Hello, my name's Derek Slodge.
And I'm here really to talk about the storyline of The Mackerel Terror, which I filmed with
Pat Troughton.
My chief memory of that is the location filming.
I did do quite a lot of sequences in the studio, which I'm far hazy about.
But the character, Medoc, was heavily involved in some location filming in the Dunstable,
in a quarry in Dunstable, which I used, I think, for Doctor Who sequences.
And it entailed going out and filming on a very grey, bleak, miserable day.
Very, very atmospheric for the episode concerned, but not a lot of fun for the performers.
And, of course, in the quarry there were lots of crevices and holes where rain had gathered.
And the director, John Davies, had the bright idea that it would be very good for some sequences
if we splashed our way through these cold pools of water wearing a very slight costume.
It was very slight from my memories of Doctor Who costumes in this particular instance.
And it sounds a miserable experience.
In fact, it was quite enjoyable, because my other memory of that is that in those days
the BBC were, perhaps they weren't on such tight budgets.
They were very happy to, very handy with the brandy when it came to cutting the action
and getting ready for the next sequence.
We wrapped up warm towels by the wardrobe people, and out would come the BBC brandy bottle
to warm the cockles, and off we'd go again.
So as the afternoon went on, it really became, not a grey day at all,
but really quite an enjoyable experience, I have to say.
The Macra Terror was the last Doctor Who story to be written by the author Ian Stuart Black,
who had previously written the consecutive stories,
The Savages and The War Machines, for William Hartnell's Doctor.
Incidentally, The Macra Terror was the first story to feature a new title sequence,
one that showed the face of Doctor Who in the title sequence,
something we now are very familiar with, and perhaps think of as always having been the case.
But that was the first time that the head appeared in the title sequence.
Only one full-sized prop was ever built for The Macra Terror.
In the final episode, where it had to represent the lead Macra,
it was changed from what had been a black figure to a white one, totally repainted for that sequence.
Incidentally, I had not remembered and had to be reminded
that the character of Chiki was played by two different actresses.
Now, I excuse myself because I died in episode three.
The part was originally taken by an actress called Sandra Bryant.
A more attractive offer of work came along in the interim between episodes one and episode four,
when the character was to appear again.
The BBC very kindly released her for that offer.
And in episode four, her part was played by a totally different actress called Carol Keys.
I apologise if I said Carol Keys, but I say I wasn't there during episode four.
If somebody hadn't told me that, I wouldn't have recollected it, I'm afraid.
The four-part story was transmitted from the 11th of March to the 1st of April, 1967.
I was 30 at the time!
This is really going down memory lane.
Although the Macra Terra itself no longer exists,
we are fortunate that a few short clips have survived.
Some from a fan who filmed brief excerpts from the story on a cine camera.
Others are clips cut by Australian censors, which have now become unuseful.
We are also fortunate that a full set of tele-snaps have survived.
This canon reconstruction utilises all the available material to retell the story.
The story is set on an Earth colony in the far future.
When the Doctor, Jamie, Ben and Polly arrive,
they are welcomed by the people of the colony,
all of whom seem to be living an absolutely idyllic existence.
All except my character, Madoc,
who gets accused of suffering from delusions
when he talks about huge insects taking over the colony.
But, as the Doctor is soon to discover,
Madoc may be the only one not suffering from delusions.