Another of the missing episodes, and very enjoyable as an audio adventure, though I am sure the Macra might not have been quite so terrifying as realized visually, but I still greatly enjoyed it, and would love to see these episodes in full. A disturbing look at a subverted society. I really love just how often the 3rd Doctor was out in space, or on a science fiction adventure instead of just being on Earth. I hope they do more of that with the 11th Doctor! Good fun, and so much fun listening to an episode each way on my way to work. I love that the Macra returned in Gridlock with the 10th Doctor as well. Very cool. This is narrated by Collin Baker strangely, but it is an enjoyable narration.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer HInes), Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben Jackson (Michael Craze) have just seen a giant claw on the scanner, and they arrive on an Earth Colony in the far future. They exit the TARDIS and run into Medok (Terence Lodge) a Colonist that has escaped from their medical facility, and when Ola (Gertan Klauber) the colony chief of police arrives, they hand the much chagrined Medok over to him, and they too are taken to the Colony. The people here are too happy, with strange songs playing extolling the joys of work, and obeying the Colony Controller (Denis Goacher) and the Colony Pilot (Peter Jeffrey) who gets his orders from the Controller and runs the Colony. Medok is taken to the medical section and locked up because he claims the Colony is infested by giant creatures with huge claws, like what the travellers saw on the TARDIS screen, called the Macra.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Doctor and his companions are each locked into his own “room” for the night, as the Colony goes down on lockdown and no one is allowed out. The Doctor escapes and goes and frees him, but Medok runs free. The Doctor is arrested.

The Doctor slips away again and finds Medok, learning about the Macra, and the brainwashing they do to people who learn of the Macra. They are soon arrested and returned to the pilot. The Doctor is released, when Medok explains the Doctor was trying to get him to turn himself in.

The Pilot is told by the Controller, to take control of the minds of the 4 travelers to make them like the other colonists. Polly and Jamie resist the mind control and the Doctor destroys the mind control in their rooms, but Ben is quickly taken over, turning against his friends, and gladly working for the colony. He calls Ola to show that the Doctor has tampered with the hypnosis devices in the rooms.

Polly goes to investigate the Macra, and is attacked, which snaps Ben out of it, and he sees the creatures and saves his friend, but Ben tells a different story when he gets in front of the Pilot. When the Pilot calls the Controller, instead of a handsome young man, they see an aged, and terrified old man, who is dragged off the screen by a giant claw. The Pilot is disturbed, but the conditioning kicks back in, and Ben and him return to Macra control.

Ben is allowed to go free, but the Doctor, Polly and Jamie are put to work in the Danger Gang in the most treacherous part of the mine, with Jamie and Polly working with Medok, with the Doctor put in the control room because of his “age.”

Jamie and Medok manage to escape, but Medok is killed by a Macra, and Jamie ends up on the run through mining tunnels with Macra after him. The Macra seem to stop without the poison gas, but move perfectly when it is around.

The Doctor manages to understand the formulas the Colony is working on, and starts to sow some doubt in Ben and the Pilot.

The Doctor manages to work out the gas flow into the mines, and uses it to reverse the gas flow from the mine, slowing the Macra, and saving Jamie. Polly is now working with the Doctor.

The Doctor and Polly take over the control area, and find it filled with Macra, and he realizes the gas is what keeps the Macra alive, and that the humans are only serving the Macra as slaves.

Ola is after the travelers, but the Doctor gets the Pilot to follow, and takes him to see the Macra in control, breaking his conditioning. Control has Ola try to kill them with gas, but Ben who has broken his conditioning as well, saves them, destroying Control, and killing the Macra.

The Colonists want the Doctor to be the new pilot, so the and his companions slip out, leaving the Pilot in control.

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Another really fun Troughton adventure!