This story is a masterpiece and its a shame its fully missing,the animation however is probably the best one we had,truly great,but the story overall is just so good,may be a highlight of S4 for me.
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I can’t believe I didn’t talk about Jamie, this is a fantastic story for him. His immediate distrust of the Colony gives future echoes of Leela’s warrior instincts, and the whole story is primed to present Jamie as a true, salt-of-the-earth action hero, one whose roots in a revolutionary past combined with his fierce dedication to a single leader (first the Laird, and now The Doctor) position him as a great antagonist for this society. I bought totally that Jamie was the one least likely to get brainwashed - the man was taken from Culloden what is it, four days ago, in real time? Of course he sleeps lightly. Of COURSE he’s suspicious of all these well-groomed, British accented strange folk talking about work and play. It’s so interesting that frankly he seems much more concerned with the human elements of this story - his reactions to Ben’s betrayal are believable in his character, and his suspicion of the whole situation allows him to anchor a performance well. It’s a shame that this is then sort of lost in the back half as he gets sidelined to “get menaced in a tunnel” duty for basically an entire episode, but up until that, I was in love with Jamie even more so than I already was. The decidedly sinister way The Doctor reminds Ben that Jamie might not be so forgiving of his betrayal is another delicious moment of ambivalence from Patrick Troughton - he might not endorse the behaviour, but if the push comes to the shove, he isn’t exactly the most likely Doctor to stop Jamie from giving Ben a “correction” in the form of a good kicking.
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Bloody youngsters… ‘many of us’ indeed… 
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Delta, you’re so hip and with it, I’ve always assumed you were a spry creature of their early 30s much like myself 
I still contest being a “bloody youngster” though. I’ve lived long enough to see my era of Doctor Who appended with a nebulous adjective so as to fix its place in time. “Revival era” indeed…
Back to the crabs, on a whim I decided to start the novelization of this. I’m two chapters in, and first things first, Ian Stuart Black makes all the holiday camp stuff so more explicit than the animation, and does so with simple evocative language that immediately paints pictures in the mind. His talk of woodland, valleys, chalets, flags and bunting are much more evocative of what this story is aiming for than the rather bleary, arid landscape and the industrial, hard sci-fi colony of the animation. It also preserves and expands the makeover scene, which I am delighted with. It’s from the 80s, so we get the benefit of the further characterization of The Doctor being applied to Troughton’s performance here - the brief mention of his worry that they’re all being split up is a good insight, as is the fact that the narrative makes it quite clear that The Doctor is planning to upend all of this as soon as possible. We get more of Jamie’s mistrust, and they start seeding Ben’s susceptibility to the Colony’s brainwashing as early as the second chapter.
This is definitely a story that is benefiting from a literary expansion so far, especially one done by the original script-writer. It’s only a 100 pages so I’m looking forward to cheerfully hammering it out today, and I’m anticipating rating it higher than the animation.
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I rewatched this colour animation - it’s stunning. This is a gem and probably the best example of a false utopia story in Classic Who. I’m so happy that the animation helps this story come to life again.
THE MACRA TERROR is a classic slice of dystopian Doctor Who, blending psychological horror, social commentary, and monstrous menace into one of the Troughton era’s most effective stories. Gertan Klauber’s officious Security Chief Ola adds bureaucratic menace, while the vivid 2019 animation enhances the mood with creepy visuals and rich detail. Though a little uneven in places, it remains one of the strongest animated reconstructions and a prime example of how unsettling Classic Who could be—even when the monsters are giant crabs.
You’re welcome to read my full review below (spoilers hidden):
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This is one of the greats, really. S4 is to me one of the strongest Run of the Stories, that the Show ever had, and this one is one if not the biggest Highlight to me. Macra Terror is just a blast in so many regards. How it uses well-known tropes for its environment and its Story is just superb. The Story itself is just really well-written, Ian Stuart Black is to me an excellent Who Writer who deserves to be talked about a lot more. I think he nails this Script, especially when it comes to the Character work here. For the first time since joining the TARDIS, I think Jamie truly settles into the Role of a Companion. Polly gets some great Material as well, even if she is probably the one who gets arguably the least amount with this Story, but what she gets is usually fairly good, especially in relation to Ben. Ben has already been quite an enjoyable Character, but I think this is HIS time to shine. I think Craze is quite underrated, since I think he brings a lot to the Role, and this is not more apparent than here. Everything done with him feels like a quite compelling mini-Arc to me. Oh, and did I mention Throughton? He is sooo good in this one, after settling into the Role properly with the Moonbase he is just superb here.
A bit weird that this Story is named Macra Terror, what are Macras? I never heard or seen them, a bit strange, but either way such a great one.
As for the Animation? Yeah, I loved this one as well, I think the Character Movement is so smooth, everything about the animation really works, and I think enhances the Crab Monsters in terms of being a menace. While I still hope one day the Episodes get found, I am quite happy what the Animators did with that Story and think it’s easily one of the best releases that we got, just the right Mix of a bit changing and keeping true to the Original.
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Why are you guys talking about a fake episode?
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