Kroton (Cyberman)

In Throwback, the Cybermen invaded the planet Mondaran, but continued to encounter heavy human resistance. Among the reinforcements from the Cyberman colony world Telos was Junior Cyberleader Kroton, who discovered that he sympathised with the rebels. He helped the surviving rebels escape the planet, even to the point of killing his fellow Cybermen to defend the rebels. However, uncertain about the meaning of his own existence, he did not stay with the humans, but piloted his ship alone into space, planning to let his power supplies run down. However, Kroton survived, encountering a pleasure cruiser that was caught in a time warp (Ship of Fools, DWW #23-#24). Despite the passengers' lack of concern, he managed to access the robot pilot of the ship and free it from its endless looping through time. Unfortunately the ship had been trapped in the time warp for several hundred years, and when time caught up with the passengers, they all instantly aged and died, leaving Kroton alone with only the robot pilot for company.

Kroton did not appear until nearly 19 years later, in Unnatural Born Killers (DWM #277), where he fought off a Sontaran raid on a primitive human village. This set up his appearance less than a year later in The Company of Thieves (DWM #284-#286) where he met the Eighth Doctor and his companion Izzy on a freighter that had been captured by space pirates. After initially mistaking him for a typical Cyberman and trying to kill him, the Doctor realised that Kroton was different. Together, they dealt with the pirates who were attempting to capture an intelligent super-weapon. At the conclusion of that story, the Doctor welcomed Kroton aboard the TARDIS.

The TARDIS took the Doctor, Izzy and Kroton to the museum planet Paradost, where memories could be accessed and enhanced by means of mnemonic crystals. However, Kroton refused to use them, believing that to remember his life before cyber-conversion would be too painful. Unfortunately, the travellers' visit coincided with the launch of a jihad by the planet Dhakan's Church of the Glorious Dead. The wholesale slaughter turned out to be the work of the renegade Time Lord known as the Master, who had survived his last encounter with the Doctor and had been contacted by Esterath, a cosmic being that controlled the Glory, the focal point of the Omniversal spectrum which underlies all existence. Esterath was dying and needed to pass control of the Glory over to the worthier of two adversaries, and the Master and the Doctor had been chosen.

While the Doctor and the Master grappled in the Omniversal spectrum, Izzy and Kroton had to deal with the person who led the massacre on Paradost — Cardinal Morningstar, actually an immortal samurai named Sato who had found eternal life without meaning much as Kroton had. The Master had found Sato and used him to alter Earth's history and make it Dhakan. Sato and Kroton fought, but Kroton was unable to defeat Sato physically.

In the spectrum, the Doctor lost his battle with the Master. As Sato was also about to prove victorious over Kroton, Izzy used a mnemonic crystal to make Sato realize the full import of his part in the slaughter on Paradost, and Sato fell unconscious. Izzy also used the crystal on Kroton, making him remember his pre-conversion life and finally come to terms with it. As the Glory arrived to acknowledge its new controller, the Master stepped forward to claim it, but was rejected.

It was then revealed that the true adversaries were not the Master and the Doctor, but Sato and Kroton. Both of them were made immortal by technology, but Kroton won by choosing hope over despair. Kroton took his place as the new controller of the Glory, restoring the proper timeline, banishing the Master to parts unknown and granting Sato his wish of an honourable death. The Doctor and Izzy continued their journeys without him (The Glorious Dead, DWM #287-#296).

Other appearances

In the Eighth Doctor novel The Scarlet Empress, Time Lady Iris Wildthyme mentions that at some point during her travels, she encountered and befriended Kroton. The Doctor, however, gives no response, which may imply that the events of the novel take place before his own meeting with Kroton.