034 - The Macra Terror

Broadcast:

11^th March - 1^st April 1967

Doctor:

Patrick Troughton

Companions:

Ben, Polly, Jamie

Adversary:

Macra, Oppressive regime

Written by:

Ian Stuart Black

Director:

John Davies

Music:

Dudley Simpson

Script Editor:

Gerry Davis

Producer:

Innes Lloyd

Average Viewers:

8.2m (8.0, 7.9, 8.5, 8.4)

Summary: In a colony where everything is just wonderful, something nasty lurks in the shadows but woe betide anyone who suggests such a thing exists

I first heard about the Macra when they featured briefly in 2007's Gridlock almost as an after thought because Russell T Davies thought it would be nice to have some proper footage of them, since their original appearance was lost and presumably gone forever. This gave them a certain amount of cult status so I was looking forward to finally seeing The Macra Terror, albeit in telesnap recon form. Fortunately, a couple of brief clips do still exist and were included, just enough to hint at how good they might have been, but also their potential to have been lumberingly inanimate. I needed to forget my hopes and expectations and view it in its own right...

As the first episode was broadcast, Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva had just defected to the USA and the Cambodian Civil War began between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. As the serial progressed, nine executives of the German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal, creators of thalidomide, were charged with breaking drug laws (the trial wouldn't begin until the following year but would continue until December 1970 following a settlement in April that still sees the government and Grunenthal paying support to victims) Similar rulings and payments are made around the world and international drug regulations were revised as a result. The world's first supertanker, Torrey Canyon, ran aground midway between Land's End and the Scilly Isles, with around 32 million gallons of crude oil spilt, most of which ultimately headed east with a large quantity collected and dumped into a quarry in Guernsey to keep it off the beaches and still has an impact 47 years later, despite numerous clean-up attempts (suggested reading 1, 2.) Again, international regulations were changed as a result and the then little known botanist David Bellamy came to public prominence as an environmental consultant during the disaster and would go on to be a popular children's presenter in the 80s. Meanwhile, there was a military coup in Sierra Leone and a 'Be-in' in New York's Central Park consisting of 10,000 people.

In the entertainment world, The Who perform their first concert in the US, Lennon and McCartney received the Ivor Novello award for "Michelle" - Britain's most performed song in 1966 - and the Beatles as a whole posted for the "Sgt Pepper..." album cover. Just as iconically, Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar at The Astoria London. Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me" remained at number one throughout the serial's broadcast, while cinemas débuted the likes of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Follow Me, Boys!, and The Viking Queen which featured a certain Patrick Troughton!

Finally, on the 11th March not only introduced a new Doctor Who serial, but also ushered in a new title sequence with a squarer appearance and featuring the Doctor's face for the first time, and future friend of the Doctor and head of Torchwood John Barrowman was born.

033 - The Moonbase

Broadcast:

11^th February - 4^th March 1967

Doctor:

Patrick Troughton

Companions:

Ben, Polly, Jamie

Adversary:

Cybermen

Written by:

Kit Pedler, Gerry Davis¹

Director:

Morris Barry

Music:

Stock

Script Editor:

Gerry Davis

Producer:

Innes Lloyd

Average Viewers:

8.33m (8.1, 8.9, 8.2, 8.1)

Summary: A mysterious plague is decimating the staff of a weather controlling station on the Moon and the afflicted start to disappear when unexpected guests arrive. Can the Doctor find the cure, prove his innocence and fend off an attack on the base?

As with the previous story, The Moonbase was written before Jamie was added to the list of travellers and had to be adjusted to include him. The easiest option was to knock him out and make him a victim of the mysterious illness. Frazer Hines felt like his character was being sidelined, but it gave him a gentle easing into the series and allowed for some heritage to be added (his clan's "phantom piper") as well as making him the centre of viewers concerns...

In the news, 197 pages of Leonardo da Vinci's workings were discovered in Spain, Jim Garrison claimed that the Kennedy assassination had been planned as part of a conspiracy in New Orleans and that he would solve the case, and Britain launched HMS Renown, its second nuclear armed submarine. Jamaica had a new Prime Minister, Trinidad and Tobago became the first Commonwealth nation to join the Organization of American States and the Soviet Union announced it had sent troops to the Chinese boarder. The Soviets also carried out nuclear tests in Kazakhstan and forbade satellite states from having diplomatic relations with West German (nearly a month after Romania established just that). In slightly lighter news, the home of Rolling Stone Keith Richards was raided by police ultimately resulting in him, Mick Jagger and art dealer Robert Fraser being charged with possession of drugs; Queens Park Rangers won the first League Cup to feature a single-match final, becoming the first 3rd Division team to win; the first North Sea gas was pumped ashore and the Queen Elizabeth Hall opened in London.

Cinemas at the time of broadcast were showing films such as Funeral in Berlin, Just Like a Woman and The Taming of the Shrew while the music charts saw The Monkees complete their four weeks at the top with "I'm a Believer" followed by Petula Clark's "This Is My Song" and then Engelbert Humperdinck began a six week run with "Release Me".

Meanwhile, the TARDIS is careering out of control as the Doctor tries to visit Mars...

032 - The Underwater Menace

Broadcast:

14^th January - 7^th February 1967

Doctor:

Patrick Troughton

Companions:

Ben, Polly, Jamie

Adversary:

Mad Scientist

Written by:

Geoffrey Orme

Director:

Julia Smith

Music:

Dudley Simpson

Script Editor:

Gerry Davis

Producer:

Innes Lloyd

Average Viewers:

7.48m (8.3, 7.5, 7.1, 7.0)

Summary: The TARDIS lands on a stony beach but the Doctor can't determine where on Earth they are. However it soon transpires that they have arrived at the lost city of Atlantis in 1970 and a missing scientist is promising to rise it from the depths.

The Underwater Menace is an odd duck. Metaphorically. I've written about thirty one adventures so far and it seems that a significant number of them either hold honorary positions for various reasons, or are marked by dubious honour of some form. The Underwater Menace is yet another, but on multiple layers. Most importantly at the time of writing is the fact that it includes the only existing episode not to have been released on DVD, yet it has been due for well over a year and a few months ago appeared to be dead in the water (if you'll excuse the pun) It was one of the key arguments in support of the so called 'omnirumour' that many more 'missing' episodes, if not all of them, have been discovered and are secretly being withheld (for a number of suggested reasons). After all, why else would an incomplete story be so quietly delayed especially after being included in a "Coming Soon" trailer. A couple of hours after watching the recon, I read that BBC Worldwide had issued a statement hoping that The Underwater Menace would be released next year with the missing episode replaced by animation. This was quite a relief, but not concrete enough to quash the rumours...

Meanwhile, focussing on the serial itself, scripting issues meant that the episodes were only recorded the week before they were broadcast! News events at time of broadcast may never have been more relevant...

Just ahead of the first episode, Dr James Bedford died and became the first person to be cryonically preserved and there was a military coup in Togo. In San Francisco, a mass peaceful protest at the Golden Gate Park took place, partly in reaction to the banning of LSD, and was dubbed the Human-In. It included Timothy Leary's famous "Turn on, tune in, drop out" speech and set the stage for the Summer of Love as well as starting the -in suffix ("love-in" "sit-in" and even "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" comedy television show). Meanwhile in the UK, Parliament decided to nationalise 90% of the British steel industry, began negotiations for joining the EEC, and founded Milton Keynes as a New Town.

In Munich, the trial of Wilhelm Harster began, as leader of German security police during the occupation of the Netherlands he was accused of the murder of 82,856 Jews and would ultimately be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin was in the UK for an eight-day visit including a meeting with The Queen on 9 February, while demonstrations outside the Soviet embassy in Beijing got out of hand, three US Astronauts died during a launchpad test of Apollo 1 on the same day that the US, UK and USSR signed the Outer Space Treaty.

In the entertainment world, news reported in the Daily Mail inspired the Beatles song "A Day In The Life" and The Monkees topped the charts with "I'm a Believer". Cinemas were full of spy movies The Quiller Memorandum, Murderers' Row, and The Spy in the Green Hat made up of two episodes from "The Man From UNCLE" that hadn't been broadcast in the UK. Other movies included the sequel Return of the Seven and The Night of the Generals.

In the Doctor's world, things were about to get a little odd and a new companion was having his first TARDIS experience"