Doctor Who has famously suffered from lost episodes. While it sounds inconceivable now, studios like the BBC assumed that audiences in the future wouldn’t be interested in watching old TV shows, and as videotape was expensive to buy and store, they had a practice of wiping and reusing tapes. This resulted in the destruction of large swathes of early Doctor Who installments, with Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor being particularly badly affected.
There are committed fans forever on the search for these lost episodes though, which occasionally turn up in long forgotten warehouses and archives. But sometimes the chances of finding a 1960s videotape in working order seem so slim that a recreation is the only way forward. That’s happened with 1966’s “The Tenth Planet” and “The Power of the Daleks,” and now with the classic story “The Macra Terror,” which was broadcast over four episodes between March 11th – April 1st, 1967. We already have the audio soundtrack for it and the BBC will soon be releasing the full thing on home video, bringing it back to life through animation.
The story begins with the Doctor and his companions arriving on a future human colony that seems to be some kind of space holiday camp. Everyone appears to be pretty happy, which is instantly suspicious for anyone that’s ever seen a Doctor Who episode. And yup, there’s a monster behind this apparent utopia – a race of giant parasitic crab monsters.
Anneke Wills, who played companion Polly, commented on the plans to bring the classic serial back, saying:
“Back in 1967 ‘There’s no such thing as Macra!’ was the cry; and for many years after there was no such thing as ‘The Macra Terror’. Now, thanks to the magic of animation, we can see the story come to life again. I can’t wait to see this adventure and how gratifying to have a little more of Ben and Polly’s time with the Doctor available to be seen by new generations.”
Doctor Who: The Macra Terror will be released on March 18th, 2019, complete with audio commentaries and behind the scenes features. Don’t miss it!
