The Doctor and Romana’s search for the fifth segment of the Key to Time has taken them to Delta III, a moon of Delta Magna. This swamp-covered moon is being used as a colony for displaced “Swampies”, who were evicted from Delta Magna by Earthlings who wanted to exploit that planet for resources. Now the Earthlings are eyeing Delta III for resource extraction. Little do they know about the truth behind the legends of the giant-octopus-like Kroll, which lurks somewhere in the swamp…

I found this a brisk-paced story that made for an entertaining afternoon. K9 was stuck in the Tardis the whole time because of the swampy ground, but the Doctor and Romana provided enough quips to keep the humour in place. In my personal ranking of the Key to Time stories, at this writing it’s second behind The Androids of Tara. (The Pirate Planet is third, then The Ribos Operation is fourth.) ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1047630.html#cutid4

The Dicks/Holmes combination is a rather uneven predictor of quality, so it is worth noting that while this is generally considered the weakest of this season's televised stories, it is possibly the best of the Key to Time books, with the background to the Swampies, Rohm-Dutt and the refinery staff filled out a bit. Basically the only one of the Season 16 books that I would recommend to the casual collector as opposed to the completist. ( )