The Macra Terror (TV story)

The Macra Terror was the seventh story of Season 4 of Doctor Who. It was the first Doctor Who story to feature the lead actor's face in the opening title sequence.

Synopsis
When the Doctor, Polly and Ben visit a human colony that appears to be one big holiday camp, they think they have come across a truly happy place. But a shadowy presence soon makes them realise that the surface contentment is carefully controlled.

The colony's inhabitants have been brainwashed by giant crab-like creatures - the Macra. Insidious propaganda, broadcast by the Controller, forces the humans to mine a gas that is essential for the Macra to survive - but fatal to them.

The colony must be saved - but how? The Doctor and his team are up against it, particularly when Ben falls under the influence of the Macra. Can he be rescued from their evil clutches? Can the gas pumping equipment be destroyed, getting rid of the Macra for good?

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 appears to be a holiday camp in the midst of a festival. The Doctor remains sceptical of life at the camp itself, 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 four new arrivals so that they begin to think like the others in the colony. Polly and Jamie resist the adaptation 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 work as hard labour on the Danger Gang 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 manage to 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 the creatures 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 over-run 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 make their exit.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
 * Ben Jackson - Michael Craze
 * Polly - Anneke Wills
 * Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
 * Pilot - Peter Jeffrey
 * Medok - Terence Lodge
 * Ola - Gertan Klauber
 * Barney - Graham Armitage
 * Questa - Ian Fairbairn
 * Sunaa - Jane Enshawe
 * Chicki - Sandra Bryant (Episode 1) & Karol Keyes (Episode 4)
 * Drum Majorette - Maureen Lane
 * Controller - Graham Leaman
 * Alvis - Anthony Gardner
 * Control Voice - Denis Goacher
 * Broadcast and Propaganda Voice - Richard Beale
 * Macra Operator - Robert Jewell
 * Officia - John Harvey
 * Guards - John Caesar, Steve Emerson, Danny Rae
 * Cheerleaders - Roger Jerome, Terry Wright, Ralph Carrigan

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Anne Faggetter
 * Costumes - Daphne Dare, Vanessa Clark
 * Designer - Kenneth Sharp
 * Film Cameraman - Peter Hamilton
 * Film Editor - Eddie Wallstab
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Gillian James, Jeanne Richmond
 * Producer - Innes Lloyd
 * Production Assistant - Chris D'Oyly John
 * Script Editor - Gerry Davis
 * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - Frank Cresswell
 * Studio Sound - Hugh Barker, Gordon Mackie
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer

Story Notes

 * This story is the first to use a new title sequence incorporating an image of Patrick Troughton's face, designed by Bernard Lodge and realised by Ben Palmer. The series' theme music was also rearranged slightly at this point by Delia Derbyshire, with assistance from Dick Mills. This arrangement remains in use (with some variations) until 1980.
 * This story had the working titles; The Spidermen, The Insect-Men, The Macra.
 * Sandra Bryant, who played Chicki in Episode 1, asked to be released from her contract so that she could accept another, more attractive offer of work. This was agreed to by Innes Lloyd, and so – in an unusual move – the role was recast for Episode 4 (the only other episode in which Chicki appears), going instead to Karol Keyes.
 * Richard Beale is credited as Broadcast Voice for Episodes 1 and 3. For Episode 2, he is billed as Broadcast and Propaganda Voice on-screen and as Broadcast and Propaganda Voices in Radio Times.
 * John Harvey (Officia) is erroneously credited as Official in Radio Times for Episode 4.
 * The Macra seen to be in charge in the last episode is white rather than black, a scene for which the sole Macra prop had to be repainted.
 * All four episodes are missing, though some clips survive.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 8.0 million viewers
 * Episode 2 - 7.9 million viewers
 * Episode 3 - 8.5 million viewers
 * Episode 4 - 8.4 million viewers

Myths

 * The image of the Controller seen on the screen in the Pilot's office was a photograph of story editor Gerry Davis. (It was a photograph of Graham Leaman, who played the Controller.)

Filming Locations

 * Associated Portland Cement Company Quarry, Houghton Road, Dunstable
 * Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
 * Lime Grove Studios (Studio D)

Production errors

 * The Macra's top claw is longer than the bottom, but when it grabs the controller, they are the same length.

Continuity

 * The Macra returned to Doctor Who 40 years later in DW: Gridlock. To date, this marks the longest interval between appearances by a character or alien race in franchise history.

Timeline

 * This story occurs after DW: The Moonbase
 * This story occurs before ST: The Slave War

DVD, Video and Other Releases

 * The full soundtrack was released with linking narration by Colin Baker
 * Surviving clips were released with the Lost in Tim DVD boxed set.

Novelisation

 * Main article: The Macra Terror (novelisation)


 * Novelised as The Macra Terror by Ian Stuart Black in 1987.