When the announcement that the 1967 Patrick Troughton Dr Who serial “The Wheel in Space” was announced, fans were incredibly skeptical.
It was announced to be a cut-down version of episode one only, to the disappointment of many. Yet, I wasn’t one of those people!
I was delighted to have any bit of animation. I’m the type of idiot fan who’d gladly accept a 10 second animation of William Hartnell reading the phone book.
Yet, when I sat down with my copy of “The Macra Terror” blu-ray, and began to watch the cut-down animation, I finally understood why everyone was so disappointed.
Immediately I noticed the removal of the scene where The Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon say goodbye to Victoria Waterfield. Then a scene I stupidly enjoyed even though it was definitely padding, where Jamie craves roast beef, was removed.
If this is the only chance we’ll ever get of seeing this serial animated, it is sad we’ll be missing some moments that weren’t represented.
But if this is just a teaser of a project that may happen in the future, I am more than happy to wait.
The worst part about this animation is the fact that it is so damn good. The team have done an amazing job bringing life to this story, and it hurts knowing there isn’t any more!
I’m sure the team are working on something very exciting, and we’ll forget about this small footnote in a few months (or we’ll discuss it for years, like Doctor Who fans do with everything!)
If you’d like to see a side-by-side comparison of the animation and the original telesnaps, click here or watch below
Josh Snares 
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