The cover art and special features of the animated version of the missing Doctor Who adventure The Macra Terror, releasing on DVD, Blu-ray, special edition Steelbook and digital download on 25th March 2019, have been revealed.
Originally broadcast in four weekly parts from 11th March to 1st April 1967, and starring Patrick Troughton, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze and Frazer Hines, no full episodes of this serial are known to have survived on film. Fortunately for fans, a complete audio recording of all four parts still exists. Now, 52 years later, the four episodes will be brought back to life through the power of animation in both colour and the original black and white.
In the story, the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his companions arrive on a human colony in the far-flung future. The colony appears to be a giant recreational complex – a holiday camp for rest and relaxation. Everyone looks happy and carefree but all is not as it seems. The colony has been infiltrated and brainwashed by a race of giant parasitic crab creatures called the Macra. Since 1967, the Macra have only returned once, 40 years later, coming face to face with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) in the 2007 episode Gridlock.
Special features for the DVD and Blu-ray release include:
Audio Commentary: Toby Hadoke presents an audio commentary track on all four episodes of ‘The Macra Terror’, featuring cast and crew from the original 1967 production – Frazer Hines (Jamie), Terence Lodge (Medok), Anthony Gardner (Alvis), Maureen Lane (Majorette) and director, John Davies. Commentary produced by John Kelly and recorded in London on 4th January 2019.
Episode Reconstructions: Surviving film frames, fragments of existing footage and set photographs are brought together with the original unedited audio to reconstruct a presentation of the original now lost live-action production of ‘The Macra Terror’, as seen by viewers of BBC 1 in 1967. Produced by Derek Handley. Available to watch with or without an optional narration track read by Anneke Wills.
Bonus Mini-Episode: A ten-minute animated short, built around an otherwise lost Doctor Who episode from 1968 starring Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines. Directed by AnneMarie Walsh.
Animation Test: Prior to the project being formally commissioned, this short animation test (of a scene from episode 3 of ‘The Macra Terror’) was produced in March 2018, to investigate the feasibility of mounting the production in full.
Animatics: A selection of scenes showing how the new animated production of ‘The Macra Terror’ went from initial storyboards to final animation. Storyboard art by Adrian Salmon.
Animation Gallery: A gallery of artwork from the development, pre-production and animation of the new animated version of ‘The Macra Terror’, including character art from Martin Geraghty and background paintings from Graham Bleathman, Colin Howard and Lydia Butz.
Teaser Trailer: A short teaser trailer animated by Rob Ritchie, produced to promote the announcement of a new production of ‘The Macra Terror’ in December 2018.
Alternative Black and White presentation: The full four-part animation is also available to view in an alternative black and white format on disc 2.
1992 Audio Presentation: In 1992, the BBC Audio Collection released ‘The Macra Terror’ on audio cassette, in a special release narrated by Colin Baker. It was the first time that the story had been made commercially available by the BBC and that audio-only release is included here in full.
Surviving Footage: Less than two minutes of original footage still exist from the 1967 production of ‘The Macra Terror’. These film fragments have been painstakingly restored and digitally remastered for this release, with considerable improvements made to the overall picture quality and resolution of this unique footage. Film restoration by Peter Crocker.
Behind the scenes film: In 1967, during pre-production of ‘The Macra Terror’, film cameras visited the visual effects workshop in Uxbridge where work was underway on construction of the Macra props. Special effects props and models from other Doctor Who stories can also be seen in the workshop, including parts of a Cyberman from ‘The Tenth Planet’ (1966) and an aeroplane from ‘The Faceless Ones’ (1967). This footage is accompanied by a new audio commentary track from Doctor Who visual effects designer and BBC visual effects historian, Mike Tucker, explaining some of the effects techniques and props featured in the film.
Censored Scene: A reconstruction of a scene from episode 2 of ‘The Macra Terror’ that was heavily re-edited by censors for the episode’s Australian television transmission in November 1967.
Title sequences: ‘The Macra Terror’ saw the debut of a new title sequence for Doctor Who – the first time the programme had made such a change. The title sequence is presented here in full, remastered in HD and in a number of alternative versions.
Photo gallery: A collection of 36 photographs taken during the production of ‘The Macra Terror’ in 1967, featuring original design department set photographs and Radio Times publicity images. All presented in HD.
Production Paperwork: A full set of original camera scripts, studio schedules, floor plans and other materials are available to view by accessing disc 2 via your computer’s DVD or Blu Ray ROM drive.
Additional extras exclusive to Steelbook:
Gridlock: The Macra returned to Doctor Who in 2007, in this episode starring David Tennant and written by Russell T. Davies
Audio commentary: Julie Gardner, Travis Oliver and Marie Jones discuss the making of ‘Gridlock’ in this audio commentary track from 2007.
Doctor Who Confidential – Are we there yet?: A documentary looking at the making of the 2007 story, ‘Gridlock’.
With thanks to BBC Studios
Children to study Doctor Who theme tune in BBC Ten Pieces
Schoolchildren will get to investigate the intricacies of the Doctor Who theme music as part of a BBC project to engage kids with classical music.
Delia Derbyshire’s sweeping electronic score is just one of the works featured in this year’s Ten Pieces season.
It’s joined by Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and a newly-commissioned work by film composer Hans Zimmer.
The aim of the season is to illustrate that classical music is a “living, ever-evolving art form”.
The 10 chosen works span every era of classical music, based around the theme of “trailblazers”.
Among the composers being showcased are Florence Price, who was the first African-American woman to be recognised as a symphonic composer; and Polish musician Grażyna Bacewicz, who wrote defiant, subversive music in occupied Warsaw during World War Two.
The full 10 works in this year’s Ten Pieces are:
Hans Zimmer – Earth
George Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue
Ravi Shankar – Symphony, Finale
Delia Derbyshire – Doctor Who Theme
Antonio Vivaldi – Winter from The Four Seasons
Grażyna Bacewicz – Overture
Steve Reich – Music for 18 Musicians
Heitor Villa-Lobos – Bachianas brasileiras No 2, Little Train of the Caipira (finale)
Florence Price – Symphony No. 1 in E Minor (3rd movement)
Johannes Brahms – Hungarian Dance No 5
Zimmer, whose film scores include The Lion King, True Romance, The Dark Knight and Gladiator, is writing a brand new theme for the season – in recognition of the fact most people’s first exposure to orchestral music comes in the cinema.
“I am honoured to have been asked to create a piece for BBC Ten Pieces Trailblazers series,” he said.
“At the heart of my new piece, Earth is the sound of young voices who underlie the music. Set against the backdrop of our magnificent, precious planet, I hope it will be the perfect springboard to inspire creativity in classrooms across the UK.”
Since it first launched in 2014, the Ten Pieces project has been rolled out to more than 10,000 schools, reaching five million people across the UK.
The new season, like the ones before it, will culminate in a concert at the BBC Proms, where children who have studied the works in the classroom can see them played by a real-life orchestra.
How the Doctor Who theme changed music
The Doctor Who theme is the Bohemian Rhapsody of TV music – innovative, audacious and endlessly covered by amateurs and professionals alike.
The music itself was written by Ron Grainer, but it was Delia Derbyshire who took his notes and created a futuristic, otherworldly arrangement.
It was 1963, so Derbyshire and her assistant Dick Mills didn’t have access to anything like a synthesisers. Instead, they painstakingly created each note by cutting up and splicing together bits of analogue tape, then speeding them up and slowing them down.
The famous bass line was a recording of a single plucked string, whose pitch was altered by something called a “wobbulator”.
Onto that, she layered white noise and strange test tones, making it sound as if the music had been beamed in from another dimension.
The story goes that when Derbyshire played the music back to Grainer, he asked: “Did I write that?” To which she replied: “Most of it.”
Over the years, the song has been tweaked, nipped, tucked, embellished and orchestrated – but it has never lost the essence of Derbyshire’s original creation.
And while BBC policy dictated that Grainer got full credit for the music (he strenuously objected), Derbyshire has come to be recognised as a pioneer of electronic music and sonic manipulation.
Artists including Aphex Twin, Orbital and The KLF have called her an influence, while her techniques were borrowed by everyone from The Beatles to Pink Floyd.
Doctor Who’s creators envisaged a series that would go forwards, backwards and sideways in time. The Doctor’s trips to parallel universes and alternative dimensions have provided the show with some of its best-loved adventures – from its black-and-white beginnings to the latest episodes, starring Jodie Whittaker.
Uncover the background to these memorable journeys and explore the greatest stories beyond the television series in this lavish publication, which is packed full of exclusive features and rare images.
Dallas Jones and Roger Reynolds, co-editors of Trap Street, a free Doctor Who e-zine, are proud to announce the publication of Issue Three.
In this edition we have a scoop with a major interview with Dr Niall Doran, the “Scientific Advisor” for Series 11.
Other articles include: “The Bard and the Blue Box an interesting article on Shakespeare his influences and appearance in Doctor Who; “Whostorical” an article on History in Doctor Who; “Sonic Screwdriver” is an article that analyses of the use of the Sonic Screwdriver in Series 11; the concluding part of Daniel Worsley’s short story “Extinction Day”; plus much more.
There are two ways to experience Trap Street Three.
One is to view Trap Street on-line
Or
You can download a PDF version of the publication to peruse at your leisure.
To obtain information on how to access both / either of these options then send an email to:
Our website has a bit more information plus a peek at some of the articles.
