It’s time to listen to and discuss The Creed of the Kromon
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Woah finally being one of the first in the Audio Club and what Story will be discussed here, eh… Oh… Oh no…
Out of all Stories, it’s this one. 
Well it’s been quite a while since I listen to this, that said I still remember it well enough and well I don’t hate it, neither do I like it. I think in many ways at best it’s a bit unremarkable, at worst it’s a letdown in its Series, as well as in the MR after such a stellar Run (Omega - Scherzo) and then this!
Following such a good Run will always be hard and well Kromon does not live up to it. If it wasn’t for its Writer and for being the Introduction Story of C’rizz, it would have be forgotten, I’d reckon.
After doing some Work with Six, Martin returns to pen his first Big Finish Play and his first Adventure with a new Doctor. It’s not good. Not to say I am too thrilled about Martins work from what I heard and seen, but this one falls into the Trap of his previous Work but without the Substance. It’s offputting but lacks a Commentary that made Varos such a good Story.
Gone is an interesting, unique World, replaced for a Society that on Paper could be interesting but offers mostly nothing. Of course following up Scherzo would have been hard anyway and if this Story delivers in being enjoyable I would have been very satisfied. Sadly it simply isn’t, if we don’t have some gross Imagery we kinda have a very Standard and very boring Who Adventures.
That said, not all of it is bad, C’rizz is introduced fairly well here, and you get the Gist of his Character. Some of its Cliffhangers are intriguing, but really what does it offer?
Of course, it’s fine if a Writer decides to go with a style, has a pattern, it can work very well, sadly Martin’s later Work (from the very little I know) doesn’t reach the Highs of his first one.
Despite all I wouldn’t say it’s truly “bad”, it isn’t “good” either and not really “middling” either, I am unsure how I would rate this Story. There are Things which work, but they get overshadowed by some of its worst Parts, a mess of a Story really, and I am not necessarily sure if I make sense, but I tried my best .
Well, I like it this one.
There were rumblings that this story wasn’t very good even prior to its release, and not many people have positive things to say about it even now.
To me, the Divergent Universe thing was a brave plan to shake up the format of Doctor Who, but the premise wasn’t terribly well thought out. C’Rizz isn’t well served here in his debut story, his ability to change colour to adapt to various moods and situations a bizarre choice for audio!
But I love everything else - we’re stepping into a convincingly realised alien society in a wonderfully eccentric locality, with atmospheric music and sound design that makes this story a most immersive experience!
I love The Kro’ka, a real Alice in Wonderland figure, whose appearance is deliberately left to our imagination; and The Oroog really should have become a regular character 
Well, talk about a total crash and burn after Scherzo.
This is such a major disappointment. Boring as heck, bleak in all the wrong ways, bizarre, alien. The sound design is effective, but oftentimes grating, and I can’t believe that Philip Martin chose to recreate the atmosphere of Vengeance of Varos and completely, utterly failed at it. The world certainly feels otherworldly but also so unwelcoming that I struggled to sit through this.
Even Paul and India can’t really save this one. And C’rizz doesn’t leave much of an impression, either.
4/10
Oh no here we go… this one is not hot at all
Listened to this not that long ago, being one of only a handful of main range stories I own. Looking back at my comments, my main takeaways were that I like the idea of C’rizz’s race, but in audio format he just felt like a human; and for a universe without time - at least I think that’s how it was described - I couldn’t see what was different from our universe.
Wish I could give this 0/10. My least favourite Doctor Who story of all time. If it was solely boring it’d be bad but fine. If it was solely misogynistic and hateful towards Charley it would be awful but it wouldn’t be my least favourite thing ever.
The fact it commits both crimes makes me loathe this with a passion. I hated it so much that I didn’t listen to any DU stories for a full year after listening, because it put me off the arc. I hate this story so effing much.
The universe without time is an interesting concept but I don’t think BF or any of the writers knew how to actually communicate that through the stories. It’s just sort of stated but due to the nature of storytelling there kind of has to be a linear beginning, middle and end.
The concept of the divergent universe would work better in prose, but I don’t mind how they wrap it up in the last few stories. It just doesn’t work in a format such as audiodramas where you can’t make every story non linear or it would get tiring very fast. So they simplified it and transformed the original idea in Zagreus in something else entirely. I’m sure there will be some listeners disappointed with the answers in the future, but I like it for what it is.
I don’t like Creed of the Kromon. I think it’s essential to the arc because of how central it is to C’rizz as a character, but I find it disgusting to hear and not in a way I enjoy. It’s full of misogynistic ideas and tropes; every terrible thing that happen to the women in this story only do so to propel a male character and I can’t decide if I am happy Charley won’t remember any of this or if it makes me angry she went through all of that for nothing.
Agree with @NobodyNo-One 100000%. Essential to setting things up for the rest of the arc, otherwise not a good story. Lots of gross noises!!! But half-delirious Doctor laughing was a very good noise that I appreciated.
C’rizz is here! One thing I do remember for sure is how many times we get the sad anime flashback of him killing L’da 
.
The continuing theme of killing/dying for love is interesting. C’rizz starts talking about how they’re gonna have to kill Charley and I can honestly imagine the Doctor thinking “Jesus Christ it’s the 4th time in a roll”. I don’t remember if Charley and C’rizz ever end talking about having the “Killed someone you loved” badge.
I had completely forgotten about the Kro’ka and the thing with the zones! I have a vague memory of liking that character in the way that I liked Weyoun in Star Trek DS9, which was “this pathetic middle management guy sucks”.
This is… interesting. There’s a really interesting corporate satire with the Kromon. But it’s bogged down by a really boring execution. I once saw someone compare Creed to a nature documentary and I think that’s a very apt comparison. There’s a lot of world building done here and it’s really interesting. I love the idea that this vampiric corporate cycle sucked all the ethics from the Kromon and corrupted them into what we see in this story and how this soul sucking cycle was starting to affect the Eutermesians.
Kro’ka is a funky little guy.
The beginning with Kro’ka was interesting. Everything afterward was disappointing.
There’s a line I’m going to steal from a James Bond novel, though I forget which one: Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action
By this reckoning, I think Philip Martin is my parasocial enemy. This is the third of his Teansformation Stories (Peri into some vird thing in Vengeance on Varos, Peri into a vessel for Sil’s mind in Mindwarp, and Charley here ) and, like the other two, Kromon has lows of “unpleasant to listen to” and highs of “interesting idea executed just so boringly”. This second point is also, I think, a sign of the Divergent Universe to come, where there’s some solid ideas that never quite get executed to their full potential
Yeah, you can’t convince me he doesn’t just hate women honestly
Hmm. I didn’t really like listening to this. I found it very difficult to follow. There’s just a lot of dialogue that’s not really about anything (and also I didn’t find fun to listen to) that makes it hard for me to focus. Completely missed the part where C’rizz tells his name, or where they defeat the big insects for example. Because then the plot relevant bits are just kinda dropped in between there and the plot moves forward by sentences that suddenly declare thing and then it moves on. Like instead of a flowing story it becomes wooden. I guess? That’s the best I can explain it. Because most of it I just wasn’t really there. Very un-engaging story basically.
I think also, that there’s a bit of a disappointment that this timeless divergent stuff feels all rather normal. And like, the idea that we’re going into this crazy incredible unexplainable beyond your wildest imaginations universe, and then we are there, and it’s so weird, but oh, turns out that was just a test tube, nevermind, now the real thing! And it’s just bureaucracy and corporations is really funny, but I also think it’s not really the right story or time to make that joke. Because my excitement for the rest has now greatly died down. Like I’ve become demotivated to listen to Natural History of Fear now! Can you imagine if I had been a listener back in the day who didn’t even know it was coming?
I don’t really hate much from it, but that could very well be because I missed the hateable parts. Just. Yeah. Very. Buh. That’s the best description of my feelings I could give now.
