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Post by Cyggy on Mar 3, 2022 16:10:01 GMT
Please rate and discuss this story here.....
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Post by Cyggy on Mar 7, 2022 16:49:11 GMT
I love this story. Nice setting with the happy facade hiding the horror beneath.
The animation has thankfully given this story a new lease of life and brought it in from the cold - but how big were those Macra in the cartoon? "Look at the size of that thing, Doctor!" Bit over the top methinks - especially when a claw was picking up Polly by one foot! Although I suppose they were trying to get them to match the seemingly bigger Macra in "Gridlock" maybe?
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Post by Servo on Mar 8, 2022 10:22:17 GMT
It wasn’t until the animated version came out that I noticed how bloody noisy this whole story is.
After a while it all gets a bit irritating.
The Macra are crap and there much better Troughtons IMO.
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Post by Black Orchid on Mar 15, 2022 14:10:04 GMT
The Macra Terror has some OTT performances - Ola, Medok and The Controller and well as some stilted performances - The Pilot, Barney and Alvis. The jingles sound like something from the 1950's. The soundtrack sounds good but I doubt the visuals matched it.
7/10
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Post by GC on Mar 16, 2022 19:18:58 GMT
Couple of interesting Macra bits...
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Post by Black Orchid on Apr 28, 2022 19:17:23 GMT
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Post by Cyggy on Jul 8, 2022 11:46:23 GMT
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Post by Cyggy on Jul 11, 2022 10:15:27 GMT
Comparing Doctor Who: "The Macra Terror" - 1967 vs 2019
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Post by Cyggy on Aug 4, 2022 10:17:15 GMT
12. Doctor Who Locations Guide - The Macra Terror
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Post by Cyggy on Mar 20, 2023 12:11:09 GMT
From a 2021 rewatch.....
Episode 1:
(Using the official BBC animation)
So it's Saturday again and I am due to post episode 2, so will hurriedly view and post episode 1 now. How quickly the days flow by.....
Am watching the colour animation on this occasion......
Immediately there is a mental conflict of "but I am reviewing and watching a modern reinterpretation, with new artistic decisions - and not what was actually on the screen" but I am hoping that that settles down and doesn't affect the flow of the episode. Maybe that's why I feel more comfortable watching the recons - as it gets us closer to the reality of what was broadcast than many of these animations - particularly these widescreen and colour recent ones - do.
Very Big Brother controller, with his face dominating the screen...
I like the jolly jingle music. Light - and yet somehow sinister.
Medok's attempted escape sounds like someone deciding they don't want to take part in TIME FRACTURE after all and not caring about a refund.
Why on Earth did Ben attack Medok before finding out what was going on first. The dolt! Sounds like Troughton cackling with glee at Ben besting Medok in the scuffle too.
I love the cliffside colony building in the animation, to be fair.
Oh yes, this is the animated episode where we were told that the scene of Troughton in the tidying/scruffying up machines had been cut/not animated as it was merely "a bit of frippery". That still rankles.
"Have fun while you can - before they crawl all over you!!!" - particularly in reference to crabs is a line to ponder on..... Wonder if the author was making some puritanical point there - or if it's just an appalling coincidence?
Ahh, like Columbo the Doctor has figured out that all is not right and sees Medok for the innocent man that he is. Good old Doctor.
Pits and "hospitals for correction". Butlins/Pontins this ain't.
The Doctor sneaking off to find Medok, without bothering to let Ben, Polly or Jamie know that he is doing so is a lovely and elusive side of Troughton's Doctor.
Big Brother's "Orders to shoot on sight" re Medok, followed by "Happy sleep time everybody" did make me chuckle. Funny, but sinister.
Are those the same wonderfully creepy jungle planet sounds as used in Hartnell adventures before this?
We get worthy - and much more mobile and larger - Macra in the animation, so this is one area where the animating "improves" matters, but it's anything but faithful. Am not sure what's right and what's wrong in this regard, but I do feel that the animators have perhaps improved things a bit too much on this occasion?
A good first episode - in any of it's forms - from the pen of the under-rated Ian Stuart Black. I would love at least just one episode of this to be found.
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Post by Cyggy on Mar 20, 2023 12:14:04 GMT
Episode 2:
(Using Loose Cannon Recon on Dailymotion)
I love Dudley's music on this.
I also love how cheerful Troughton is when brought into the office to be quizzed about his latest misdemeanour - just so Doctorish, undaunted by authority figures accusing him of committing crimes as he deceptively Columbo's his way through a scene. Nice moment when Medok covers for the Doctor too, getting him off the hook.
Big Brother on the screen really needs to take a chill pill. We get the message, buddy: there are no such thing as Macra, apparently.
Poor Ben, so susceptible to evil. There's a touch of the Mike Yates here in that we have to wonder if we can ever trust him again?
The clever Doctor is onto this brainwashing malarkey though. Good acting from Craze as he seems to drop his wideboy cockney accent as a hypnotised Ben; a subtle acting choice, no doubt borne out of rehearsals.
Poor guy, the aged "Controller". Presumably spending decades living with only Macra for company. Kudos to Anneke for pitching her "Macra!! They're in control!!" at just the perfect level for an episode ending too.
I enjoyed this one - and nice to see it springing to life here and there towards the end with the censor clips too.
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Post by Cyggy on Mar 20, 2023 12:16:01 GMT
Episode 3:
(Using Loose Cannon Recon on Dailymotion)
Blimey! That's a bit of a steep change, from being pampered and preened by all the latest technology to being sent to "The Danger Gang" in the pit!
Ola is probing himself to be a right git. Wonder how much of it is brainwashing and how much of it is Ola. He reminds me of the guard in HORNS OF NIMON announcing "Weakling scum!" at every opportunity.
Jamie's nudge to the Doctor that he would be best placed staying out of the pit is a nice moment. The Doctor needs his companions to point him in the right direction sometimes.
Good acting from Craze in a nice scene with the Doctor, showing how troubled Ben is by his own betrayal, but still committed to betraying them.
Medok is coming across as an intelligent, freethinking person now - with a sense of snarky humour, instead of a raving, paranoid maniac, which is a credit to the writing and acting and is the whole point of the story, I guess about not conforming blindly and thinking for yourself, no matter what. I would love to see New Who do something as subtle like this, but they would no doubt sledgehammer it home with a long and pompous speech from the Doctor that isn't as funny or profound as it thinks it is. I prefer the subtle Classic approach.
Such a shame we have lost the Troughton chalk board 11 out of 10 moment. Just lovely and would no doubt have been used in documentaries over the years if it existed.
Creepy background wind noise as Jamie explores the pit/old shaft.
Sounds daft, but I completely forgot - or was unaware - that Medok died in this story. I think he deserved to live as a symbol of non-conformity.
Strange how random thef moments of 8mm surviving footage are, but am glad they have been reinstated into the recon I am watching of this episode.
Quite a bit of cutting to and from Jamie and the Maca to other scenes. I guess it looked more suspenseful than it sounds, with a cat and mouse game going on as it hunts Jamie?
If this were to be recovered at least we would have the 11 out of 10 scene back, but other than that it's not the one I would want back most.
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Post by Cyggy on Mar 20, 2023 12:19:37 GMT
Episode 4:(Using the official BBC animation)Have decided to switch to the animation for this one. I can forgive the animators "improving" the Macra - although not sure about their massive increase in size, owing to how big they were in GRIDLOCK, I assume and trying to match that. Now that we are about to be lumbered with the PS1 style animation of WEB 3 on the forthcoming "special" edition, it makes me appreciate the comparative sleekness of this style of animation. I hope the WEB 3 style isn't the future of the animations and that we can get back on course with this style - although I think the best ever animation was THE MOONBASE imo. I remember listening to the audio cassette of THE MACRA TERROR - narrated by Colin Baker, with some dubious JN-T penned narration. "Jamie was in bed tossing restlessly", "Ben kept beating the monster relentlessly!" Anyway, I remember listening to part 4 and despite Colin's best efforts I couldn't understand what the heck was going on, not helped by a sub-grade audio recording that struggled to be heard above Colin's precise vowels. The point is, I guess, that it is great, all these yonks later, to finally have a MACRA TERROR on the shelves that one can "watch" and understand what's going on. Or at least a comprehensible version of it. But kudos to JN-T for being the first person to bring us the Missing Episodes in some shape or form at least. I love Troughton's Columbo-like blundering around with the controls, while literally overseen by an exasperated authority figure. No wonder we love the Second Doctor. Polly very much fulfilling the basic - some might say simplistic - companion role, asking questions, pointing out the obvious etc. (Was this the only time ever that the Doctor and Polly were alone together as Doctor and Companion? If so, I think they work nicely.) And at least she didn't hit him or threaten to slap him so hard that he would regenerate as later companions would do, so at least we can get on with the story unfettered with all such soap opera scenes. I wonder if Fraser Hines dreads this episode ever being found, when we see his attempted Highland Fling. It would be nice to have the betrayal moment back though, with Craze struggling under the brainwashing. "Ben, you gave me away!". "Jamie, I....." Poor Ben. The animation has gone a bit FORBIDDEN PLANET with the Doctor and Polly wandering through a blue tinted Krell city pretty much. Am not sure whether to applaud the animators or frown. The Macra control room is nicely pulled back and revealed in the animation. This is what I was missing in the Colin audio. I love the grin the animators have given Ola when he realises he is in command now. Peter Jeffries as the Pilot has been nicely played, from devout believer in the happy colony, to gradually trusting the Doctor and finally rebelling and investigating alongside the Doctor. I am wondering who is actually shouting "THEY'RE HERE! THE STRANGERS MUST BE DESTROYED!!" etc. The Macra through their mouths? The old guy they parade as controller who is somehow just off-screen attached to some kind of chair-machine-brain-thing? Some kind of translation device microphone that the Macra have been barking into? Have never been certain who is physically doing the yelling. So Ben redeems himself by coming to the rescue - and his cockney accent is back in full swing. Good old Ben! Nice ending on the animation of a slow drift away from the happy sounds of the colony, with the sound of wind outside. I enjoyed that story very much and it's ended neatly in this episode. I think this 4th episode is the one we need to find, wrapping everything up as it does.
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Post by Black Orchid on Apr 20, 2023 16:56:58 GMT
designed by Christopher Loftus
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Post by GC on May 20, 2023 14:07:10 GMT
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