Doctor Who Rewind - The Macra Terror

Another completely missing story and thanks to the four gloriously reconstructed episodes from Loose Cannon (available on youtube) we can get a flavour of what the end product turned out like.

The story is set on a planet in Earths future and in a society that is a cross between Orwell's 1984 and TV's The Prisoner. The residents of this colony seem happy enough, they dance and they sing and are generally content.

The Doctor is highly suspicious though, of a society which is ruled over by the elusive Controller, who pops up every now and again (announced by an annoying fanfare) on a large TV screen, issuing all kinds of orders and demands.

The population are policed by Pilot and Ola who enforce the bidding of the Controller. When the Doctor and his companions arrive they run into Medok, who is on the run, he is arrested and paraded before the people before being taken away to prison. He tries to warn the people of hideous creatures who roam the colony at night. The Doctor goes to see Medok and sets him free. Medok runs off and the Doctor is charged by Pilot and Ola with aiding his escape. As a result the Doctor and friends are expected to do some hard labour in a nearby mine.

The Doctor finds Medok who tells him about the giant crab like creatures who roam the streets. He advices the Doctor that others who have seen the creatures are apparently brainwashed to believe they are not real.

As Medok and the Doctor explore the colony, night falls. Pretty soon, they soon come across a giant clawed creature, the so called Macra.

After being captured again they are brought before Pilot, who is told by Medok that the Doctor was only trying to bring him in. The Doctor is released but the Controller later tells Pilot to hypnotise the Doctors companions so they can think like them.

Polly and Jamie both resist the mind control, but Ben doesn't, and is set to do the biding of the Controller.

Later, when Polly is captured
by a Marca and screams for help, Ben realises that he has to help and momentarily snaps out of his hypnotic state.

Pilot grows continually worried that the Doctor will have a negative influence on the colony and calls on the Controller for assistance. But on the screen, he see's a frail old man who is dragged off by a giant claw.

The Doctor, Polly and Jamie are re-captured and sent to the Danger Gang, a particularly hard and dangerous part of the mine. The Doctor stays on the surface while the others venture deep into the mine. They join Medok there, who is eventually attacked by a Macra and killed. Jamie is also attacked and surrounded by the creatures who have been revived by a deadly gas.

Polly reaches the surface and joins the Doctor, who has worked out that he can reverse the flow of the gas and help Jamie. As oxygen re-enters the atmosphere the Macra are weakened and Jamie escapes.

The Doctor finds that the Macra have invaded the control area, and that the deadly gas is vital for there survival. In fact the entire colony is nothing more than a front for the production of gas supplies for the Macra.

When Pilot realises this he and the Doctor decide to gain entry to the Control. There they find the Macra, and Pilots conditioning is finally broken.

The voice of Control has Ola put the Doctor, Pilot, Polly and Jamie into a part of the mine which is sealed off and then flood it with gas.

Ben races to their rescue and eventually manages to stop the gas and free the Doctor. However some gas is directed to the control centre and combusts, killing the Marca.

On the whole, this is not a bad story and it's a shame that it has been lost. Yes, I admit that the creatures look a bit silly, but the ideas of mind control, and subversion to keep the populous happy and disengaged from what is really going on have many similarities with the modern world we live in and how we engage or not, with the likes of television, computer games and so on.

Some nice moments from Troughton. For instance, when they all arrive at the colony they are subjected to a kind of beauty treatment, but after the process the Doctor ends up looking even more scruffy than when he started!

If this story miraculously turned up in someone's attic I'd quite happily watch it.

Next time on Doctor Who Rewind, a partially lost story involving commercial airplanes and a race of shape shifting aliens.