The Macra Terror - an animated review

Having been away on holiday, I only got round to watching the animated version of The Macra Terror over the weekend.
On the whole, the animated versions of lost stories - or missing episodes from incomplete ones - have been well done. I think the only ones I really did not like were the two which completed The Reign of Terror, owing to the fact that the director thought he was Orson Welles. Being entirely lost, the director of The Macra Terror animation could do pretty much what he wanted - sticking rigidly to the telesnaps, or giving us a fresh interpretation. If only plugging gaps in an incomplete story then the animation really has to match with the real episodes which surround it - and this The Reign of Terror Parts Four & Five singularly failed to do.
Director Charles Norton has chosen to pay homage to the visual remnants of this story, but has decided not to become hidebound by them.
Animation allows you to what the Classic Series DVD range has been doing with a number of stories - give them a new 21st Century look. A bit like offering updated CGI VFX.
We all know that only one Macra prop was made, and it was a massive, unwieldy thing which limited what they could do with it in the studio. Anneke Wills is on record as saying that for the Macra to grab anyone, the actor had to throw themselves into its claws.
The Macra here are much, much bigger than the TV ones. No throwing yourselves on top of them to make it look like they've grabbed you here. The animated versions are big enough to pick someone up by their ankle and dangle them off the floor. There are also lots of them, whereas only the one could ever be shown at a time before.

The colony in which the story is set can now be shown in all its widescreen glory, with large sections of it seen up close - rather than just the limitations of a few flats in some studio-bound sets.
The likenesses of the main characters are all pretty spot on - especially Terence Lodge's Medok and Peter Jeffrey's Pilot. Even Ian Fairbairn's Questa is recognisable, if you are familiar with the actor.
A few gripes though. I had read in advance that one whole scene was cut out of Part One - the section dealing with the colony's Spa area. It doesn't add anything to the plot, but it does provide some nice humour and character moments, and the bottom line is that if they are going to make these animated versions then they really ought to give us the whole thing. All Doctor Who is precious - especially when it comes to these lost stories - and I don't like the idea of them deleting things. Apparently one of the reasons that they cut the sequence was due to cost. I'd like to know how they could come up with the money for extraneous sequences such as the pre-credits throwback to the end of The Moonbase - which totally fails to match with the real sequence which still exists - and yet complain about lack of funds.
The only good thing about this pre-credits sequence is the beautiful shot of the TARDIS in space.

They also chose to animate the title sequence - when they could have just used the real thing and spent the time and money elsewhere.
The loss of the Spa scenes also gives us some continuity problems. As I've said, the stuff from The Moonbase does not match the opening here. Everyone is in the wrong costume, and Polly already has the short hair which she doesn't get until the visit to the Spa in the broadcast version. Another problem is that they have Jamie in his sweater and kilt throughout, when we know that he also changed into a uniform similar to Ben's when he gets sent down the gas mines.
Whilst these things were a minor irritation, I was impressed overall by the story as presented.
I elected to watch the Black & White version, which comes on the second of the DVD's discs - purely because that's how the story was broadcast. However, this animation was intended to be done in colour first and foremost. (Power of the Daleks, on the other hand, was made in B&W format, and only given a colourised version later). I've heard that the colour version looks really good, so I will give it a go on my next watching.
Of the extras, the most interesting is the 10 minute clip from Part One of The Wheel in Space - which makes you long to see the full thing done.
Hopefully lots of people will buy this - because that's the only way to ensure that more lost stories will get the animation treatment.