"Experience classic Patrick Troughton era science fiction resurrected through striking animation and restored vintage audio recordings."
A legendary lost serial receives stunning second life in Doctor Who: The Macra Terror. Utilizing surviving audio recordings alongside dynamic full-color animation, this four-part production reconstructs the Second Doctor's confrontation with subterranean, gas-consuming monsters inside a dystopian colony. Patrick Troughton's eccentric charisma anchors the narrative, turning a missing piece of Doctor Who history into a fully realized, retro science-fiction gem that fans can finally appreciate in full visual context.
| Watched? | # | Air Date | Episode Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | Dec 26, 2019 | Episode 1 | |
| E2 | Dec 26, 2019 | Episode 2 | |
| E3 | Dec 26, 2019 | Episode 3 | |
| E4 | Dec 26, 2019 | Episode 4 |
Production Type: Animated Special
Doctor Who: The Macra Terror (2019) is a standalone Animated Special designed as a completed, finite historical narrative. This production represents a high-fidelity animated restoration of the original four-part serial from 1967, which was largely lost due to the BBC historical archiving policies. BBC Studios commissioned Sun & Moon Studios to recreate the visuals using the surviving high-quality audio recordings, ensuring that this specific chapter of the Second Doctor era could be experienced by modern audiences in its entirety. The project was conceived as a self-contained release to bridge gaps in the existing Doctor Who library rather than a pilot for a new ongoing series.
The scale of the production involved meticulous character design and background art that remained faithful to the 1960s aesthetic while utilizing modern digital animation techniques. Because the original teleplay was a four-episode arc with a clear beginning, middle, and end, the 2019 release was structured specifically to honor that finite narrative structure. As a historical reconstruction, the production reached its natural conclusion once all four episodes were completed and released on home media and digital platforms, serving as a permanent archival piece for the franchise.