The 4 x 25 min missing episodes, which were originally part of Doctor Who’s (now mostly lost) fourth season, have been animated for the first time, to be released on DVD, Blu-ray, special edition Steelbook and digital download. 

Pre-order will be available from midnight tonight on Amazon and HMV (links will go live at 00:00). 

Originally broadcast in four weekly parts from 11th March to 1st April 1967, and starring Patrick Troughton, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze and Frazer Hines, no full episodes of this serial are known to have survived on film. Fortunately for fans, a complete audio recording of all four parts still exists. Now, 52 years later, the four episodes will be brought back to life through the power of animation, available on disc and digital download, in both colour and black and white, from 18th March 2019. 

Anneke Wills says:

"Back in 1967 “There's no such thing as Macra!” was the cry; and for many years after there was no such thing as “The Macra Terror”. Now, thanks to the magic of animation, we can see the story come to life again. I can't wait to see this adventure and how gratifying to have a little more of Ben and Polly’s time with the Doctor available to be seen by new generations."

The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his companions arrive on a human colony in the far flung future. The colony appears to be a giant recreational complex - a holiday camp for rest and relaxation. Everyone looks happy and carefree but all is not as it seems. The colony has been infiltrated and brainwashed by a race of giant parasitic crab creatures called the Macra. 

The Macra have only returned once since, 40 years later, coming face to face with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) in the 2007 episode Gridlock. 

Paul Hembury, Executive Producer, BBC Studios says:

"After the success of Shada, we were very excited by the possibility of further animations. We are therefore delighted to be able to bring fans these missing episodes in a completely new form."

Special features for the DVD and Blu-ray release include: Animation Gallery, Behind the Scenes Film and Audio Commentary.

Doctor Who: The Macra Terror will be released on digital download, DVD (RRP £20.42), Blu-ray (RRP £25.52) and special edition Steelbook (RRP £40.84) on 18th March 2019.

A special screening of Doctor Who: The Macra Terror will be held at the BFI Southbank, London on the 16th March 2019. Tickets will go on sale to BFI members on Tuesday 5th February with public sale opening on Tuesday 12th February. Further information will be available soon via the BFI website.

+ PREORDER this title from Amazon.co.uk! 

[Source: BBC Studios]

DWO have recently learned of an online scam offering missing Doctor Who episodes in exchange for credit card access to an online porn site.

The site, which is hosted by 'RogueCyberman' an online blogger and Twitter user, claims to have missing episodes such as 'The Faceless Ones' and 'The Macra Terror', and offers them as 'bonus content' when you sign up to Time Girl Katie's porn site.

The blogger, who remains anonymous, claimed the following:

"All of the missing episodes recently recovered from an anonymous collector in Kent have been successfully digitised and are now available to download as bonus content in Time Girl Katie's free private members area."

We would like to extend our thanks to Robert Lenko who obtained screengrabs and access to the site in question, with proof (pictured-right), which has since been pulled from RogueCyberman's blog. We have also learned that when similar screengrabs showed up on a Tumblr page (owned by someone trying to expose the scam), RogueCyberman issued a DMCA takedown notice...

This news item has also come about as a result of DWO receiving a number of emails from Doctor Who fans claiming that their children (looking for missing Doctor Who episodes) stumbled across RogueCyberman's blog and were subjected to the adult imagery from Time Girl Katie's site, from which his blog directly links to in promise of the episodes.

DWO would like to assure fans that there is no Doctor Who content at all on the website, and should be warned not to give any credit card details to the site.

Our friends over at SFX Magazine posted a similar article warning fans back in 2012, read what they had to say here:
http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/03/12/beware-naked-doctor-who-fangirls/

The BBC have been informed and we will report further when we have more news.

UPDATE - Friday 22nd February 2013 @ 8:30am

In a typical display of fan unity, fellow Doctor Who sites; Blogtor Who, Kasterborous, Outpost Skaro & Companions Of The Doctor, have all shown their support in exposing RogueCyberman. We encourage you to click on the links to view their take on the story.

There has also been an immense show of vigilance from fans via Twitter, with hundreds unfollowing RogueCyberman within a matter of hours.

DWO and other sites have taken the extra steps to report both his Twitter and Wordpress sites, and we will of course keep you posted as to further developments.

UPDATE - Saturday 23rd February 2013 @ 5:30pm

DWO are pleased to report that both RogueCyberman's Twitter account and blog have now been taken offline. It is worth noting that he did this for a couple of months last year when things got heated, but with the extra measures all the fan sites have taken, were hoping that this time he will be gone for good.

We would like to thank all of the fans who helped with Retweets and reposting, this was truly a joint effort!

[Sources: DWO; Robert Lenko]