The Macra Terror is the completely missing 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.
In this serial, the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Ben (Michael Craze), Polly (Anneke Wills) and Jamie (Frazer Hines) attempt to unravel a mystery within a human colony on an unnamed planet in the future, which leads to them becoming prisoners as opposed to guests.
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.
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.
Then he slips away to find Medok, and learns more of the colony's infestation by giant insects, including the fact that those who see the creatures are hospitalised and reconditioned.
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.
Ben, who has finally broken his conditioning, frees them, and some manipulation of the gas pipes sends the combustible mixture to the Control Centre.
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.
For the first time, the face of the lead actor, Patrick Troughton, was incorporated into the "howl-around" patterns but the titles used the original theme music until Episode 1 of The Faceless Ones.
Various brief clips on 8mm cine film recorded by an unknown fan in Australia survive from episode 3, mainly focusing on the Doctor and his companions.
[2] ^† Episode is missing In their nonfiction The Discontinuity Guide, Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping summed up the story as "A flawed, but interesting examination, of a peculiarly 60s psychosis.
"[13] David J Howe and Stephen James Walker gave the serial a positive review although they thought that some of the more serious aspects of the story were "somewhat undermined by the presence of the Macra themselves, which tends to take it into traditional monster mayhem territory."
It was considered to be a good production with strong performances from the guest cast who were "all excellent, bringing to life some interesting and well-drawn characters.
"[13] In 2009, Mark Braxton of Radio Times gave the serial four out of five stars, describing it as a "surreptitiously creepy story" although "some scenes date it horribly".
In 2012, the soundtrack was remastered and re-released on CD as part of the Lost TV Episodes Collection Four box set, this time with new narration by Anneke Wills.