Mission to the Unknown

The one where we get an exclusive "behind the scenes" look at what's coming soon...

Mission to the Unknown is a strange beast in that it's a side-step interlude in the ongoing narrative of Doctor Who. It went out under the banner of Doctor Who, and even credited William Hartnell, but none of the series regulars appeared in it. It featured just a small guest cast of humans and aliens, plus, of course, the Daleks!

In hindsight, it is a little odd that they plonked this prelude to The Daleks' Master Plan between Galaxy 4 and The Myth Makers, because after seeing this episode, viewers would fully expect the story to carry on, but they were instead taken to Ancient Greece for four weeks, where there were no Daleks and no threat to the solar system. It must have been a little confusing, as proven by the BBC's Audience Research Report on Temple of Secrets (episode 1 of The Myth Makers) which said: "Some viewers, having seen the previous week's Doctor Who in which the Daleks turned up again, were apparently unprepared for the switching of the scene back in time to the Trojan war (several wondered if a mistake had been made and the wrong programme put out) and were perplexed and rather resentful." One viewer wrote: "This programme has run too long and appears to have run out of ideas, episodes lately very poor and do not even tie up with the previous weeks."

More than 50 years later it's great that we're able to relive Mission to the Unknown, albeit on audio only. I chose to watch a fan animated version available on YouTube, but will not be commenting on the visuals too much. Aurally, the episode has some beautiful stock music composed by Trevor Duncan (called Synchro-Strings) which strongly evoke a sci-fi B-movie feel. Brian Hodgson's ubiquitous jungle soundscape makes a welcome return, populating the planet Kembel with some pretty fierce and wild-sounding creatures. Marc Cory says Kembel is the "most hostile planet in the universe", and it certainly sounds as much!

The plot of Mission to the Unknown is pretty perfunctory, and basically informs the viewer that the Daleks are massing their forces and forming a Galactic Alliance with six other galaxies with the ultimate aim of invading and conquering the Solar System. The Daleks are uncharacteristically diplomatic in the scenes with the alien delegates. You'd expect them to discard with ideas of using aliens to aid their cause, and just attempt a mass invasion alone. But no, they're being cleverer than that, collaborating (or at least pretending to) with other armies to form the "greatest war force ever assembled", as Malpha puts it.

The various delegates sound so cool, although we only really hear properly from Malpha, who growls menacingly and, judging by the photographs of the production, looks pretty strange too. In fact, they all look pretty strange, wearing various helmets, masks and outfits which place them among the oddest-looking aliens to appear in Doctor Who yet. These delegates are also very excitable, chanting "Victory!" as the episode draws to a close, and that spine-tingling bit that I so wish we could see where each delegate voices his agreement to the plan in turn. The voices are thrillingly strange and threatening.

The human characters are less colourful. Marc Cory comes out of it the best, with Edward De Souza giving him the requisite heroic ruthlessness a space security agent would need. He guns down both Garvey and Lowery as soon as they are infected by the Varga plants, perhaps to preserve his own life, perhaps to bring an end to their suffering. Who knows? The ambiguity in the character works well; he's like an intergalactic James Bond (Daniel Craig version!).

The Varga plants are excellent creations, even if living vegetation is becoming something of a predictable go-to idea for writer Terry Nation (see also the Fungoids of Mechanus and the plant life on Spiridon, and possibly the Slyther too). This is probably the first instance of what we now call body horror in Doctor Who (the phrase wasn't coined until 1986, apparently), and the mutation from humanoid to Varga is pretty gruesome. As soon as the Varga thorn's poison is in you, it infects the brain and the body gradually transforms into a Varga itself. The fan animation I watched managed to depict the transformation well, at one point showing poor old Garvey as half man, half Varga, a mass of writhing tentacles and thorns on a pair of humanoid legs. By the end the legs have become roots which drag the plant along after its prey. Real shuddersome stuff, and Jeremy Young manages to get across Lowery's fear and horror at being infected well.

Mission to the Unknown is a hard one to summarise because I suspect it looked fantastic. The Varga plants and the delegates would seem to have been design triumphs for Richard Hunt, Raymond Cusick and Daphne Dare, and the decision by Nation to write the Daleks as a feasible threat again is more than welcome after the low point of The Chase. These Daleks are hellbent on finding and destroying their human prey, stalking them through the jungle and obliterating their spaceship. The final extermination of Marc Cory gives you a real sinking feeling, although the fact the SOS message they recorded lies undestroyed by the Daleks gives a good idea as to where the Doctor and his friends will come into the story later down the line.

To be honest, I barely missed the Doctor, Steven and Vicki because there was enough going on in this 25 minutes to hold my attention totally. It might be ultimately inconsequential, but it's a bold, brave experiment in storytelling, being Doctor Who's first ever prelude minisode! Now... just where has the TARDIS got to?

First broadcast: October 9th, 1965

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The alien delegates sound great, as does the music and special sound.
The Bad: There could have been a little more characterisation in the humans, especially Gordon Lowery, to make us feel more for them when they ultimately perish!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Temple of Secrets...

My reviews of this story's related episodes: The Nightmare Begins (episode 1); Day of Armageddon (episode 2); Devil's Planet (episode 3); The Traitors (episode 4); Counter Plot (episode 5); Coronas of the Sun (episode 6); The Feast of Steven (episode 7); Volcano (episode 8); Golden Death (episode 9); Escape Switch (episode 10); The Abandoned Planet (episode 11); Destruction of Time (episode 12)

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/mission-to-unknown-aka-dalek-cutaway.html

The soundtrack to Mission to the Unknown is available on the CD of The Daleks' Master Plan. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-original-television-soundtrack/dp/0563494174