Original air dates March through April 1967. Another entirely missing serial with four slideshow reconstructions to watch. Let’s see how they go…
Fancy new opening!
A man comes out of a happy-looking colony, raving, and running away. He is chased by guards, who he loses. The man hears the TARDIS materilize and runs up and jumps Jamie. Ben and Jaimie subdue him and the kerfuffle attracts the guards who take charge of the raving man.
The TARDIS crew is invited into the colony, where everything seems perfect. They split up, Polly going for a shampoo and haircut, the others opting for a massage. The Doctor declines, and pokes about.
The Doctor sees the prisoner and goes in to talk to him, freeing him. The Doctor is asking him about what he sees, if they’re things that crawl upon the grouns. Someone comes and the prisoner flees. The Doctor is rather in trouble for having freed him.
Colony Control has a little tizzy about the Mecra. There are no Mecra!
Polly and Ben are brainwashed, but it didn’t stick for Jaimie. Don’t know about the Doctor, but I doubt it.
No, the Doctor isn’t, and he’s wandering around causing trouble. Ben and Polly bump into the crab-like Macra and barely escape, and go to report it. Ben, instead, reports there is nothing.
The Doctor and Jaimie demand to talk to the Controller, who they get on-screen after some shennanigans. He’s an old, befuddled man who is clearly losing his faculties. A giant crab hand grabs him, and suddenly our crew is “banished to the Pits” and that will be that as the credits roll.
Gas mining in the pits. They steal some keys and Jamie leads an escape. The other prisoner is dead, clawed up by giant claws. Control refuses to let guards in after them.
Tense music as the Macra close in on Jaimie. It sounds like bad 80’s MIDI, but must have been high tech for the time. Woo!
Cheerleaders to get them to obey. Creepy. Jaimie falls into the middle of them and the leader of the cheerleaders decides he’s a dancer. He does a Highland dance and almost escapes, but Ben rats on him. Ben’s conditioning has started to slip.
The Doctor and Polly find a back door to the control room, and watch one of the Macra controlling the Control.
Things get worse when Control tries to stop the Pilot from seeing what the Doctor and Polly have seen. We are a happy colony! Destroy the strangers! Arrest the Pilot! Work, work, work! We are happy!
A plan is laid to destroy the Macra, probalby with gas valves. Except the gas is set on the Doctor et al first.
Ben comes back and, from the other side of the locked door, follows the Doctor’s instructions and causes a gas explosion in Control. The day is saved.
No preview for next week given, so it’s a mystery.
Tags: doctorwho