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MISSION TO THE UNKNOWN, or HOW I STOPPED WORRYING ABOUT TERRY NATION AND LEARNED TO LOVE THE DALEK

This one-off episode is the only time in the classic series where neither the Doctor nor his TARDIS nor any of the companions appear. It should also be noted as the final episode to be produced by the series' original producer and mother, Verity Lambert. It is technically a prologue to the 12-parter The Daleks' Master Plan (1965-1966), which starts properly four episodes later, but it is usually considered a standalone story, which is why I review it as such. Not that there is much to say about 25 minutes of mostly build-up.

Note that this review is based on three reconstructed versions of the story: the Loose Cannon telesnap reconstruction, the Ian Levine animated reconstruction, and the brilliant UCLAN student film recreation from 2019.

Is this episode essential? No. Everything that we find out here will be explained during The Daleks' Master Plan anyway. This is more of a strange tease of things to come and is probably the most skippable episode in all of Classic Who (apart from Episode 7 of the aforementioned Master Plan, but let's not talk about that one here).

I've never really understood the point of this episode; could they not insert these events into the first third of Master Plan instead (that's what the novelisation does)? It's 25 minutes of exposition and build-up with no real fallout until four episodes later.

I can completely unironically say, however, that this episode is one of the more solid entries by writer Terry Nation, who doesn't need to overcomplicate things but makes this a rather morbid episode. It does re-establish the Daleks as something of a brute killing force, though, which is very welcome.

The second half of the episode follows the Daleks and a bunch of weird-looking and forgettable aliens discussing and planning their upcoming universal domination—and it's a long and talky sequence that never goes anywhere. I wish they'd kept this story focused on the three humans from the first half instead.

The original performances are quite hard to pin down because we can’t see them, and the surviving soundtrack isn’t the best possible quality. The actors of the 2019 version are pretty good, though (and look pretty similar to the original actors!).

What is interesting about the story is that it manages to convey the setting effectively through the lively sound design and solid production design (the little we can see), so the treacherous planet of Kembel (which will return in Master Plan) feels very alive and very treacherous.

There aren’t a lot of visual materials for this story, which means that the LC reconstruction is a bit more rough around the edges compared to some of their other work.

The 2019 reconstruction is a far better representation of what the episode could have looked like—it doesn’t matter much that all the characters are played by amateur student actors, because this episode doesn't include any of the regulars. UCLAN produced their story using 60s TV-making techniques and were even allowed to use the original shooting scripts and lend a Dalek prop (with Nick Briggs voicing the Daleks) for their production! Their intricate work pays off: this is arguably the best way to experience this lost episode, and it still surprises me just how authentic the finished product looks and feels. The only thing that gives away the real nature of the project is the scenes inside the Dalek ship, which are model shots and look less realistic than the rest of the production.

The Levine version is an animated reconstruction, very similar in style to some of the official BBC animated reconstructions of lost stories. It combines the original soundtrack with passable animation and is also a passable option for those preferring the original performances with a bit more movement.

The slow and painful transformation from man to Varga plant looks and feels pretty horrifying, so it's a shame we cannot see how it originally looked. The UCLAN version recreates it effectively, and the Levine animation does a brilliant midway thing between human and Varga.

The weird aliens sound like they are trying a bit too hard to sound alien, and that backfires horribly—they sound ridiculous, especially the dotted dude who has the most lines! The recreation doesn’t sound quite as goofy, though, but I still find it hard to take these six delegates seriously.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

This episode was never broadcast abroad because it was deemed “too violent” due to all the killing and dastardly Dalek action seen in the story.