10 Longest Gaps Between Doctor Who Character Appearances
4. The Macra (14,624 Days)
In a display of how confident Russell T Davies' Doctor Who was in its third series, it brought back a classic monster that nobody could have predicted - mostly because the monsters in question were from a 1967 Patrick Troughton serial that has been lost from the archives.
Thankfully, the Macra aren't that hard to realize - they're literally just giant crabs. Still, it was an incredibly ballsy move by RTD to just throw them in the climax of Gridlock. For hardcore fans, it was a proper drop-your-bacon-sandwich moment, and for the less-informed Doctor Who viewers, they were giant menacing crabs - the best of both worlds.
The final episode of The Macra Terror aired on 1 April 1967, making the gap between appearances just over 40 years by the time Gridlock aired on 14 April 2007. Could the gap between their second and third appearances be even longer, or much shorter? With RTD back at the helm, all bets are off!