Mission to the Unknown (TV story)

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Summary

On the planet Kembel three men struggle to repair their crashed spaceship in a hostile jungle. (For a more detailed summary click here

Cast & Characters

Uncredited Cast

Crew

Notes

  • No footage of this story survives in the archives, although the full audio does still exist. This was released on CD as "The Daleks' Master Plan" by the BBC Radio Collection first released in October 2001 (see below for more information in Public Release section)
  • 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
  • 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

Story Title and Production Code

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

All Doctor Who stories from this period have no overall onscreen title, with the story 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 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

Influences

Ratings

  • Mission to the Unknown - 8.3m viewers

Myths

  • 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.

Location Filming

This story was filmed at Ealing studios in London and BBC Television Centre TC3 in London

Continuity

Discontinuity

Quotes

Story Arcs

Similar stories

References

More Info

Public Releases

  • DVD Release - This story has not been released on DVD.
  • Video Release - This story has not been released on Video
Due to the lack of available footage for this story no video release has been possible
A reconstruction of this story has been made using the available images and audio by Loose Cannon Productions.
For more information on this reconstruction and the material available click here

External Links

Template:Television Stories Box

Template:Wikipedia

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