Mission to the Unknown

Mission to the Unknown is a one-part Doctor Who serial. It is notable as the only regular length, single episode story and for also not featuring the character of the Doctor at all, though William Hartnell is still credited.

Synopsis

On the planet Kembel three men - Marc Cory , Jeff Garvey and Gordon Lowery - struggle to repair their crashed spaceship in a hostile jungle. Lowery is infected by the thorn of a Varga plant and starts to mutate into one. Cory is forced to shoot him.

Cory then explains to Garvey that he is a Special Security Service agent, charged with investigating the planet because a Dalek spaceship has been sighted there. Cory and Garvey realise that their ship cannot be repaired and escape with a message beacon before the Daleks destroy the ship. Garvey is infected by a Varga thorn and shot by Cory.

Cory discovers the Daleks' city where a conference is taking place between the Daleks and several alien delegates, including Malpha and Trantis . They declare their plans to conquer the Solar System in alliance. Cory heads into the jungle and records a message about this for Earth and prepares to launch it into space. However he is found by the Daleks and exterminated. The tape, however, survives...

Notes

1. Mission to the Unknown is the only Doctor Who story that does not feature the character of the Doctor at all.
2. Despite this, William Hartnell is still credited as "Dr Who" - this was because his contract specified he would be credited for all episodes.
3. 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).
4. The episode came about because the earlier story Planet of Giants was cut from four episodes to three during post production and an additional episode was allocated to the series. Although the cast contracts had not yet been signed, it was difficult to add a single episode to a planned run of four and six episode stories and so it was decided to make a one-off trailer for the forthcoming epic story The Daleks' Master Plan (Serial V).
5. The episode was made by the same team as Galaxy 4 (Serial T), with both stories sharing pre-filming and, possibly, the same production code (see below).
6. The term "the Solar System" here seems to refer to the entire Milky Way. It is possible that "the Solar System" means the dominant political power throughout the entire galaxy, much in the same way that Britain has in past been used to mean the British Empire.

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.

See: Doctor Who story title controversy

References

• By Any Other Name - Article by Andrew Pixley detailing the problems of early Doctor Who story titles.

External links

• Cast and Crew list, on the BBC website