Doctor Who: The Macra Terror

The Macra Terror is the seventh serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 March to 1 April 1967.

The Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie reach an unnamed planet in Earth’s colonial future, concerned about seeing a claw from observing the TARDIS’s time scanner. Upon landing, they subdue a half-crazed colonist named Medok, who is promptly arrested by Security Chief Ola.

The travellers are escorted by Ola to a colony which refines a poison gas they are mining for unknown reasons. The Doctor is troubled by the colony’s forced festivities, remaining unconvinced by the promises of the Colony’s Pilot and the well wishes of the mysterious Controller who appears on a monitor as a still image to welcome the colony’s guests.

After Medok is paraded before the colonists as an example, he escapes from his cell when the Doctor visits him to learn about the creatures that he sees infesting the colony at night. The Doctor weasels out of being arrested and sentenced to labour in the mine since he and his friends captured Medok in the first place before slipping away to find Medok, learning more of the colony’s infestation by giant insects and the fact that those who see them are then hospitalised and reconditioned.

The night curfew begins and the other time-travellers retire to their rest quarters. The Doctor and Medok use the opportunity to investigate, and find the giant crab-like Macra roaming the colony.

The pair are soon captured and brought before the Pilot, but the Doctor is released when Medok claims the Doctor was convincing him to turn himself in. Later, the Pilot is told by the Controller to hypnotize their guests so that they can work in the mines. Jamie resists but Ben succumbs to the brainwashing, the Doctor arrested alongside Jamie when he disables the hypnosis equipment after snapping Polly out of her trance.

Polly ends up encountering the Macra while running from Ben, with Ben momentarily freed from his conditioning long enough to save her and bring her to the Pilot’s office where the Doctor and Jamie are. The Pilot is forced to request the Controller reveal his true face at the Doctor’s insistence after being revealed to be hypnotised himself, with the group seeing an aged and terrified old man killed by the Macra: the Controller’s true identity.

The briefly disturbed Pilot regains his composure and orders the immediate arrest of the Doctor’s group, with the Doctor, Polly and Jamie sentenced to hard labour in the most treacherous part of the mine. Medok has also been sentenced to life there after his reconditioning failed, and warns them of the area’s high mortality rate.

The Doctor is left topside while the others venture into the deeper workings. Jamie and Medok escape, but the latter is seized by a Macra claw and dragged away to his death. Jamie comes face-to-face with a giant Macra, which seems to be sleeping until a burst of the deadly gas rejuvenates the creature. Other Macra soon appear and advance on Jamie.

The Doctor uses his guile to sow seeds of doubt regarding the truth of the planet in the minds of the colonists and of Ben, whose conditioning is weakening. The Doctor has worked out the gas flow seems to be the key to the situation and cleverly reverses it from the mine control area.

Polly has reached the surface, and the Doctor calculates that he can buy Jamie time to escape from the mine as well. The improved oxygen flow weakens the Macra, enabling Jamie to escape.

The Doctor and Polly infiltrate the control area and find it overrun with Macra, the Doctor realizing the Macra need the gas to survive and have brainwashed the colonists into serving their needs. Ola demands that the travellers be punished for disobeying Control, but the Doctor persuades the Pilot to accompany him to the Control center.

With their hold on the Pilot broken, the Macra give Ola full authority to place the Doctor, the Pilot, Polly and Jamie in an area of the mine where a mixture of combustible gasses will shortly explode. Ben, who has finally broken his conditioning, frees them, and some manipulation of the gas pipes sends the combustible mixture to the Control Centre.

When the gas explodes, the Macra are all killed. The Doctor’s group remain a bit longer as the members of the colony celebrate their freedom while declaring a holiday in their heroes’ honour.

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

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