Mission to the Unknown is the second story of Season 3 of Doctor Who, although it was recorded with Galaxy 4 as part of the series' second recording block. It is a single-episode prologue to The Daleks' Master Plan and is the last episode of Doctor Who for which Verity Lambert served as producer. It is the only Doctor Who story to feature neither the Doctor nor his companions.

Summary Edit

On the planet Kembel, Space Security Service agent Marc Cory is investigating a recent sighting of a Dalek spaceship. His suspicion that the creatures may have established a base proves well-founded. He learns of a plot by the Daleks to invade and destroy the Solar System, but he is discovered and exterminated. The Daleks and their allies vow to conquer the universe, beginning with the planet Earth.

Plot Edit

Jeff Garvey is lying on the ground. He wakes and sits up. His face twists in agony. When the pain passes he stands. He starts repeating, "Kill! Kill!" Meanwhile Marc Cory and Gordon Lowery are trying to repair their ship. It isn't going very well. Lowery wonders why Cory landed on Kembel in the first place. They are also wondering about where Garvey has gone.

Garvey keeps repeating "Kill! Kill!" as he watches the two men. He keeps behind the ship to ensure that neither of them sees him. Garvey raises his gun to fire at Lowery, but Cory shoots Garvey first. Garvey is in a lot of pain and then lies still. Cory pulls a long Varga thorn from behind Garvey's ear. He tells Lowery to be careful because if he stings himself on it, he will have to kill him, too.

Cory and Lowery go into the spaceship, leaving Garvey's body. Garvey's hand begins to twitch and hair starts to grow over his body, as well as Varga thorns; he is becoming a Varga plant. Cory has a license to kill from the Space Security Service and he enlists Lowery to help him. Cory explains that the Daleks have been gaining control of many planets and a Dalek spaceship was spotted in the Solar System.

Garvey twitches with life as spines grow all over his body.

Cory tries to contact the rendezvous ship, but they can't get through. It has dawned upon Corey and Lowery that they can't repair the ship. Cory believes the Daleks have a base on Kembel and that is why he and Lowery are there. He explains that the Varga plant is native to the Daleks' home planet Skaro and that you become a Varga plant if you prick yourself on it. This is another reason why the Daleks could be there. There are Daleks on Kembel!

In the Dalek city on Kembel, the Dalek Supreme waits to be updated on the latest developments. He is told that the representatives from the Seven Planets will arrive soon and their meeting can start. He also tells a normal Dalek to destroy Cory and Lowery.

Cory and Lowery are being observed by three Varga plants. Elsewhere in the Kembel jungle, the Daleks are discussing tactics on how to exterminate the humans. Cory and Lowery, however, are more concerned with the Varga plants than the Daleks. As Lowery makes a rescue beacon, a spaceship flies above them. The Daleks are planning something big.

Lowery finishes the rescue and musts to record a message. The two men notice something moving in the jungle and duck behind some bushes as four Daleks glide into the landing area. They destroy the spaceship. The men head deeper into the jungle and Lowery discovers a Varga thorn embedded in his hand. He pulls it out and attempts frantically to suck out the poison. They continue deeper into the jungle.

In the Dalek city, the representatives from the seven galaxies have gathered in a conference room. They are worried about the humans; they believe them hostile, but the Daleks assure them that the humans will be dealt with. The delegates agree to a treaty the Daleks have written and that they will conquer Earth first.

Lowery is in pain and is still trying to suck the Varga poison from his hand. He realises that Varga spines are growing all over his body and quickly covers them when he hears Cory returning. Cory has heard what the Daleks said on the loudspeaker. When he realises that Lowery is becoming a Varga plant, he kills Lowery, then picks up the rescue beacon and starts recording his message. A Dalek says that they must kill the humans. Cory is surrounded by Daleks and is exterminated.

The beacon and the message, however, survive. All the representatives pledge an alliance with the Dalek cause and chant, "Victory!"

Cast Edit

• Marc Cory - Edward de Souza
• Jeff Garvey - Barry Jackson
• Gordon Lowery - Jeremy Young
• Malpha - Robert Cartland
• Dalek Operator - Robert Jewell
• Dalek Operator - Kevin Manser
• Dalek Operator - John Scott Martin
• Dalek Operator - Gerald Taylor
• Dalek voice - David Graham
• Dalek voice - Peter Hawkins
• Trantis - Ronald Rich (uncredited)
• Sentreal - Sam Mansary (uncredited)
• Varga plants (all uncredited) - Roy Reeves, Tony Starn, Leslie Weeks
• Planetarians (all uncredited) - Johnny Clayton, Pat Gorman, Sam Mansary, Len Russell

Note: William Hartnell is credited, but does not appear.

Crew Edit

• Writer - Terry Nation
• Director - Derek Martinus
• Producer - Verity Lambert
• Assistant Floor Manager - Marjorie Yorke
• Costumes - Daphne Dare
• Designer - Richard Hunt
• Designer - Raymond Cusick
• Make-Up - Sonia Markham
• Production Assistant - Angela Gordon
• Script Editor - Donald Tosh
• Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
• Studio Lighting - Ralph Walton
• Studio Sound - George Prince
• Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
• Title Music - Ron Grainer

References Edit

• The term "the Solar System" here seems to refer an influential part of the Milky Way Galaxy. This may be because humanity controls most of the Galaxy and the Solar System is at the heart of this Empire.
• The Space Security Service know of Skaro and recognise Dalek ships and those from the 'outer galaxies'.
• Varga plants originate on Skaro, having been created in Dalek labs.

Story notes Edit

• The Doctor, Steven Taylor and Vicki do not appear and are not mentioned in this episode. Instead, its central character is Marc Cory. Despite this, William Hartnell is still credited on-screen. This is because his contract specified that he would be credited in each episode. Purves and O'Brien are not credited because, unlike Hartnell, their contracts did not guarantee an automatic credit.Radio Times credits 'William Hartnell as Dr. Who, and Maureen O'Brien, Peter Purves', but omits their characters from the actual cast list. While the revived series frequently would produce "Doctor-lite" episodes, to date these have all featured the Doctor in cameos. The only later BBC productions to feature neither the Doctor nor a companion are a series of brief prelude videos dubbed Tardisodes, distributed online and to mobile phones during the 2006 series and several preludes produced during the 2011 series.
• The only other televised stories not to feature the TARDIS are Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks and Midnight.
• The episode was made by the same team as Galaxy 4. Both stories shared pre-filming and possibly the same production code.
• Terry Nation wrote this episode partially as an attempt to develop and sell the idea of a Dalek television series divorced from the larger Doctor Who universe. The proposed series would have followed the adventures of the Space Security Service, an elite organisation tasked with hunting Daleks. This approach can be seen in short stories and comic strips written for 1965's The Dalek Outer Space Book (cover dated 1966). An unmade pilot titled The Destroyers was written, but the series concept was never sold. The Destroyers was later produced as an audio play by Big Finish.
• This episode was produced due to the editing of Planet of Giants from four episodes to three.
• A direct link to this story is made in the first episode of The Daleks' Master Plan. In fact, the link extends to the previous story, Galaxy 4; at the end of episode 4, Vicki complains of a sprained ankle. As she contemplates the planet Kembel on the scanner, we move to a short scene with Garvey as he begins his transformation into a Varga plant. When we next see the TARDIS at the beginning of The Myth Makers, Vicki still has the problem with her ankle. Finally, after taking off at the conclusion of The Myth Makers, the Doctor discovers Cory's reel of tape on Kembel during the first episode of The Daleks' Master Plan. Mission thus presents an unusual example of the story-to-story narrative flow that was commonplace in the Hartnell era.
• Both Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks' Master Plan were the only 1960s Doctor Who stories that were offered for overseas sale but never purchased. The Daleks' Master Plan was intended for sale as an 11 part adventure, excluding its Christmas episode.
• This is one of three missing 1960s Doctor Who stories – the other two are Marco Polo and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve – which exist only as audio recordings, with not one frame of footage known to survive either on 16mm Black & White Film or 8mm cine film taken from a television screen.

Title and Production Code Edit

Perhaps more than any other Doctor Who production, Mission to the Unknown generates confusion and debate over both the title used and the serial/production code allocated.

No Doctor Who story from this period has an overall on-screen title. The story was referred to either by a production code or an internal title by the production team. (For example the early 1965 story featuring Nero was "Serial M" or The Romans.) The two were confusingly used interchangeably in many production and overseas sales documents.

Mission to the Unknown generates further confusion because some documents do not refer to it as a serial but rather as a "cutaway episode". As the story was produced alongside Galaxy 4 the two appear to have been referred to together. Several of the production codes offered are either Serial T or Serial T +, an appendage.

Early in 1965 the term Dalek Cutaway started to be used to describe the episode in the production office. The onscreen title Mission to the Unknown came later but both continued in circulation, with Dalek Cutaway seemingly being used in places as both a story title and a production term. The abbreviation "DC" also appears on a few early production documents.

Design documents successively refer to the episode as "Serial T/A" and later "Serial T Episode 5". The episode's camera script gives Dalek Cutaway as a description and a handwritten addition states "Serial T Episode 4" (which is the wrong number). Later, when the videotape of the episode was wiped, the relevant paperwork referred to "Serial Ta Episode 1/1".

When it came to offering the story for sale overseas, the synopsis sent by BBC Enterprises gave the title as Mission to the Unknown (Dalek Cutaway). The 1974 Enterprises document A Quick Guide to Doctor Who, which listed the stories produced so far for potential overseas buyers, gave the title as Dalek Cutaway (Mission to the Unknown) and did not offer any production code at all.

When fans started compiling reference books in the mid 1970s it was this latter document which formed the basis of many lists. The story was referred to alternatively as Dalek Cutaway and Mission to the Unknown on many occasions, whilst the production code went vacant until the discovery of the design documents stating T/A. In more recent years the exploration of the BBC's written archives has exposed the problems of the title and production code.

• See also disputed story titles.

Ratings Edit

• Mission to the Unknown - 8.3 million viewers

Myths Edit

• The members of the alliance were named Malpha, Desmir, Stifka, Hjbuj, Pteron, Dbremen and Leemon. (These names, apart from Malpha, were made up for an Australian fan-published novelisation. In the transmitted story only Malpha and the planet Gearon are named.)
• This is the only episode not to feature the Doctor. (That's not strictly true. There are episodes — such as The Keys of Marinus episodes 3 and 4 — which do not feature the Doctor because Hartnell was on holiday. In such situations, the Doctor was sidelined from the main action by being described as ill, on a mission or captured. But this is the only one in which the narrative explicitly fails to include the Doctor in any way. Moreover, it is true to say that this is the only episode where neither the Doctor nor any of his companions are around.)

Filming locations Edit

• Ealing Television Film Studios, London
• BBC Television Centre, TC3, London

Continuity Edit

• This story is continued in DW: The Daleks' Master Plan, which concludes the Daleks' attempts to invade the Galaxy.
• Varga plants are seen again in BFD: Purity, BFDE: Dalek Empire II: Dalek War, VG: City of the Daleks and GN: The Only Good Dalek.

Timeline Edit

• Mission to the Unknown occurs after the scanner scenes in DW: Galaxy 4
• Mission to the Unknown occurs before: DW: The Daleks' Master Plan

Home video and audio releases Edit

• No footage of this story survives in the archives, although the full audio does still exist.
• The audio recording of the episode, with added narration by Peter Purves, was made available on CD as part of The Daleks' Master Plan, first released by the BBC Radio Collection in October 2001.
• A reconstruction of this story has been made using the available images and audio by Loose Cannon Productions.
• The audio of the episode was offered as part of a promotional giveaway free by The Daily Telegraph in 2010

Novelisation and its audiobook Edit

Main article: The Daleks' Master Plan Part 1: Mission to the Unknown

• This story was novelised as part of The Daleks' Master Plan Part 1: Mission to the Unknown by John Peel in 1989.

See also Edit

• DW: The Daleks' Master Plan

External links Edit

• Mission to the Unknown at the BBC's official site
• Detailed synopsis of Mission to the Unknown at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Mission to the Unknown at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• Mission to the Unknown transcript
• Loose Canon Productions reconstruction page for Mission to the Unknown
• Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television entry on Mission to the Unknown

v • e Doctor Who television stories   Seasons 1-4: First Doctor Season 1 1963 1964 An Unearthly Child  • The Daleks  • The Edge of Destruction  • Marco Polo  • The Keys of Marinus  • The Aztecs  • The Sensorites  • The Reign of Terror Season 2 1964 1965 Planet of the Giants  • The Daleks Invasion of Earth  • The Rescue  • The Romans  • The Web Planet  • The Crusade  • The Space Museum  • The Chase  • The Time Meddler Season 3 1965 1966 Galaxy 4  • Mission to the Unknown  • The Myth Makers  • The Daleks' Master Plan  • The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve  • The Ark  • The Celestial Toymaker  • The Gunfighters  • The Savages  • The War Machines Season 4 1966 The Smugglers  • The Tenth Planet   Seasons 4-6: Second Doctor Season 4 1966 1967 The Power of the Daleks  • The Highlanders  • The Underwater Menace  • The Moonbase  • The Macra Terror  • The Faceless Ones  • The Evil of the Daleks Season 5 1967 1968 The Tomb of the Cybermen  • The Abominable Snowmen  • The Ice Warriors  • The Enemy of the World  • The Web of Fear  • Fury from the Deep  • The Wheel in Space Season 6 1968 1969 The Dominators  • The Mind Robbers  • The Invasion  • The Krotons  • The Seeds of Death  • The Space Pirates  • The War Games   Seasons 7-11: Third Doctor Season 7 1970 Spearhead from Space  • Doctor Who and the Silurians  • The Ambassadors of Death  • Inferno Season 8 1971 Terror of the Autons  • The Mind of Evil  • The Claws of Axos  • Colony in Space  • The Dæmons Season 9 1972 Day of the Daleks  • The Curse of Peladon  • The Sea Devils  • The Mutants  • The Time Monster Season 10 1972 1973 The Three Doctors  • Carnival of Monsters  • Frontier in Space  • Planet of the Daleks  • The Green Death Season 11 1973 1974 The Time Warrior  • Invasion of the Dinosaurs  • Death to the Daleks  • The Monster of Peladon  • Planet of the Spiders   Seasons 12-18: Fourth Doctor Season 12 1974 1975 Robot  • The Ark in Space  • The Sontaran Experiment  • Genesis of the Daleks  • Revenge of the Cybermen Season 13 1975 1976 Terror of the Zygons  • Planet of Evil  • Pyramids of Mars  • The Android Invasion  • The Brain of Morbius  • The Seeds of Doom Season 14 1976 1977 The Masque of Mandragora  • The Hand of Fear  • The Deadly Assassin  • The Face of Evil  • The Robots of Death  • The Talons of Weng-Chiang Season 15 1977 1978 Horror of Fang Rock  • The Invisible Enemy  • Image of the Fendahl  • The Sun Makers  • Underworld  • The Invasion of Time Season 16 1978 1979 The Key to Time: The Ribos Operation  • The Pirate Planet  • The Stones of Blood  • The Androids of Tara  • The Power of Kroll  • The Armageddon Factor Season 17 1979 1980 Destiny of the Daleks  • City of Death  • The Creature from the Pit  • Nightmare of Eden  • The Horns of Nimon  •Shada (unbroadcast) Season 18 1980 1981 The Leisure Hive  • Meglos  • Full Circle  • State of Decay  • Warriors' Gate  • The Keeper of Traken  • Logopolis   Seasons 19-21: Fifth Doctor Season 19 1982 Castrovalva  • Four to Doomsday  • Kinda  • The Visitation  • Black Orchid  • Earthshock  • Time-Flight Season 20 1983 Arc of Infinity  • Snakedance  • Mawdryn Undead  • Terminus  • Enlightenment  • The King's Demons Children in Need 1983 The Five Doctors Season 21 1984 Warriors of the Deep  • The Awakening  • Frontios  • Resurrection of the Daleks  • Planet of Fire  • The Caves of Androzani   Seasons 21-23: Sixth Doctor Season 21 1984 The Twin Dilemma Season 22 1985 Attack of the Cybermen  • Vengeance of Varos  • The Mark of the Rani  • The Two Doctors  • Timelash  • Revelation of the Daleks Season 23 1986 The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet  • Mindwarp  • Terror of the Vervoids  • The Ultimate Foe   Seasons 24-26: Seventh Doctor Season 24 1987 Time and the Rani  • Paradise Towers  • Delta and the Bannermen  • Dragonfire Season 25 1988 1989 Remembrance of the Daleks  • The Happiness Patrol  • Silver Nemesis  • The Greatest Show in the Galaxy Season 26 1989 Battlefield  • Ghost Light  • The Curse of Fenric  • Survival   1996: Eighth Doctor 1996 Doctor Who   Series 1: Ninth Doctor Series 1 2005 Rose  • The End of the World  • The Unquiet Dead  • Aliens of London / World War Three  • Dalek  • The Long Game  • Father's Day  • The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances  • Boom Town  • Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways   Series 2-4: Tenth Doctor Series 2 2005 2006 Mini-episode Children in Need Special Christmas special The Christmas Invasion Regular episodes New Earth  • Tooth and Claw  • School Reunion  • The Girl in the Fireplace  • Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel  • The Idiot's Lantern  • The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit  • Love & Monsters  • Fear Her  • Army of Ghosts / Doomsday Series 3 2006 2007 Christmas special The Runaway Bride Regular episodes Smith and Jones  • The Shakespeare Code  • Gridlock  • Daleks in Manhatten / Evolution of the Daleks  • The Lazarus Experiment  • 42  • Human Nature / The Family of Blood  • Blink  • Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords Animation The Infinite Quest Series 4 2007 2008 2009 2010 Mini episode Time Crash Christmas episode Voyage of the Damned Regular episodes Partners in Crime  • The Fires of Pompeii  • Planet of the Ood  • The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky  • The Doctor's Daughter  • The Unicorn and the Wasp  • Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead  • Midnight  • Turn Left  • The Stolen Earth / Journey's End Mini episode Music of the Spheres The Specials The Next Doctor  • Planet of the Dead  • The Waters of Mars  • The End of Time Animation Dreamland For the purposes of this list, "series 4" is considered to be the production series 4, which ran all the way from Time Crash to The End of Time.   Series 5-present: Eleventh Doctor Series 5 2010 Regular episodes The Eleventh Hour  • The Beast Below  • Victory of the Daleks  • The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone  • The Vampires of Venice  • Amy's Choice  • The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood  • Vincent and the Doctor  • The Lodger  • The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang Mini episodes Meanwhile in the TARDIS Series 6 2010 2011 Christmas special A Christmas Carol Mini episodes Space / Time Regular episodes The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon  • The Curse of the Black Spot  • The Doctor's Wife  • The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People  • A Good Man Goes to War  • Let's Kill Hitler  • Night Terrors  • The Girl Who Waited  • The God Complex  • Closing Time  • The Wedding of River Song Mini episodes Death Is the Only Answer  • Night and the Doctor Series 7 2011 Christmas special The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe Despite marketing language by the BBC, The Adventure Games are not televised episodes, and therefore are not included on this list. Deliberately unincluded on this list are BBC licensed episodes which this wiki considers to be non-canonical — such as the so-called "Pilot Episode", Dimensions in Time, A Fix with Sontarans, Search Out Space, The Curse of Fatal Death and the National Television Awards Sketch 2011.

v • e Dalek television stories Major The Daleks  • The Dalek Invasion of Earth  • The Chase  • Mission to the Unknown  • The Daleks' Master Plan  • The Power of the Daleks  • The Evil of the Daleks  • Day of the Daleks  • Planet of the Daleks  • Death to the Daleks  • Genesis of the Daleks  • Destiny of the Daleks  • Resurrection of the Daleks  • Revelation of the Daleks  • Remembrance of the Daleks  • Dalek • Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways  • Doomsday  • Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks  • The Stolen Earth / Journey's End  • Victory of the Daleks  • The Big Bang Minor The Space Museum  • The Wheel in Space  • The War Games  • The Mind of Evil  • Frontier in Space  • Logopolis  • The Five Doctors  • Doctor Who  • Army of Ghosts  • Human Nature  • The Waters of Mars • The Pandorica Opens  • The Wedding of River Song Because of the ubiquity of this race, no attempt will be made here to list every appearance in every medium. Instead, we focus on televised appearances here, and invite you to explore a complete list of appearances elsewhere.

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Mission_to_the_Unknown. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the TARDIS Index File, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).