| THE MACRA TERROR by Ian Stuart Black |
| Story 34 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands on a colony world, where the travellers help apprehend a fugitive, Medok, and are welcomed in gratitude. The Doctor talks to Medok, who claims to have seen strange creatures called Macra, but the man escapes. The Doctor tries to track him down, but encounters a huge crab-like monster. He and Medok are arrested, but Medok claims the Doctor was again trying to catch him, so he is thanked. During the night, subliminal messages are fed to the travellers, but thanks to the Doctor's sabotage, only Ben hears it, falling into the same state as the other people in the Colony. A furious Polly storms out, but is attacked by Macra. Ben saves her, but then denies seeing the Macra. The Doctor, Polly and Jamie are sent to work in the mines, with Medok. The mines produce gas. Jamie and Medok escape, but the latter is killed by Macra. The Doctor realises the gas is produced for a reason. When pumped into an old shaft, it reanimates a dormant Macra, trapping Jamie. By reversing the gas flow, the Doctor returns the Macra to its slumber, and Jamie escapes, only to be recaptured. The Doctor and Polly find their way to Control, where they find a Macra - these parasitic creatures are secretly controlling the Colony, enslaving humans to produce the gas they need. The Doctor and Polly join Jamie in captivity. The Doctor urges Ben to tamper with the gas pipes, which he does, stopping the Macra. The travellers find their way back to the TARDIS, leaving the Colony to return to normal. |
| Review:- Paradise hides a nasty reality... as the Doctor creates a gas panic. To an unidentifed planet, for a run-in with strange and mysterious aliens. One of many Troughton stories with a seemingly self-contained colony menaced by horrid monsters, this is distinguished by the duplicit nature of things, with few realising how dangerous life is. It's also a change to have the time travellers welcomed into the fold, instead of being threatened as outsiders. Then we have a rerun of the Morphoton delusions from The Keys Of Marinus, with Ben falling prey to the prevailing atmosphere. After that, it's a matter of watching the Doctor piece together the truth about the Macra, whilst trying to keep himself and his companions alive. The Macra are most often described as giant crabs, although their parasitical nature rather thwarts the seriousness of the representation. Jamie and Polly don't really get much of value to do, but Ben at least has a journey to make, which is the kind of dramatic debt that some writers love. For some the most exciting part of this story is that it's the first to have the Doctor's face in the opening titles. It also gives us a star turn from Peter Jeffrey. This is one of those stories that gets forgotten. Between the flashier redesigned Cybermen of The Moonbase, and the Earth setting and exit of Ben & Polly in The Faceless Ones, this is just an ordinary adventure. But ordinary has its place, too. EDIT - Having now listened to these episodes, I should also add that the Doctor's anarchic side comes through to good cause, and with good effect, whilst Jamie is given signs of later derring-do in his escape from the mines, and encounters with the Macra. Ben falling prey to the wiles of the oppressors was a fairly novel idea at the time, though untrustworthy companions would later become more prevalent. Without visuals, the precise nature of the Macra is harder to tell, which is probably a good thing. It's perhaps surprising that nobody could ask what happens to all the gas they mine, but then the mental control was probably very effective. And of course, the Macra later return in a brief turn in Gridlock, where their love for gas has again allowed them to control the populace, leaving them as units of mass production. Though this original is probably the truer depiction of their natures. |
| Disclaimer: I've heard the audio. |