The Macra Terror was novelised by its original writer Ian Stuart Black in 1987. Black had been able to adapt all three of his television stories.
The hardback was released in July '87, with the paperback following in December.
The cover art is by Tony Masero. Deprived of any decent publicity images from the production, he used a real crab as the basis for his work.
After the Target novelisation, the first version of the story in other media was its soundtrack, and this was initially released on tape cassette format. released in 1992, it was narrated by Colin Baker. The sole Macra photograph is used, along with a Troughton image from The War Games.
The soundtrack was remastered and re-released on CD format in 2000, still with Baker's narration. This was subsequently released again as part of one of the "Lost TV Episodes" range (Set No.4), this time with new narration by someone who actually appeared in the story - Anneke Wills.
The designer has elected to give the Macra a mouthful of teeth and made the claws look more deadly. The Troughton and Hines images derive from The Wheel in Space, whilst the photo of Graham Leaman's Controller being attacked by the claw is also utilised.
March 2019 saw the story animated and released on DVD and Blu-ray. With no complete episodes and just a handful of very brief off-air clips, the animators took the opportunity to completely reimagine the story, meaning we get lots of Macra which are a lot more mobile than the TV prop could ever have managed. If you look closely you'll see Romana II in one of the Colony group scenes, as they reuse artwork which had been prepared for the Shada animation. Sadly, the story in this form is incomplete as they elected to remove the Refreshing Department sequence all together, but you can still enjoy the complete story through the telesnaps / soundtrack option. Annoyingly, because of the deletion, they make changes to the opening TARDIS scene This is despite the closing scene of The Moonbase still existing. It simply means a mismatch which is really noticeable when you watch them back to back.
The animation was also available in steelbook form with imagery of the TARDIS standing in the mine workings, menaced with a pair of giant shadowy claws. All very atmospheric, though nothing to do with the story itself.
The steelbook included a bonus disc containing Gridlock - the 2007 episode which saw the return of the Macra.
The Target novelisation was adapted into an audiobook in August 2016, using Masero's original cover art. Anneke Wills was the reader.
Finally, before the release of the animated version, the movie database site created its own colourful photomontage image to illustrate this story.
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