editor for the series, for whom this story will be his last for the series for a good couple of years. It's uncomfortable and horrifying, but it's done with a certain glee that reflects that he is clearly having fun writing this section of the story. It represents another stand-out scene in Series 16, which for my money is one of the best series of Doctor Who of all time.