Settings: The Macra Terror

The fourth season moves back outside the solar system for its fourth base-under-siege story. This is another serial that’s entirely missing in its original form, although it has been animated and so is more available than some of the others. Its reception ranges from middling to good, and the existence of the animation has likely increased that in recent years. For our purposes, an issue is the similarity of the setting to that of Power of the Daleks, but there are at least some significant differences to explore.

Where & When

The story is set on an unnamed human colony world at an unspecified point in the future. The colony is stated to be “centuries” old, which places the earliest possible date at around 2300, while we also know that it must be significantly earlier than Gridlock – but that’s a vast range. Fan theories tend to place it early on, before the foundation of the original Earth Empire, and thus somewhere in the 24th to 26th centuries.

Settings: The Moonbase

The first of four Cyberman stories in the Second Doctor’s three-season run, this is not the most highly regarded, but it’s no means unpopular either, a solid example of its type. For our purposes, however, what’s interesting is that it attempts to take a hard sci-fi tone, something we don’t often see on the show. It’s also the first time we’ve visited a world other than Earth that actually exists, so that it’s possible to make some concrete statements about it.

Where & When

The story takes place in and around the eponymous base, an unnamed international station located on the Moon. The year is given as 2070, which later stories will confirm is at a time when mankind has expanded through at least the inner solar system (Waters of Mars is set in 2059), but has yet to develop faster-than-light travel.