Directed by John Davies
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Polly - Anneke Wills
Ben - Michael Craze
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Main Guest Cast-
Ola - Gertan Klauber
Medok - Terence Lodge
Pilot - Peter Jeffrey
Controller - Graham Leaman
Synopsis-
The Doctor uses a scanner that allows him to view future events. What appears on screen is the image of a huge, menacing claw. After viewing this, the Tardis materializes on an alien world in the far future which is home to an Earth colony.
The time travelers, while out exploring, run into one of the colonists, Medok, who is running away. The guards and their leader, Ola, are grateful for the time travelers help in capturing the fugitive and are taken back to the colony. There, The Doctor and his companions are greeted both in person by the Pilot and on a viewing screen by the Controller.
The Doctor is suspicious and decides to meet up again with Medok. Medok tells The Doctor that the colony is infested with large, crab-like aliens called the Macra. The Macra control the colony's population via hynopsis, and force the colonists to mine for gas that the Macra need to survive.
Ben, Polly and Jamie are subjected to the hynopsis while they are sleeping. Ben is unable to resist, but it doesn't work on Jamie. Polly is rescued in time by The Doctor, who was not present due to his meeting up with Medok.
The Doctor, Polly and Jamie are eventually forced to work in the gas mines along with Medok. Jamie escapes only to become trapped by the Macra. The Doctor is eventually able to reverse the gas flow that allows the Macra to survive, and the hynopsis that hold the colonists in thrall is broken.
Review-
The Second Doctor era has been characterized as having a "monster of the week" vibe to it. There's some truth to that characterization. It was interesting watching the Macra Terror because I was really surprised how quickly the "monster of the week" format took over the show once the changeover to the Second Doctor had taken place.
The Macra Terror is both quite suspensful and also quite silly. The scenes with the drum majorettes and the singing are just plain silly but fortunately are rather short. Outside of these scenes, the story is quite enjoyable. The idea of an all-seeing controller and the hynopsis control and the fact that escapes are not tolerated reminded me a great deal of that other 1960's television show, The Prisoner. The Macra Terror does pre-date The Prisoner by several month, so any similarities are purely coincidental.
The Macra Terror is also the only one of the five stories to feature Ben, Polly and Jamie as companions where each of the three is actually given something to do. Ben, of course, falls prey to the Macra hynopsis and attempts to thwart The Doctor in order to serve his Macra masters. Jamie falls into the usual companion role of getting into trouble and needing to be rescued. Still, that's better than his role in the Moonbase, where he spend the better part of the story in the Moonbase's sickbay. Polly, meanwhile, is on hand to assist The Doctor and is instrumental in breaking Ben's hynopsis.
I'd hesitate to say that the Macra Terror is the best story from series/season four, I'd still have to give the nod to the Power of the Daleks. The Macra Terror, however, is certainly one of the better stories for making use of all the various companions and the Macra and their hynopsis control are great adversaries for The Doctor to take on. A forgotten gem by most Doctor Who fans, since the entire story is missing from the BBC archives.
