Mission to the Unknown

Information

Writer: Terry Nation
Director: Derek Martinus
Script Editor: Donald Tosh
Producer: Verity Lambert
Executive Producer(s): None

Originally Broadcast: 9th October 1965
Episodes: 1
Duration: 25 mins
Production Code: T/A
Series: 3
Story Number: 19
Enemy: The Daleks, Outer Galaxies delegates
Setting: Kembel; 3999 or 4000

Synopsis

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 here proves well-founded.

His two companions, Jeff Garvey and Gordon Lowery, both fall victim to the poisonous thorns of Varga plants - ambulatory flora indigenous to the Daleks' home world, Skaro - and he has no choice but to shoot them before they are themselves transformed into Vargas.

Having overheard the Daleks plotting with representatives of the six outer galaxies to overthrow the solar system, Cory records a warning message and prepares to send it into orbit with a rocket launcher. Before he can do so, however, he is discovered and exterminated.

Cast

The Doctor - William Hartnell (does not appear, though listed in closing credits)

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

Story Notes

• The Doctor, Steven Taylor and Vicki never appear and never get a mention in this adventure. We experience the story through Marc Cory.
• Mission to the Unknown is the only Doctor Who story that does not feature the character of the Doctor or the TARDIS at all. Despite this, William Hartnell is still credited as "Dr. Who" — this was because his contract specified he would be credited for all episodes
• The Doctor's companions Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) and Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) do not appear either. Unlike Hartnell, their contracts did not guarantee they would be credited, though they were in the BBC listings magazine Radio Times (and episode guides taking their information from here).
• Terry Nation wrote this partially as an attempt to create a story about the Daleks that did not involve the Doctor or his companions so that he could eventually develop and sell the idea of a Dalek series, divorced from the Doctor Who universe. In the proposed series, the Space Security Service was tasked with hunting Daleks, and it would follow their adventures — an approach that can be seen in short stories and comic strips written for the 1965 Dalek Outer Space Book (cover dated 1966). An unmade pilot titled "The Destroyers" was written, but the series concept was never sold.
• This episode was produced due to the editing of Planet of Giants from 4 episodes to 3.
• The episode was made by the same team as Galaxy 4, with both stories sharing pre-filming and, possibly, the same production code
• It is also one of the relatively few stories from the Hartnell era that does not lead directly into the next serial. It was followed by The Myth Makers, an unrelated serial. A direct link to this story is made in the first episode of Daleks' Master Plan when the Doctor recovers the tape recorder used by Corey to record his final message.

Preceded by: Galaxy 4 - Followed by: The Myth Makers