3.02 Mission to the Unknown aka Dalek Cutaway
First Doctor Era
Follows on from Season One, Season Two and Galaxy Four
CORY: There's something very big going on here, and if the Daleks are involved you can bet your life our whole galaxy is in danger.
Overview
Mission to the Unknown is unique in Doctor Who, by both classic and modern standards: a single, standalone episode in which neither the Doctor nor his companions play any part whatsoever, unconnected to the episodes and adventures on either side of it, yet serving as the prologue or teaser to a larger, longer story later in the season. It also no longer exists, the master-tape wiped as per standard industry practice at the time with no copies currently known to survive. As with all missing episodes of Doctor Who, however, the soundtrack still exists, which means that the story can still be experienced either as an audio or visual reconstruction or, for the fortunate few able to acquire a copy, as an animation privately commissioned by Ian Levine.
The plot, in a nutshell, is this: space security agent Marc Cory and his crew have crash-landed on the planet Kembel, where they uncover evidence of a Dalek plot to conquer the universe. Can any of them survive to get their warning back to Earth?
Writer Terry Nation
Director Derek Martinus
Script editor Donald Tosh
Producer Verity Lambert
This was the last episode Verity Lambert worked on as producer of Doctor Who.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
You'd never get an episode like this today because the show is structured so very differently, but it works strikingly well within the context of the First Doctor era, which was constructed so much as an ongoing story, each adventure leading into the next as part of a continuing narrative. Mission to the Unknown sets the scene for a truly epic Dalek adventure still to come, using the central character of Marc Cory and his intense mission focus to convey the background information needed for that story, giving us insight into a future age of human history, when the Daleks are remembered only as a menace of the past and their expansionist policies in other galaxies are something that the majority are dimly aware of but not too concerned about. To Marc Cory and the Space Security Agency, however, Dalek activities are a pressing concern, and Cory's mission to uncover their plans and get that information back to Earth drives the story throughout this episode.
As well as Daleks, this story introduces us to a very nasty new menace in the form of Varga plants, which Cory informs us are native to the Dalek homeworld, Skaro. There was no sign of them back when the First Doctor and his companions landed on Skaro way back in season one (and also no sign of them when the Fourth Doctor visited Skaro, either in Genesis of the Daleks or Destiny of the Daleks), but they could have come from a different part of the planet or a different era in the history of Skaro. Cory also says that they were developed in Dalek laboratories, plants which are part animal and part vegetable and turn people into more Vargas a single scratch with a thorn all it takes to condemn a victim to homicidal rage and transformation, living death. Talk about body horror. It definitely sounds like something Davros could have concocted!
Mission to the Unknown also tells us that the Daleks are hosting a secret conference at their hidden base on Kembel, with delegates from half a dozen different galaxies individuals united by a common trait: their greed, which has motivated them to betray their people for a share in the power promised them by the Daleks. If they have the intelligence to see the inevitable double-cross coming, they are blithely confident in their own ability to prevail regardless. The first planet on the hit list of conquest, we are told, will be Earth!
With his spacecraft destroyed and both crewmates dead, Marc Cory records a desperate message to warn his people about the planned Dalek invasion but he is killed before he can launch the capsule containing that message, and so the alarm is never sounded.
And the stage is set for The Daleks' Master Plan!
Quotable Quotes
LOWERY: I might have known. Space Security Service. Licensed to kill.
CORY: That's right.
LOWERY: Well, count me out.
CORY: This other document gives me the authority to enlist the aid of any persons, civil or military. You were just enlisted.
CORY: I suppose you've heard of the Daleks?
LOWERY: The Daleks invaded Earth a thousand years ago.
CORY: That's right. Well, they haven't been active in our galaxy for some time now, but that doesn't mean they've exactly been sitting around. In the last five hundred years, they've gained control of over seventy planets in Ninth Galactic System and forty more in the Constellation of Miros.
CORY: A thorn from a Varga plant. A thing part animal, part vegetable. Looks like a cactus. The poison attacks the brain. Rational thought is replaced by an overwhelming desire to kill. Eventually the poison seeps through the system and the victim is gradually transformed into a Varga.
LOWERY: And what's that got to do with the Daleks?
CORY: The only place in the universe where Vargas grow naturally is on the Daleks' own planet, Skaro. If the Vargas are here, the Daleks are, too.
CORY: There's something very big going on here, and if the Daleks are involved you can bet your life our whole galaxy is in danger.
CORY: Marc Cory, Special Security Service, reporting from the planet Kembel. The Daleks are planning the complete destruction of our galaxy. Together with the powers of the outer galaxies, a war force is being assembled. If our galaxy is to be saved, whoever receives this message must relay this information to Earth immediately. It is vital that defence mechanisms are put into operation at once! Message ends.
Follows on from Season One, Season Two and Galaxy Four
CORY: There's something very big going on here, and if the Daleks are involved you can bet your life our whole galaxy is in danger.
Overview
Mission to the Unknown is unique in Doctor Who, by both classic and modern standards: a single, standalone episode in which neither the Doctor nor his companions play any part whatsoever, unconnected to the episodes and adventures on either side of it, yet serving as the prologue or teaser to a larger, longer story later in the season. It also no longer exists, the master-tape wiped as per standard industry practice at the time with no copies currently known to survive. As with all missing episodes of Doctor Who, however, the soundtrack still exists, which means that the story can still be experienced either as an audio or visual reconstruction or, for the fortunate few able to acquire a copy, as an animation privately commissioned by Ian Levine.
The plot, in a nutshell, is this: space security agent Marc Cory and his crew have crash-landed on the planet Kembel, where they uncover evidence of a Dalek plot to conquer the universe. Can any of them survive to get their warning back to Earth?
Writer Terry Nation
Director Derek Martinus
Script editor Donald Tosh
Producer Verity Lambert
This was the last episode Verity Lambert worked on as producer of Doctor Who.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
You'd never get an episode like this today because the show is structured so very differently, but it works strikingly well within the context of the First Doctor era, which was constructed so much as an ongoing story, each adventure leading into the next as part of a continuing narrative. Mission to the Unknown sets the scene for a truly epic Dalek adventure still to come, using the central character of Marc Cory and his intense mission focus to convey the background information needed for that story, giving us insight into a future age of human history, when the Daleks are remembered only as a menace of the past and their expansionist policies in other galaxies are something that the majority are dimly aware of but not too concerned about. To Marc Cory and the Space Security Agency, however, Dalek activities are a pressing concern, and Cory's mission to uncover their plans and get that information back to Earth drives the story throughout this episode.
As well as Daleks, this story introduces us to a very nasty new menace in the form of Varga plants, which Cory informs us are native to the Dalek homeworld, Skaro. There was no sign of them back when the First Doctor and his companions landed on Skaro way back in season one (and also no sign of them when the Fourth Doctor visited Skaro, either in Genesis of the Daleks or Destiny of the Daleks), but they could have come from a different part of the planet or a different era in the history of Skaro. Cory also says that they were developed in Dalek laboratories, plants which are part animal and part vegetable and turn people into more Vargas a single scratch with a thorn all it takes to condemn a victim to homicidal rage and transformation, living death. Talk about body horror. It definitely sounds like something Davros could have concocted!
Mission to the Unknown also tells us that the Daleks are hosting a secret conference at their hidden base on Kembel, with delegates from half a dozen different galaxies individuals united by a common trait: their greed, which has motivated them to betray their people for a share in the power promised them by the Daleks. If they have the intelligence to see the inevitable double-cross coming, they are blithely confident in their own ability to prevail regardless. The first planet on the hit list of conquest, we are told, will be Earth!
With his spacecraft destroyed and both crewmates dead, Marc Cory records a desperate message to warn his people about the planned Dalek invasion but he is killed before he can launch the capsule containing that message, and so the alarm is never sounded.
And the stage is set for The Daleks' Master Plan!
Quotable Quotes
LOWERY: I might have known. Space Security Service. Licensed to kill.
CORY: That's right.
LOWERY: Well, count me out.
CORY: This other document gives me the authority to enlist the aid of any persons, civil or military. You were just enlisted.
CORY: I suppose you've heard of the Daleks?
LOWERY: The Daleks invaded Earth a thousand years ago.
CORY: That's right. Well, they haven't been active in our galaxy for some time now, but that doesn't mean they've exactly been sitting around. In the last five hundred years, they've gained control of over seventy planets in Ninth Galactic System and forty more in the Constellation of Miros.
CORY: A thorn from a Varga plant. A thing part animal, part vegetable. Looks like a cactus. The poison attacks the brain. Rational thought is replaced by an overwhelming desire to kill. Eventually the poison seeps through the system and the victim is gradually transformed into a Varga.
LOWERY: And what's that got to do with the Daleks?
CORY: The only place in the universe where Vargas grow naturally is on the Daleks' own planet, Skaro. If the Vargas are here, the Daleks are, too.
CORY: There's something very big going on here, and if the Daleks are involved you can bet your life our whole galaxy is in danger.
CORY: Marc Cory, Special Security Service, reporting from the planet Kembel. The Daleks are planning the complete destruction of our galaxy. Together with the powers of the outer galaxies, a war force is being assembled. If our galaxy is to be saved, whoever receives this message must relay this information to Earth immediately. It is vital that defence mechanisms are put into operation at once! Message ends.