Sun & Moon Studios animate lost ‘Doctor Who’ serial ‘The Macra Terror’
Devout fans of the long-running British series Doctor Who will be well aware of the degree to which the show has suffered from the archival practices of old, with 97 episodes lost since their original broadcast save for handfuls of clips and production materials. In certain instances, however, audio from the original broadcasts recorded by viewers have surfaced, leading to several attempts to salvage episodes using animation.
Following on from previous animated restorations of missing episodes including The Power of the Daleks, Shada and The Wheel in Space that largely drew upon the work of remote freelancers, Bristol-based studio Sun & Moon were commissioned by BBC Studios to reconstruct the lost four-episode serial The Macra Terror with altogether higher production values and a concentrated eighteen-person in-house team (including twelve animators). Director/Producer Charles Norton led the production, enlisting the previous pre-production team of character designer Martin Geraghty, storyboard artist Adrian Salmon and CGI animator/ compositor Rob Ritchie.
Doctor Who: The Macra Terror (BBC)
As with its predecessors, the restoration makes use of salvaged audio from a frantically-produced (reportedly shot in the manner of a stage play with little-to-no retakes) 1967 broadcast with Patrick Troughton starring as the Second Doctor alongside Anneke Wills, Michael Craze and Frazer Hines. Making use of live-action reference footage and Toon Boom Harmony‘s “Master Controllers” to create meticulously-rigged and nuanced character animation, Sun & Moon have as such aimed to improve on the existing material with their interpretation while making sure to stay faithful to the original audio.
The initial response to The Macra Terror has been positive, with The Guardian rating it 4/5 and fan responses to its recent BFI screening citing a marked improvement in the production values of the animation itself over previous restoration efforts. It will be available to fans on DVD, Bluray and digital download from March 25th.