When the Doctor, Polly and Ben visit a human colony that appears to be one big holiday camp, they think they have come across a truly happy place. But a shadowy presence soon makes them realise that the surface contentment is carefully controlled. The colony's inhabitants have been brainwashed by giant crab-like creatures - the Macra. Insidious propaganda, broadcast by the Controller, forces the humans to mine a gas that is essential for the Macra to survie - but fatal for them. The colony must be saved - but how? The Doctor and his team are up against it, particularly when Ben falls under the influence of the Macra. Can he be rescued from their evil clutches? Can the gas pumping be destroyed, getting rid of the Macra for good? The soundtrack to this popular adventure, which was first broadcast in 1967, has been digitally remastered to recreate a very popular story from the Troughton era. 1 CD. 1 hr 35 mins.

 

This book is part of a book series called Doctor Who .

This book was published 2000 by BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House .

THE PROGRAMME: The Macra Terror seems to have rather mixed ambitions. It could be seen as a straightforward Doctor Who adventure, complete with alien monsters. It could also be seen as a subtle social commentary on indoctrination and propaganda. Of course, the enjoyment of it on that level depends whether the viewer succeeds in making its point. Some commentators have drawn comparisons with the works of Kafka and Orwell, likening the addresses of the Controller to those of Big Brother in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Others have dismissed the attempt at social commentary as pretentious. The show's writer Ian Stuart Black has said that his aim was to explore the idea of a substance being poisonous to one group of people but vital to another - something evident from the show's storyline. Production values and guest performances on the show were both of a high standard and, overall, it can probably be judged a success. The differing interpretations as to its meaning make little difference to its essential entertainment value although, to quote Tim Robins in Doctor Who - An Adventure in Space and Time, 'If you want to attempt a subtle story, it's probably best not to include large, alien crabs roving around a holiday camp!' The incidental music for The Macra Terror was written by Dudley Simpson, already the programme's most prolific composer. For these episodes he scored the colony 'jingles' (performed by three female vocalists), and for a second time collaborated with Brian Hodgson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to produce some striking electronic sounds on an early electronic keyboard. Hodgson himself, the programme's regular 'sound designer', also provided some memorable cues such as the Heartbeat Chase that accompanies the fleeing Medok in episode one. Simpson's Chromophone Band music was actually realised by the Workshop's Delia Derbyshire, her first contribution to the series since her realisation of Ron Grainer's theme music.