Directed by John Davies Executive producer(s) None Date ended 1 April 1967 Produced by Innes Lloyd Incidental music composer Dudley Simpson Episode(s) missing All episodes | Script editor Gerry Davis Series Season 4 ← Preceded by Followed by → Written by Ian Stuart Black Production code JJ Date started 11 March 1967 | |
Length 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
The Macra Terror is the completely missing seventh serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 March to 1 April 1967. It focuses on the Second Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie unravelling a mystery on a human colony planet in the future, and introduces the alien race known as the Macra. Although audio recordings, still photographs, and clips of the story exist, no episodes of this serial are known to have survived.
Contents
Plot
The Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie, concerned about an image they've seen on the TARDIS scanner of a giant menacing claw, arrive on an unnamed planet in Earth's colonial future. They are greeted by Medok, a half-crazed colonist, who is promptly arrested by Ola, the Chief of Police. The travellers return with Ola to the colony, which is in the midst of a festival, which feels similar to a holiday camp. The Doctor is sceptical about life in the colony, unnerved by the seemingly fake nature of the society, and unconvinced by the promises of the Colony Pilot and the well wishes of the mysterious Colony Controller, who appears on a television screen to welcome the new guests to the colony.
Medok is paraded before the colonists as an example of deviation for losing his joy. He tries to warn the colonists of horrible creatures, which infest the colony at night with their hideous claws. The Doctor frees him from the cell in which he has been placed, but Medok runs away from the Doctor, who is charged by the Pilot and Ola with abetting a criminal. He is released on condition that he and his friends do some hard labour in the nearby mine, where a gas is extracted which is poisonous to humans yet is supposedly vital to them.
The Doctor slips away and finds Medok, who explains that the colony is infested with giant insects, which appear at night. When others have seen them they have been hospitalised and brainwashed, but Medok has managed to escape this fate. The night curfew begins and the other time-travellers retire to their rest quarters. The Doctor and Medok use the opportunity to investigate, and find the giant crab-like Macra roaming the colony.
The pair are soon captured and brought before the Pilot, but the Doctor is released when Medok claims the Doctor was only trying to get Medok to turn himself in. Later, the Pilot is told by the Controller to hypnotize the new arrivals so that they begin to think like the others in the colony. Polly and Jamie resist the process, but Ben succumbs, becoming an enthusiastic worker for the colony’s mines. He summons Ola, who arrests the Doctor and Jamie for tampering with the hypnosis equipment.
When Polly does some investigating she is captured by the Macra, but her screams of peril are strong enough to break Ben’s conditioning and he rescues her. When they are reunited with the Doctor and Jamie their story is enough to persuade the Pilot that the four are a dangerous influence in the Colony and must be controlled. He calls on Control to restore order but when the screen is illuminated it is not the handsome young Controller who speaks, but an aged and terrified old man who is dragged away by a giant claw.
The Pilot is briefly disturbed but regains his composure and has the time travellers arrested once more – though Ben’s reconditioning has reasserted itself and he is allowed to go free.
The Doctor, Polly and Jamie are sentenced to do hard labour in the most treacherous part of the mine. Medok has also been confined to this area, his hospitalised processing having failed. He warns that the mortality rate is high in this part of the mine. The Doctor is left topside while the others venture into the deeper workings of the mine. Jamie and Medok escape, but the latter is soon seized by a Macra claw and dragged away to his death. Jamie comes face to face with a giant Macra, which seems to be sleeping until there is a burst of the deadly gas, which rejuvenates the creature. Other Macra soon appear, and advance on Jamie.
Back on the surface the Doctor uses his guile to sow seeds of doubt regarding the truth of the planet in the minds of the colonists and of Ben, whose conditioning is weakening. The Doctor has worked out the gas flow seems to be the key to the situation and cleverly reverses the gas flow from the mine control area. Polly has reached the surface, and the Doctor calculates that he can buy Jamie time to escape from the mine as well. The improved oxygen flow weakens the Macra, enabling Jamie to evade them and escape.
The Doctor and Polly invade the control area and find it overrun with Macra. The Doctor realizes that the deadly gas is vital to the Macra and that the entire colony is a front to enable gas production to take place, with the human colonists brainwashed into serving the Macra while believing they are obeying Control.
Security chief Ola demands that the travellers be punished for disobeying Control, but the Doctor persuades the Pilot to accompany him to the Control centre. The Pilot sees the Macra for himself, and his conditioning is broken. In a last gamble the voice of Control has Ola place the Doctor, the Pilot, Polly and Jamie in an area of the mine where a mixture of combustible gasses will shortly explode. Ben, who has finally broken his conditioning, frees them, and some manipulation of the gas pipes sends the combustible mixture to the Control Centre. When the gas explodes, the Macra are all killed. As the colony becomes a happy holiday camp once more, the time travellers leave.
Continuity
The Macra made a further television appearance 40 years later in the Tenth Doctor episode "Gridlock", broadcast in 2007. In that episode, they have "devolved" from their more intelligent state seen in this serial.
Production
Working titles for this story include The Spidermen, The Insect-Men and The Macras. This story introduced the first new opening title sequence since the series began. The new sequence was created by original titles designer Bernard Lodge and engineer Ben Palmer on 9 December 1966. For the first time, the face of the lead actor, Patrick Troughton, was incorporated into the "howl-around" patterns.
Anneke Wills wore hair extensions for the first few scenes of the serial, as she was sporting a new, shorter hairstyle. A haircut for her character was written into the story, as part of Polly's refreshment regimen at the Colony.
All episodes of The Macra Terror are missing from the BBC archives.
Cast notes
Peter Jeffrey later played Count Grendel in The Androids of Tara. Sandra Bryant had previously played Kitty in The War Machines and John Harvey played Professor Brett in the same serial. Gertan Klauber had previously appeared in The Romans.
After playing the part of Chicki in the first episode, Sandra Bryant asked to be released from her contract so that she could accept another job. Karol Keyes took over the part for the final episode.
Reception
Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping summed up the story as "A flawed, but interesting examination, of a peculiarly 60s psychosis."
David J Howe and Stephen James Walker gave the serial a positive review although they thought that some of the more serious aspects of the story were "somewhat undermined by the presence of the Macra themselves, which tends to take it into traditional monster mayhem territory. " It was considered to be a good production with strong performances from the guest cast who were "all excellent, bringing to life some interesting and well-drawn characters. "
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Stuart Black, was published by Target Books in July 1987.
Home media
As with all missing episodes, off-air recordings of the soundtrack exist due to contemporary fan efforts. In 1992 these were released on audio cassette, accompanied by linking narration from the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker. In 2000, the soundtrack was remastered and re-released on CD, again with the Baker narration. In November 2004, surviving clips were included in the Lost in Time DVD set. In 2012, the soundtrack was remastered and re-released on CD as part of the Lost TV Episodes Collection Four box set, this time with new narration by Anneke Wills.