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.

The Macra Terror seems to open with a menacing close-up of someone's eyes, then suddenly cuts to majorettes marching and twirling to electronic synthesised brass band music, all fun and bright. It's just a rehearsal though and when their leader is giving them a pep-talk afterwards he states "If at first you can't succeed..." to which the majorettes chant back "Try, try, try again!" and they are happy to do so. There is a gentle mention of an escaped prisoner who is referred to as a patient, giving the first hint that all is not quite as rosy as first impressions suggested (though the menacing eyes at the start were really the first clue). It's almost three minutes before the TARDIS arrives and the Doctor guesses that they are "certainly in the future on a planet very much like Earth." Their welcome from the locals is very much like received by Dorothy arriving at the Emerald City in the "Wizard Of Oz", they are treated to some beauty therapy with Polly getting a new haircut and the Doctor having his clothes smartened up by a machine while he's still wearing them... not to his liking though, so he goes back in and gets them roughened up again! There are curious singing chimes over a tannoy system and the Doctor remarks cheerfully "Well now, this is gay!" and they are told that the days in the colony are regulated by music. There is an almost holiday-camp atmosphere and Ben likens it to "being at anchor in the Med" but there is a looming sense of too-good-to-be-true, there is an announcement from the colony's Controller on a big screen reminiscent of those in HG Wells's "1984". The picture on the screen that accompanies the voice is a still image, but the clever people at Loose Cannon have given it a flicker effect which oddly gives life to it whilst reinforcing the fact that the original was static and it's not a result of the telesnap reconstruction - something that becomes more apparent later on. The whole of the first episode is pretty non-threatening, even Medok the escaped 'patient' seems to be distressed rather than dangerous, worried about things he has seen outside the colony at night. The Doctor sneaks away to talk to him, then returns with a nonchalant not-quite-innocent whistle... only, being the Second Doctor, he's actually playing his recorder!

By the second episode, things have moved on slightly. The Doctor finds himself first defending Medok and his hallucinations but then tells the officials not to listen to him. Medok in turn defends the Doctor, telling their captors that he was advising him to hand himself in. This slight lack of clarity leaves the whole story slightly mystical and slightly untidy (each episode comes with barely 22 minutes of action, the shortest so far, so there is room for a little extra throughout), but it also reflects the complexity of the situation - which is ultimately an allegory for communism and cults that were emerging from the hippy counter-culture. The people of the colony are fed subliminal messages as they sleep in a drug enhanced atmosphere (that is to say, unbeknownst to them, the air in their bed chambers is slightly treated to aid their sleep and susceptibility) Jamie sleeps fitfully however and doesn't succumb but it is too late for Ben who loses his Cockney swagger. The Doctor manages to intervene and save Polly in a sequence of nearly a minute's silence as he sneaks around. There is hope for Ben though. When Polly runs away and he follows her, they encounter a giant crab-like creature, a Macra, but Ben seems blind to it and tries to convince Polly there is nothing there until it finally attacks her and he seems to snap out of the mind control in the heat of the moment... only to deny it once they are back inside amongst the officials.

The second episode ends with the reveal that the colony Controller is himself being controlled. The still images on the screen is replaced by a live video feed of the man, clearly older and weaker than the portrait suggested. It is rather odd how easily this reveal happens though. The colony has two secrets, the first being the existence of the Macra and the second is that the Macra are actually the ones in charge. When two outsiders (Jamie and the Doctor) question the validity of the controller's portrait and demand to see the real thing, both secrets are revealed to them without much resistance! But then they are sentenced to work in the 'Danger Gang' extracting gas from a salt mine so perhaps it is perceived to be unimportant, after all, they will either die from the conditions or have their thoughts 'corrected' and no-one will believe them anyway...

Jamie is finally given a chance to shine in The Macra Terror because it was the first story written after he joined the cast. As the travellers are being given their duties in the 'Danger Gang' he tries to save the Doctor and Polly from the worst of it by pointing out that they are just "a woman and an old man". Better still, when the Doctor naturally objects, Jamie points out that he could make better use of the position of Supervisor and so he backs down. Indeed, the Doctor goes on to study the dials and controls and works out various equations and secret formula, thinking out loud in the process. There's a further minute of noiseless action as Jamie works his way through the mine and discovers Medok dead, though this time is is covered by some quality Dudley Simpson music. Ultimately, Jamie finds himself trapped between two Macra as the episode comes to a climax.

With the exception of The Keys Of Marinus and the The Chase which naturally had different settings for each episode, The Macra Terror is the most episodic story so far. By that, I mean the flow of the story falls into four quite distinct sections rather than a natural variation and development throughout. Just as the first part was about establishing the apparently idyllic life of the colony and only just touching on the troubles, the final part is very much about the resolve. The Doctor manages to save Jamie by reversing the gas flow, thus removing the toxic gas that the Macra rely on and thus proving their dependence on their captives and ultimately showing how easily they can be over thrown. Jamie stumbles through a door and finds himself among the Majorettes that haven't been seen or heard of since the first episode, but manages to bumble his way out when he is mistaken for a dancer and does a 'Highland Fling' out of the door. The controller is simply over thrown, being a powerless voice, and very little is seen of the uprising or realisation so the story doesn't end very strongly. We see the Doctor reversing the gas flow to the lead Macra but there is a sudden cut to a scene some time later with Majorettes and partying as the colony celebrate... which is an odd concept for a group of people who were happy before and will have had no idea of what had happened or how things had changed! A comedy twist helps to end things on a high though as the people are making plans to enrol the Doctor as their new 'Pilot' (the name they have for their leader, derived from the pilot of the original colonising ship). To avoid this embarrassment, the travellers 'do a Jamie' and dance their way out of the party and head off...

All in all, The Macra Terror is a nice little story but has many clumsy elements that don't really get past an adult viewer. The chanting and reciting of slogans adds some interesting thoughts but is slightly under played and forgotten about at times when it ought to be a dominant aspect of life, though various tannoy announcements take on that aspect. It is one of the better serials of the Second Doctor's first series (so far) sharing a second place score of 67% with The Tenth Planet and The Moonbase, which also outscores most of the First Doctor's final series so things are definitely looking up for the show. Similarly, the viewing figures and Appreciation Index are on the up again. It's fun but not great. Nice lines include the Doctor's mocking protest "You can't arrest us now we've turned ourselves up. That's against the rules!", the controller's increasing rant as he loses grip and the ultimate irony that is "This is a happy colony. All must obey!" The Macra themselves seem to do OK in the surviving clips and it's worth noting the way the controller is white compared to all the others being black, a subtle touch that is mostly missed in the telesnaps, especially since the black ones are in dark surroundings. Would it be as well-loved today if it could be viewed in its full original form? Possibly not, but we may never know how badly the Macra props affect the action.