034 – The Macra Terror | |||||
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Doctor Who serial | |||||
The Controller is killed by the Macra.
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Cast | |||||
Others
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Production | |||||
Directed by | John Davies | ||||
Written by | Ian Stuart Black | ||||
Script editor | Gerry Davis | ||||
Produced by | Innes Lloyd | ||||
Executive producer(s) | None | ||||
Incidental music composer | Dudley Simpson | ||||
Production code | JJ | ||||
Series | Season 4 | ||||
Length | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||||
Episode(s) missing | All episodes | ||||
Date started | 11 March 1967 | ||||
Date ended | 1 April 1967 | ||||
Chronology | |||||
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Author | Ian Stuart Black |
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Cover artist | Tony Masero |
Series |
Doctor Who book: Target novelisations |
Release number
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123 |
Publisher | Target Books |
Publication date
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July 1987 (Hardback) 10 December 1987 (Paperback) |
ISBN |
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.
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.