The Macra Terror episode 2 discussion:
P: Oh wow. Three cliff hangers in one show. And they were the same cliff hanger over and over again.
E: And oh god, the attack of the soundtrack!
Sp: Oh god, the soundtrack.
R: It’s like they were being stalked by a giant Commodore 64.
H: I have a theory as to why we were getting the “attack of the soundtrack” at different points. They were filming this as live, as usual, and they didn’t have time for post production. I suspect that some of the music was designed to allow them time to get from set to set.
R: I just figured it was the Macra national anthem. “And now, before we consume these humans, Clorva will play the national anthem.”
Sp: <silly voice> “Crabmen, please drop your prey and remove your caps. Place your claw over your left ventricle.”
Sp: “The Doctor commands you to think for yourself.” At that point, Polly’s head should have exploded. And it does make sense that Ben would go along with hypnotic suggestion and orders and commands because he’s military.
P: And I disagree, because he’s military.
K: I thought it was interesting that his cockney accent went away when he was hyponotised.
H: It didn’t quite go away, but it was less.
R: <Bad Scottish accent> “I figure that’s why Jamie didnae go along wid it. For he couldne understan what they was sayin’.”
R: There were a lot of interesting, to be charitable, accents in this program.
H: I didn’t think there was anything noticable.
R: <silly accent> “Meeeedok has been teken preesonerr.”
H: To me that was clearly some kind of computer thing.
Sp: Yeah, attack of the accent, then attack of the soundtrack. And then just crab. The giant claw going after the older Controller on the video monitor was a hoot and a half.
E: I felt sorry for the Controller.
Sp: I just felt hungry. These people didn’t need help, they just lots of melted butter.
H: So, did anyone else actually feel like the whole thing with the Controller was creepy? The first time I saw this, that came across as “whoa. This guy is… whoa!”
R: I agree.
Sp: Yeah, the insistent panicked way that he was telling everybody that there were no crab people and there is nothing wrong here.
H: Accept that wasn’t the Controller. That was clearly not the Controller. That was the voice who was commanding him that everything was fine.
Sp: Oh. I just assume that was computer accent stuff again. I didn’t realize that wasn’t him.
Cz: I thought the episode was awesome.
H: You weren’t even here!
P: Apparently this has worked for 60 years, if that guy was supposed to be 20 years old and now he’s 80. I find that part creepy.
<Ketina not feeling so hot, so we’re moving on to final thoughts>
P: The moving pictures were nice. I liked the moving pictures.
H: Yeah, when I’m watching a recon and suddenly we get a moving picture it’s really exciting.
P: I thought the acting was more dynamic than some of the previous episodes in a very favorable way.
E: I feel like this episode could have felt a lot more sinister, except for the “attack of the soundtrack.” But otherwise I liked it.
Sp: <sings> And the Macra’s Red Claw! Always Leaves us in Aw! As it scuttles down the hall. Oh god, it’ll kill us all. Oh SAY DOES THAT MACRA’S RED… Oh My God, my neck!!!
Sp: Even the best singers of the Macra’s National Anthem can only do it once. Makes for the a very messy baseball game.
H: Do you have anything else to talk about?
Sp: No.
R: “DOCTOR! THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED!”
Apart from the various bits of silly, yeah I thought this was a decent suspenseful episode. I thought that it held together okay.
H: While, I really liked this story. And one of the main things is the contrast between episodes one and two. When episode one starts we’re in the happy, holiday camp, everyone’s happy kind of thing. And then episode two doesn’t try to gradually show us the evil underneath it all, it just rips the scab of happiness away to show us the evil pus underneath. <metaphor completed under protest.
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