Comparing Doctor Who: "The Macra Terror" - 1967 vs 2019 

There is a black and white version

These are, sadly, a painful reminder that while we have not truly lost these early episodes, we will never truly know just how faithful they were as recreations.

Can't wait to purchase The Macra Terror. What a glorious birthday tribute to Patrick Troughton, who would be 99 today.

I want to see more of these comparisons videos. This series seems very promising.

As someone who has some vivid memories of the original version, I'm perfectly happy with the animation!

While I admire the work put into the animation, the real Patrick Troughton was just more animated.

When you look at Patrick's face and compare it to the animation version, side by side, you really see just how much nuance is lost. Otherwise, I loved this recreation and consider it one of the best ones.

This art style and animation gives me heavy Archer vibes, I'd love to see an original animated Doctor Who series with this style, it'd be interesting

I know a lot of people would rather have an exact recreation of them but I love how the macra look in this, they're actually intimidating

I kinda wish they'd taken 2 more months just to add the rough and tumble scene. It would have been nice to see in there

Looks good, shouldn't have removed the scene though.

My wife recorded this on DVR from BBC America. Got to watch and hour of it last night before work and the rest this morning. I must say that I greatly enjoyed the animation. Reminded me a bit of the way they animated some shows in the 70's and 80's. It is a shame, however, that the need for this animation existed at all. Would much prefer to have seen the original telecast version. Been a fan of Doctor Who since I was about 4 years old (although not a fanatic about it lol) I cannot wait for the new season to start.

Also, I agree with everyone saying: "You should do more comparisons." Your videos are really entertaining.

I watched this recently. It was amazing. I'm happy the lost stories are getting animated but I wish we'd get more for the 1st Doctor.

So instead of The Controller visibly dragged away on screen we only see his shadow. A scene that survives only as a censor clip, has been censored????? Also I find it odd they censored Medok’s dead body, this is Doctor Who, Power literally has a whole scene that’s a panning shot of the colony filled with corpses! I also personally think that the Macra are a little too big.

Great video, Josh! Yes, I am already hearing moans and groans from some fans who are just NEVER satisfied. And I think some just don't like the animations. My advice to those: If you don't like it, don't buy it. Just don't spoil it for the rest of us. I personally want to see as many animations done of missing episodes as possible. We need to support them to keep them coming.

Mate. Your videos are unreal! Honestly love them... Would love to see Evil Of The Daleks Animated next

God I hope we get many more animations. This is gorgeous!

I want to see FURY FROM THE DEEP next

WAIT, NO ANIMATED TOPLESS BEN?

I've got a little while until I get to watch the new version but judging by the clips in this it looks 1000X better than Power of the Daleks, which I thought was great at the time. I was dubious about the colour and artistic liberties being taken but it looks so good that I think it's definitely the way to go for future completely missing stories. Another excellent video, I'd love to see more like this about the other animations!

The scene that they cut from episode 1 sounds like it was actually pretty important to the story. Seems a strange choice to cut it.

i'm just happy I can experience these episodes with full movement and animation instead of just looking at telesnaps and trying to understand what's going on!

I really enjoyed your side-by-side analysis of this story! I found it really informative! :D

Honestly, if the BBC were to ever can the current show, I would be okay with that if they then shifted their focus to making ALL of the missing episodes in epic full color animated glory such as this. They GOTTA do Daleks Master Plan next!!!

This piece of animation has completely improved since the Power of the Daleks and Shada! I hope they might be able to animate more, if enough time given. As my DVD has not yet to arrive, but the work that has put on this missing story looks fantastic! Can't wait to watch it.

Thanks for the comparison video Josh, it looks great! As always, some fans love to nitpick about minor details such as format, differences from the telesnaps, and the price of the DVD etc. This version has to try and make its money from more than just the hardcore fanbase, so we can enjoy more of these in the future. Well done to everybody involved, I look forward to watching it.

I love this video. I love the reconstruction. :) Great to see its release on Patrick Troughton’s birthday.

The Macra Terror really is proof of the potential of animated Doctor Who. The animation is great, smooth and stylised but still in the restrictions of the Who Universe. Honestly I'd be interested in seeing the team tackle a completely animated episode, not one based off previous work. Could be incredible to see them really take advantage of the format

This was brilliant! You found so much footage. Great video :D

5:40 perfectly cut scream

The story that I'd liked to be animated is the faceless ones.

I loved it I’ve watched it 2 times now and always get blown away with the different animations

As much as I want to see all missing episodes completed as a priority, I wouldn't complain if Pertwee's two audio adventures (Paradise Of Death and Ghosts Of N-Space) were animated in this fashion. With incidental music courtesy of composer Peter Howell, they were essentially Season 11 "reimagined" (for nineteen nineties listeners) - albeit for radio. Plus, he's my all-time favourite Doctor. Ditto for Pescatons and Exploration Earth (4th Doctor and Sarah Jane).

I've got this on preorder with Amazon, and look forward to seeing it for myself. That said, when I view it, I'll be doing so with the black and white version.

I’m fine with the animation, any form of Doctor Who episodes that were previously presumed missing is fine

I admit, the loss of the ‘rough and tumble’ scene is a bit of a disappointment, and the fact it’s not animated 100% faithful to the clips and tele-snaps like ‘power’ and the ‘orphaned’ episodes have been is slightly eyebrow raising. That being said, the animation is gorgeous, a VAST improvement, and the additions feel genuine and expand the view of the story. The Macra themselves are much improved too and more closely match their ‘Gridlock’ versions, cause even I wondered how they “devolved” from ‘Hermit Crabs’ to a more ‘Grey Swimming Crab’ design. All in all I think this is a good adaption, not a total reconstruction, it’s a good mix of classic and new Who. The story, characters and sound are all classic, and the visuals are respectful to the original but have been built upon and modernised, kind of retro. Tbh, I’m just glad we have this story in any form to watch again and I look forward to future animations, cause if the special features are to be believed there are more on the way, bring on ‘The Wheel In Space’!

Great job on the comparisons! Very insightful as always!

Finish The Wheel in Space, then do The Savages...

I hope Abominable Snowmen gets the animated treatment soon.....that's one of my favs lol

I haven't seen it yet, but as a whole I think it looks amazing. Obviously I'm a little disappointed about the lack of the rough and tumble scene, but it's not a deal-breaker for me. I also wish they hadn't censored the controller's death and Medok's death the way they did. Otherwise, I think it looks amazing. I like the way they updated the Macra scenes, too. They're not remotely accurate to the original, but they look a lot better and probably closer to how the production team would have liked for them to look.

I'm actually okay with it being less faithful and thus more accessible to a wider audience. We still have telesnaps, audio and loose canon. There's no reason why a bit of artistic licence shouldn't be taken. I'm still hanging out for animations of big finish though.... That would be so awesome.

It's cool that they've decided to do things that they wouldn't have been able to do when originally making it, but I don't see the logic in removing scenes that are fairly important to the story. As long as it still makes sense without these scenes then I guess it's okay. I look forward to seeing it when I can afford to buy the DVD and hope eventually that all the missing episodes will be animated. Speaking of Doctor Who animation. While I thought it was cool that they finally finished Shada, the fact that it cuts between real footage and animation was rather jarring, so hopefully they'll eventually just replace the studio footage with animation, thus making for a more enjoyable viewing experience.

Stellar work Josh, for someone who's not seen the loose cannon version of the story this was a great comparison. I think the artistic choices made on the animation advance the story from it's budget constraints for the 60's.

@2:14, I think making the Titles Yellow makes perfect sense. As the show was originally in Black and White, as I recall, TV actually didn’t use White that much in those days as the color white had a tendency to cause glare on black and white broadcasts and video, so for things like title captions, Yellow was often used as it appeared white on black and white video and film, as I recall, the white robots on the mind robber were actually painted cream, yellow and pink, but appeared white on the Black and White broadcasts (I could be wrong but I remember reading that on BBCs website a long time ago). So as I see it the cartoon is essentially redoing the episode as if it was in color, like an attempt literal colorization of the show.

Regardless of the changes, I like what I saw. I'm looking forward to seeing it all.

It's a great shame they've toned down all the 1960s hair and makeup styling giving the characters a bland/contemporary look .....this has made 'Polly' look nothing like her live character and far too modern/masculine by removing her 60s eye-makeup and flattening her bouffant hair . The only two characters that really resemble the live actors are the Doctor and Jamie. I feel that if a 1960s story is to be animated then the animators should stay true to the total look and not try and shoehorn the visuals into a contemporary style.

I've not seen this yet myself but the animation looks like a big improvement. We can hope it only gets better each time they release a new version. I'm really pleased they are doing the missing Troughton episodes as he is the Doctor I can remember the most from my Childhood although I can remember being terrified of the Zarbi in the Web planet during Hartnells era

Awesome comparison! I'd love to see more of these done for the other animated stories: Reign of Terror, Tenth Planet, Power, Moonbase, Ice Warriors and Invasion (don't know about Shada though as that's a mixed bag).

Good show mate. My favorite subject. Classic Who!

For whatever reason this is one of the missing ones ive been interested in for a while glade to see it animated, what id love to see that hasent been done yet is the highlanders because its Jamies first importsnt considering how long he was on and a really enjoyable chacter.

Always enjoy seeing your videos

I don't know why they cut scenes due to a lack of time? Like, I can understand wanting to produce content at some kind of pace, but there's no set date they need to release these, and sacrificing quality for a quick production, for something few people are going to be waiting for in advance anyway, just seems unusual

Thanks for the great video. My kids have been watching Macra Terror with me and it was good to show them what the original looked like. Personally I like the use of artistic licence. It’s a great opportunity to increase the size of the set, and mask the practical and visual shortcomings of some of the original monsters - as long as they are true to the spirit of the original. Shame about the missing scene though. But it’s high time they did Daleks Master Plan. That is long overdue. I guess the length of the story is daunting and the scale of the job off-putting.

Great video Josh, looking forward to watching it soon.

I love the artistic license here ❤️️I want more 👌👌

I'll be watching this one this weekend Can't wait

Interesting to see the differences, my dad accidentally got the DVD version early so I should be watching that this weekend... I'm surprised how many scenes were cut and the differences like the doctor writing on the glass instead of the pipe Anyway it was another great video, keep them coming!

I'd say that I really enjoyed the animation of the Macra Terror, but I can't have, because there's no such thing as Macra...

Excellent work, Josh. This episode would have made a lovely DVD/Blu-Ray extra. Perhaps for the inevitable Season 4 boxset, eh?

Not seen it. I wish they completed it all before releasing so no scenes cut

I like the animated version. I think it has allowed for a re-evaluation of this story among fandom, for the better. I got the Colin Baker narrated audio release on cassette years ago and kind of wished it had been in the archives. This has allowed me to experience it as close as possible to the original as we're likely to get.

I have to wait.. I’m in the states but I enjoy this preview! It’s good for what we can get

I find it interesting that Two has a reputation for being short, but Pat Troughton isn't that short, standing at 5'8". His animated counterpart is quite a bit shorter than him. (The animated version is shorter than Jamie, and real-life Pat was taller.)

This is the first time that I've seen the animation for The Macra Terror. Yes. I am very happy. But where were the Macra? It's like they dO NOT EXIST! THERE IS NO MACRA!

By removing the refreshment centre scene they've created a continuity error with Polly's hair- it's different lengths in what's essentially the same scene, bridging the Moonbase and the Macra Terror.

This may have been the best animation we have ever gotten for Doctor Who. As far as we can tell it improves over the original production in many ways and has some of the best character likenesses they have ever done. On a side note I would love if by some strange twist of fate we one day got back a story that was animated and you could do one of these side by sides with an animation and original story.

Herws hoping they do Fury from the Deep next

I think it's wonderful that they've finally treated this animation as its own thing. So many of the previous animations have persued accuracy at the cost of quality

I was wholly amazed by the Macra becoming more sophisticated than the 'cheap props', especially when one of them held Polly in the air. On a side note, I wonder why the Pre-Titles (recapping the final moments of "The Moonbase") was in black & white before transitioning into colour?

I just watch the Marco terror all the way through and I love it all the way through

The animation is getting better, hopefully in the future the animation will be even better!

Oi, you're Australian too - how'd you get your bloody hands on a copy of this so quickly? No but for real though - I haven't seen it yet but I'm loving (most of) the creative liberties they've taken here. While it'd be weird for stories that have already-existing episodes, doing this sort of thing works great for fully-missing stories. That, and the character animation is an ENORMOUS leap up from 'The Power of the Daleks' - so much so that I want to see 'Power' remade in this style (but thats definitely not gonna happen anytime soon). My only problem with this animation is the removal of the rough-and-tumble scene. Not because I'm the biggest fan of the scene or anything - it's just that it sets a worrying precedent for future animated episodes. Personally I'd like to see them to do 'Fury from the Deep' next but it's probably going to be 'The Highlanders'. Oh yeah, and please make this a series - that is, comparing the LC reconstructions to their respective animations. Hell, you could do one better and compare the LC reconstructions with the re-found footage (like with 'The Enemy of the World' and 'The Web of Fear'). EDIT: Actually, I just realised they could actually animate the rest of 'The Underwater Menace' now in this way. It would make that story 200% more bearable, thats for sure.

Can't wait for it to be delivered hopefully Wednesday

I just watched the cartoon version. It was pretty impressive. Of course, it can never be the same as the lost acted version. But I have to say; I'm not sure if it was that great a serial plot-wise.

The colour and animation looks better here than Power. BUT 16:9 WIDESCREEN?? UGH.

I actually have yet to see it, but from this video it looks so amazing!!!

2:37 Big Brother is always watching you

I think they may do a Special Edition with the Rough and Tumble scene

I'm looking forward to watching this, having only seem the reconstruction. I've pre-ordered the DVD, but it doesn't come out here until April 17th. I like to think that the changes made to the animation are what the BBC might have done themselves - if they weren't on such a tight budget and working with rather primitive special effects (as compared to modern ones, I mean), so I have no issue with the changes. I can enjoy both the reconstruction, and the animation, for what they are. :-)

This isn't out, in: 'Region 1,' until: 'October!' Boo! Glad you got it, though! :)

At last, AT LAST, I received my copy... I read a reconstruction of this in a fanzine in the 80s, then the novel, then I got the Colin Baker narrated cassette , then later, I watched the loose Cannon recon, then many other unofficial ones (including an hour long "fan made edit..."8-) ), which was great, by the way. This animation is great in colour, but I kind of prefer it in black and white. Still, I'm happy with all the artistic licence; it works, and a 'colour cartoon' might bring the younger audience to appreciate more classic who. Next, Wheel in Space, then The Savages; a couple of limbering-up seat-warmers for Masterplan, then Evil, not forgetting Fury, of course... We shall see.

Ohhh that new animation looks really slick.

That: 'Macra,' looks awesome! May I ask though, how did you get past copyright?

I didn't even know they animated the Macra Terror until today. How did I miss this?

Josh Snares makes me question my heterosexuality.

What a shame that all of the animated reconstructions look so damn amateurish.

Macra seems fun P.S i am addicted to B&W

The addition of colour seems a bit out of place with this story. Although, I love that the Beeb is throwing some dosh at these stories, even if it's only to sell more DVD's.

Until the story is recovered it's the best we are going to get. Also another factor to consider is : who is the target audience? Old school fans? Or young ie under 40s who have become fans since 2005? Hopefully we can appreciate the work that has gone into it. If not, just watch the LC recon.

I love this episode

I wish they’d animate 8th doctor stories like this...

you know, I'm glad these are being made, it makes it easier for so many people to consume these lost stories, unfortunately for me though I'm kind of a purist when it comes to this stuff, I like the experience to be as close to the original as possible, so from the start, it being in 16:9 instead of 4:3 and in color is a complete and absolute NO for me, not to mention the changed and cut scenes. either way it's very nicely animated though, and I'm happy people can enjoy these stories again

I went to the premiere screening at the National Film Theatre. Don't think they mentioned the missing scene during the Q&A sessions: so I'm a bit disappointed to discover it's an incomplete version of the story.

I can't wait for this release to be released in Australia.

It looks really cool. I haven't watched it yet (it is not available in my country tho :(. It sucks). Anyway, they did a good job. Make this a new series

Update: Macra Terror won’t be released in the States until 8-Oct-2019. I have it on order from Amazon, but finally caved and bought the UK version. I have a region free DVD player. Please note if you have PAL DVDs from the UK, you don’t just need a DVD player that plays PAL, you need a PAL compatible TV. However new TVs are PAL compatible which is why my region free DVD player works. Heads up...I have heard newer DVD players play both NTSC and PAL. I don’t have newer DVD players, but I have a newer laptop and PC. I popped my UK Macra Terror dvd Into both my PC and laptop, both DVD players played the PAL Macra Terror DVD using Cyberlinks Power Media Player. You open the software and pop the dvd in, a menu pops up asking the region the dvd originated from (I selected Australia and South America), and the PAL dvd plays just fine. If someone out there has a newer DVD player in the states and collects PAL format DVDs like I do, would you let me know if they play fine on the newer players? I may just splurge and buy one if true.

The animated version looks really good!

Great video

First off this afternoon interesting video on the first of yours I have actually ever come across second honestly yes it is annoying that minor bits were moved here and there to take of time but at the same time I’m just happy the story finally saw the light of day again be at animated that doesn’t really matter but now this raises the question if they clearly have the capability to do this with the macra terror which practically only has less than five minutes of clips and mostly surviving on telly snaps Then the obvious detail is this they can release every Doctor Who that is currently missing that has no surviving footage or clips and we could finally have everything the BBC need to get this stuff together and make this happen