When the Doctor, Polly and Ben visit a human colony that appears to be one big holiday camp, they think they have come across a truly happy place. But a shadowy presence soon makes them realise that the surface contentment is carefully controlled. The colony's inhabitants have been brainwashed by giant crab-like creatures - the Macra. Insidious propaganda, broadcast by the Controller, forces the humans to mine a gas that is essential for the Macra to survie - but fatal for them. The colony must be saved - but how? The Doctor and his team are up against it, particularly when Ben falls under the influence of the Macra. Can he be rescued from their evil clutches? Can the gas pumping be destroyed, getting rid of the Macra for good? The soundtrack to this popular adventure, which was first broadcast in 1967, has been digitally remastered to recreate a very popular story from the Troughton era. 2 CDs. 1 hr 35 mins.
Author
Ian Stuart Black was a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Both his 1959 novel In the Wake of a Stranger and his 1962 novel about the Cyprus emergency The High Bright Sun were made into films, Black writing the screenplays in each case. He also wrote scripts for several British television programmes from the 1950s to the 1970s, including The Invisible Man and Sir Francis Drake (for which he was also story editor), as well as Danger Man (on which he served as associate producer) and Star Maidens. In addition, he wrote three stories for Doctor Who in 1965 and 1966. These stories were The Savages and The War Machines (with Kit Pedler and Pat Dunlop) for William Hartnell's Doctor; and The Macra Terror for Patrick Troughton. He novelised all three stories for Target Books. His final credit was for a half-hour supernatural drama called House of Glass, which was made by Television South in 1991. He was the father of actress Isobel Black.
