Doctor Who review: The Macra Terror – a lost classic brought back to life through animation

With its recent release on DVD and Blu-ray, we look at the animated version of the lost Doctor Who serial, The Macra Terror. Is it a strong story, and if so, does the new animation live up to it?

Following the 2016 animated release of missing story The Power of the Daleks, we have another missing Troughton serial reborn via animation in the form of The Macra Terror. It’s joyful to see that the BBC is making amends for their short-sighted ‘Junking Policy’ active in the 1960s and 1970s.

Giving missing Doctor Who serials from the 60s a new lease of life is truly a wonderful thing. Not just so us Doctor Who fans can have ‘new’ stories to enjoy, but for posterity and completionist reasons, too. I love the fact that we may eventually have every single Doctor Who story on DVD.

As mentioned, The Power of the Daleks was the BBC’s first foray in animating a completely missing story, but this time they chose a different tack. With The Power of the Daleks, they chose to animate the story as accurately as they could by utilising existing stills to construct the serial in accordance with how it would have originally looked. The animators behind The Macra Terror on the other hand opted not to stick with existing stills, instead choosing to animate their own interpretation of how the story could look.

A completely fresh take

This decision breathed dynamism and fluidity that wouldn’t otherwise have been there. It’s an excellent creative choice and something I’m completely supportive of if the entire story is missing. The animation itself was really rather excellent, getting accurate likenesses of our TARDIS crew – their animated figures were injected with their personalities to great effect.

The stand-outs for me were the Doctor and Jamie. They got across the curious and impish charm of the Second Doctor so well that I’d occasionally forget I was even watching an animation.

The settings were a highlight too. It’s important that the animation didn’t make the setting sterile, but that wasn’t the case at all. The aesthetic value and creative direction constructed a really believable world, with the various rooms and levels of the mining plant feeling authentic. The lighting is appropriately moody with an underlying oppressive atmosphere, too.

For the most part, the animation is a real treat. On occasions though you may find that sometimes the audio doesn’t quite match with what you’re seeing. However these moments are few and far between.

A classic base-under-siege story

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When it comes to the story itself, The Macra Terror flies by, with brisk pacing. Some Troughton era base-under-siege stories can drag in places, but here that’s really not the case. Despite its speed of pacing, The Macra Terror still manages to balance our TARDIS crew well, with everyone getting some cracking moments. There are some compelling supporting characters too that make the world come depressingly into focus.

The unfolding plot isn’t anything we haven’t seen before – it’s very much in line with the typical base-under-siege format of the Troughton era that we are accustomed to. But, there’s definitely a spark of weird creepiness reminiscent of The Happiness Patrol that makes it more interesting.

The titular villains, the Macra, are unsettling. Highly intelligent giant crabs – they may seem simple but their weirdness is perturbing. They’re even running a dystopian society, with mind controlled human slaves and a Big Brother-like interface giving them orders. Bizarre doesn’t begin to cover it, but I like the direction the story takes and reminds me of how mad this little show can be.

A rushed ending?

It all ends a bit too abruptly for my liking. I’m not going to spoil anything, but after a lot of build-up attempting to unmask and bring down the Macra, it ends a little anti-climatically and could have been handled better. This doesn’t bring down the story all too much though as it has solid foundations throughout.

The Macra Terror is really fun – the animation and briskness of story pace will be certain to have you smiling. Our TARDIS team are, of course, wonderful and the story is helped with well-realised supporting characters. The overall tone and atmosphere is transfixing with its manipulative unpleasantness. It won’t blow your socks off, or surprise you. This isn’t a sci-fi epic like The War Games or a mystical adventure like The Mind Robber. But, it is a sturdy story that is sure to give you a good time.

Have you seen The Macra Terror? If so, what did you make of it? Do you have a favorite animated Doctor Who story? Let us know in the comments below.