Doctor Who: The Macra Terror Review

 

"The conditions under which certain things can live, survive

and flourish can mean death to others. The contrast was a

simple idea." Ian Stuart Black, DWM 170 (1991)

It was announced in December 2018 that the soundtrack

to this missing story had been adapted by BBC Studios

and was released as a new animation in March 2019.

SYNOPSIS

The TARDIS lands on an unnamed planet [400 years*] in the future. 

Here, a human colony (another base-under-siege) is policed by the

Pilot, but is really led by the Controller - a Big Brother figure, with

a tannoy-voice akin to Nigel Kneale's loudspeaker addresses in 

Quatermass II. He is only ever seen (via monitors) as an imposing

 man, given the disembodied voice. The true masters however, are 

huge crab-like creatures, the Macra.

The colony's holiday camp image (complete with public-announce-

ments, jingles and cheerleaders) belies the truth - the brain-washed

colonists are closely watched, and kept in a state of complacent con-

tentment (presented twenty-one years before The Happiness Patrol).

The colonists are forced to mine gas, lethal to humans but vital to

the Macra's survival.

Ben succumbs to Control's conditioning, and he betrays his friends.

When he recovers, Ben destroys the gas pumping equipment, thereby 

killing the Macra and restoring the colony's freedom. The travellers 

depart before the Doctor can be appointed the new Pilot!

BACKGROUND

The Macra Terror has obvious Orwellian parallels, and Ian Stuart

Black's scripts address themes of propaganda and conformity, at

 a time when the electorates of the West were increasingly dis-

illusioned with government and the establishment.

In the wake of political scandals and assassinations, people were

questioning their obedience to authority in the 1960's. The age of

deference was over. 

This idea is best illustrated by the Doctor's comment to Polly:

"you've been given orders while you've been asleep. Don't just

be obedient. Always make up your own mind" (clear echoes of

Nineteen Eighty Four, The Manchurian Candidate and A 

Clockwork Orange). Similarly, the story's funniest scene has

the Doctor rebelling against this ordered regime. When his

unkempt appearance is questioned, the Doctor's clothes and 

hair are styled by a grooming machine. In dismay, the Doctor 

uses a toning device to get messed-up again: "who wants to

see their face in a pair of suede shoes?"

True, the story is let down by the Macra themselves, but this

can be overlooked because their scenes are kept to a

minimum, and the suspense is only heightened in the audio

version.

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

• location (at a cement quarry in Dunstable) and studio (at Ealing and Lime Grove) filming was recorded in February and March 1967
• this four-part adventure originally aired in March and April 1967, and achieved average ratings of 8.3M
• working titles for the serial were The Spidermen, The Insect Men and The Macras
• Lance Parkin's A History of the Universe (1996) sets the action in the year 2366*
• this is the first story to feature Patrick Troughton's face in the opening title sequence
• cast members Sandra Bryant (Chicki) and John Harvey (Official) had both appeared in The War Machines, and Gertan Klauber (Ola, pictured centre) was in The Romans - Peter Jeffrey (the Pilot, left) would return as Count Grendel in The Androids of Tara
• none of the episodes exist in the BBC archives
• Colin Baker provides the linking narration on the 1992 (cassette) and 2000 (CD) soundtrack releases, whilst Anneke Wills narrated the reissue of 2012
• the Macra made a surprise return forty years later to menace New New York in Gridlock
• the story was placed 137th in the DWM Mighty 200 Poll (2009), then 150th in the magazine's 50th Anniver-sary survey (2014)
• the new animated version of The Macra Terror was screened at BFI Southbank in March 2019 prior to its DVD release