Phobia Corner #17 - Crabs (Doctor Who)

The Phobia: Crabs
The Cause: Doctor Who

Beware those pincers! Shudder at those protruding beady eyes! For your hardened Whovian is likely to have an unhealthy aversion to crabs, even more so than promiscuous students. A simple trip to the fish counter at the local supermarket can now be a journey plagued with fear…

The dreaded crustaceans first scuttled onto our screens in the 1967 adventure ‘The Macra Terror’, where Patrick Troughton’s Doctor tried to save a human colony from mind-controlling killer crabs. With their glowing eyes and enormous claws, the creatures often emerged from the shadows in darkly lit caves to feast upon their prey. Kids and adults alike were petrified and glanced suspiciously at even the merest morsel of crab paste for many years…

By 2007 the phobia may well have been conquered… until the advent of Russell T Davies’ story ‘Gridlock’, the third episode of the revived show’s third season back on air. Four decades had passed and the fear-inducing Macra had ‘devolved’, but thanks to some nifty CGI they had a new dynamic look and particularly bulbous pincers. Once again lurking in the gaseous shadows, the hungry crabs opted to feast on unsuspecting motorists on New Earth. Still, at least there wasn’t a Congestion Charge to be seen…

In between the two Macra adventures, there was still the occasional visual reminder in Doctor Who of the more sinister aspect of the crustaceans. Just witness how the central ‘mix and match’ monster in 1976’s ‘The Brain of Morbius’ had a large claw for one of its limbs. Furthermore, the villain in 1987’s ‘Paradise Towers’ - Kroagnon - bore glowing eyes (or at least light bulbs) on large stalks that were eerily reminiscent of the Macra’s own means of vision.

The moral of the story is - stick to the prawns Whovians. Well, unless you’ve seen ‘The Invisible Enemy’. but that’s a whole new phobia…