"Mars! Venus! Jupiter! The moon colonies!" "They will all fall before our might. But the first of them will be... Earth!"
TECHNICAL SPECS: A prelude to The Daleks' Master Plan (a long story to air after The Myth Makers) sometimes referred to as the "Dalek Cutaway", it does not exist in the archive. Consequently I have used a reconstruction on the Internet (here are Part 1 and Part 2), which include some bits of Peter Purves' narration from the BBC audio series (which I have previously listened to) and some manufactured shots to supplement the few pictures we do have of this story. First aired Oct.9 1965.
IN THIS ONE... The Daleks plot with a bunch of aliens and kill all humans on the planet Kembel before they have time to send a message home. It's the only episode ever in which neither the Doctor nor his companions appear.
REVIEW: An unusual "cutaway" that gave the entire cast a break and Terry Nation a chance to prove the Daleks could thrive outside of Who, Mission to the Unknown could well have been the first part of a Dalek story in which the TARDIS materialized rather late. Instead, it doesn't materialize here at all, which makes me wonder what people thought of it back in the day. Or rather, what they thought of the next episode, which had nothing to do with the Daleks. Regardless of its reception, it's a fairly good piece of B-movie space opera, with bold musical stings, a lush jungle both in sight and sound, and a large variety of guest aliens (including a big, evil Christmas tree that sadly did not return in Master Plan).
Instead of the TARDISeers, the heroes are members of the Space Security Service - full-fledged and recently drafted - who confirm the Daleks' advances in our galaxy and their base on Kembel, "the most hostile planet in the universe" (hyperbolic much?). Though it's a dangerous place, it looks like all the dangers were imported by the Daleks, like the deadly Varga plants that reproduce by poisoning people to turn them into killers and then into plants that can, in turn, poison others. Cory, the lead SSS man, has a license to kill and uses it callously on any colleague infected. At the end of the episode, he's killed by Dalek guns, and it looks like he didn't get to send his warning to Earth, though his tape and beacon did survive.
Though I know better, this prologue does make the viewer hopeful that it sets up a story that's more like Invasion than the Chase, because the stakes feel truly galactic. The Daleks suddenly have allies that almost certainly have to be as ruthless as they are and that seem to have conquered their own galaxies already. However, Nation's confusion of the terms "solar system", "galaxy" and "universe" does put the actual scope of his story in doubt. It may be that the delegates are from "outer systems" rather than other galaxies, especially the way the terminology is batted around.
THEORIES: The fact that Varga plants are grown in a Dalek lab may link them to the Slyther, an earlier experiment that also seemed plant-like. The Daleks have certainly improved on their vegetable killers since the the mid-22nd century.
VERSIONS: Mission to the Unknown has been novelized as part of The Daleks' Master Plan Part 1: Mission to the Unknown (along with the first 6 chapters of Master Plan).
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - No Doctor, but at this length, you hardly even notice. The set-up moves fairly quickly and the pictures of the alien delegates continue to fascinate.
TECHNICAL SPECS: A prelude to The Daleks' Master Plan (a long story to air after The Myth Makers) sometimes referred to as the "Dalek Cutaway", it does not exist in the archive. Consequently I have used a reconstruction on the Internet (here are Part 1 and Part 2), which include some bits of Peter Purves' narration from the BBC audio series (which I have previously listened to) and some manufactured shots to supplement the few pictures we do have of this story. First aired Oct.9 1965.IN THIS ONE... The Daleks plot with a bunch of aliens and kill all humans on the planet Kembel before they have time to send a message home. It's the only episode ever in which neither the Doctor nor his companions appear.
REVIEW: An unusual "cutaway" that gave the entire cast a break and Terry Nation a chance to prove the Daleks could thrive outside of Who, Mission to the Unknown could well have been the first part of a Dalek story in which the TARDIS materialized rather late. Instead, it doesn't materialize here at all, which makes me wonder what people thought of it back in the day. Or rather, what they thought of the next episode, which had nothing to do with the Daleks. Regardless of its reception, it's a fairly good piece of B-movie space opera, with bold musical stings, a lush jungle both in sight and sound, and a large variety of guest aliens (including a big, evil Christmas tree that sadly did not return in Master Plan).
Instead of the TARDISeers, the heroes are members of the Space Security Service - full-fledged and recently drafted - who confirm the Daleks' advances in our galaxy and their base on Kembel, "the most hostile planet in the universe" (hyperbolic much?). Though it's a dangerous place, it looks like all the dangers were imported by the Daleks, like the deadly Varga plants that reproduce by poisoning people to turn them into killers and then into plants that can, in turn, poison others. Cory, the lead SSS man, has a license to kill and uses it callously on any colleague infected. At the end of the episode, he's killed by Dalek guns, and it looks like he didn't get to send his warning to Earth, though his tape and beacon did survive.
Though I know better, this prologue does make the viewer hopeful that it sets up a story that's more like Invasion than the Chase, because the stakes feel truly galactic. The Daleks suddenly have allies that almost certainly have to be as ruthless as they are and that seem to have conquered their own galaxies already. However, Nation's confusion of the terms "solar system", "galaxy" and "universe" does put the actual scope of his story in doubt. It may be that the delegates are from "outer systems" rather than other galaxies, especially the way the terminology is batted around.
THEORIES: The fact that Varga plants are grown in a Dalek lab may link them to the Slyther, an earlier experiment that also seemed plant-like. The Daleks have certainly improved on their vegetable killers since the the mid-22nd century.
VERSIONS: Mission to the Unknown has been novelized as part of The Daleks' Master Plan Part 1: Mission to the Unknown (along with the first 6 chapters of Master Plan).
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - No Doctor, but at this length, you hardly even notice. The set-up moves fairly quickly and the pictures of the alien delegates continue to fascinate.
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