Doctor Who The Macra Terror [DVD] [2019]

Description

The original 1967 master recordings of ‘The Macra Terror’ were lost soon after the programme’s original transmission. However, audio-only recordings have survived and have been used here to create a brand new fully animated reconstruction of this lost classic. The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his companions (Jamie, Polly and Ben) arrive on a human colony in the far flung future. The colony outwardly appears to be happy and carefree. But behind its cheerful exterior, the colony has been secretly infiltrated by a race of giant parasitic creatures called Macra. The Macra brainwash the human colonists to mine toxic gas in the levels below the colony. Ruling the settlement from a control centre in the heart of the main city, they scuttle around at night looking for food. The Doctor’s friend Ben is soon taken over by the Macra and under their malign influence, he turns against the Doctor. As their influence spreads, the Doctor sets out to bring an end to the Macra terror. Over 4 hours of bonus content including: • AUDIO COMMENTARY • EPISODE RECONSTRUCTIONS • BONUS MINI-EPISODE • ANIMATION TEST • ANIMATICS • ANIMATION GALLERY • TEASER TRAILER • ALTERNATIVE BLACK AND WHITE PRESENTATION • 1992 AUDIO PRESENTATION • SURVIVING FOOTAGE • BEHIND THE SCENES FILM • CENSORED SCENE • TITLE SEQUENCES • PHOTO GALLERY • PRODUCTION PAPERWORK Review: Menace of the Macra - Patrick Troughton's fifth Doctor Who story comes to DVD. Originally broadcast by the BBC in 1967, it's a four parter. Which sees the Doctor, along with Jamie, Ben and Polly, visit a human colony on a far flung world. Where all is happy. All are having a great time working for the good of the colony. People mine gas from below ground. And anyone who claims there are monsters in the shadows is dealt with. Who are the Macra? And what do they want? It's a perfectly capable little tale, one that isn't quite a five star classic but still does a lot of things very well. It does take the base under siege format and do it a little differently, and it does get into some interesting areas in regards to free will. There's also some good comedy for the Doctor, and also for Jamie in part four. It has a strong supporting performance from Peter Jeffrey as the colony's pilot. But it doesn't exist in the bbc archives anymore, all four parts having been wiped back in the day when that's what they did rather than save them for repeat purposes. But the story has been brought to us, like the recent release of the Power of the Daleks, via animation. The animation is in a similar style to that, and it's pretty good. Some basic background and figure work go together rather well, the facial expressions are good and used well. And it renders the Macra, who by all accounts came over as a bit inert on the screen, much more threatening. It's not quite a complete copy of the story, as it has to change a few things and cut one short scene from part one to make it work, but only the real completists will mind that. And the way the animation lip movements go with the dialogue from the soundtrack to the story is flawless. Language and subtitle options for the dvd: Languages: English. English audio captioned. Subtitles; English. This has a lot to go with it in this dvd box, as well. There's a production notes booklets, with details of the making of the story. And some about the animation. It's a little shorter than you might expect, but still good. But there are two discs here. On the first, you get the four parts in colour animation. Or if you prefer, you can find them in black and white, just like the original episodes were, on disc two. There are also episode reconstructions. These rebuild the episodes via stills and what footage does survive, and marry it to the soundtrack and some narration - voiced by Polly actress Anneke Wills for the cd release of the soundtrack years back - to produce another way to view it. Parts one and two are on disc one. Parts three and four on disc two. Also on disc one are a few more extras: Bonus mini-episode: a ten minute long colour animation of the early part of the second Doctor episode 'The Wheel in Space part one. In colour, and just as good as any of the animation on this. But it does of course end abruptly. Animation test: a short animated version of one scene, done before all others. In both colour then black and white. Animatics: the rough drawings, with soundtrack, for three scenes. These can only be viewed in a row, and in total these run for six minutes as a whole. Animation gallery: two mins worth of character drawings. This kind of thing is usually done as a gallery, but this can only be viewed as a whole. Teaser trailer: a very short trailer of a macra in a tunnel, designed to announce the dvd was on the way. On disc two: 1992 audio presentation: the soundtrack was originally released in 1992 on cassette, with narration by Colin Baker. That audio is presented here in full. Surviving footage: what bits of the story still survive. Roughly two mins worth. Well worth a look after you've seen the animation to see how they compare. Behind the scenes film: a twelve min long look around Shawcraft models, who did a lot of modelwork for Doctor Who, plus other shows and films, in the 1960's. It has some interesting narration. Censored scene: some of the surviving footage was cut from the Australian showing of the story. This is presented here along with the rest of the scene that wasn't cut, but the latter of course as stills. And then you get the cut version. So it's just the stills. Title sequences: The Troughton title sequence with his face in it was first used on this story. And here are various versions, from raw film to restored to animated. Photo gallery: thirty six stills from the making of the story. Production paperwork: various paperwork about the original production can be viewed by putting the dvd into your computer and looking at the cd rom drive. The box comes in a carboard sleeve, but theres a regular style dvd one inside, and you do get a reversible sleeve so it will line up with all the others on your shelves. It's a pity there's no making of feature. But never mind. Because this is a four star story made into a five star by having an excellent package to go with it. Review: Another brilliant Dr. Who story, nicely animated! - Troughton was long before my time, I was the very end of the baker era, and the beginning of the Davison era, but my mum loved Patrick Troughton, and we did catch a few episodes as re-runs now and again. In my adulthood, with more spare cash, I'm able to buy these DVDs and re-watch the shows my parents would have watched, and they're superb. A far cry from the new Dr. Whos which are all running around at a million miles an hour solving problems by fast talking, these older Dr. Whos involve the doctor finding out the problem over the course of a few episodes, and then figuring out a way to solve it in the last episode.. Lots of running around corridors happening in between. The Macra Terror takes place on a mining planet where the humans are living in a mining colony, ostensibly 'controlled' by alien overlords, the Macra. However, the Macra hide their presence, speaking instead through a "Big Brother". Speaking about them, or pointing out the activities which are suspicious gets you branded as a non-conformer. Then, the ultimate non-conformer arrives, in the form of the Doctor; the great disruptor... The art style in these DVD recreations is really nice. It's a "paperdoll" style, similar to shadow puppetry. I guess it's a telltale of how Illustrator animates via interpolated splines, but it's easy to see how they were made. The kids loved the story, and were terrified when the great 'reveal' happened and the macra showed themselves... They were halfway out the door, ready to run if it got too scary, which I remember doing myself when I watched Logopolis and the white man was at the fence, watching. A lovely old story, great to see it get the love it deserves. I can only hope that the emerging field of AI can re-create the live action so we can possibly once again have an idea what the story really looked like, by using the stage direction and studio notes! Thanks for doing this DVD, Beeb. We loved it.