BBC Studios, out March 25

The Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie arrive at a Colony under alien control – even if the vast majority have no idea that’s the case.

This 1967 story from the early Troughton era isn’t one that’s been particularly highly regarded over the years – the Australian censor clips (first revealed when I was editing DreamWatch decades ago!) showed Anneke Wills and Michael Craze’s reactions, and the odd claw causing terror, but the stories of the problems with the monster dominated the conversation. The novelisation (one of the few versions of the story not to be included on this new release) was workmanlike; the narrated soundtracks – whether initially by Colin Baker, or the improved version with Wills (both of which are on here) – didn’t make me hope for the imminent return of the story to the archives, in the way that I did about Power of the Daleks or The Web of Fear. But, as The Enemy of the World’s return proved, actually seeing a story changes opinions. Will that happen here with The Macra Terror?

Charles Norton’s new version is presented in two versions – monochrome and colour – on either of the two discs, complete with commentary admirably handled by Toby Hadoke (sadly without Wills) and copious extras on top of the previous released narrations. Whereas The Power of the Daleks tried to recreate much of what was seen on screen, and Shada had to fit around filmed footage, Norton and his team had freer rein to reinterpret Ian Stuart Black’s script here, and it’s meant far fewer moments with little action. The limitations of the animation are still present (running particularly doesn’t quite work yet) but they’ve captured much of what made this TARDIS team work – and the problems caused when one of their number is turned. It’s given me a new appreciation of the story; it’s never going to be one of the classics, but it’s stronger than I’d previous thought, and with scuttling Macra able to do so much more than the Shawcraft-created original could, it feels far more threatening.

The Wills-narrated version of the soundtrack has been married with the telesnaps and the surviving footage (and there’s a non-narrated version as well), and the surviving footage has been given a terrific makeover for a separate feature, alongside the excellently restored soundtrack. There’s a version of the scene in the mine in the way it would have been seen by the Australian audiences, whose censors deemed some bits too much for them, and a collection of the Troughton title sequence. Animatics and an animation test demonstrate the work that went into the new version, but one of the true gems on here is the Behind the Scenes Film, a Super 8 film taken over a period of months at modelmakers Shawcraft, which doesn’t just demonstrate Doctor Who material from The Tenth Planet, The Moonbase and The Macra Terror, among others, but also the model car created for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. With an informative commentary from Mike Tucker, this is almost worth the cost of the disc on its own. And that’s before you watch the opening of The Wheel in Space…

Verdict: There was no such thing as Macra – but they’re back, and it’s great to see them. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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