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| The Daleks make an alliance, and prepare to invade! |
1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 25 minutes. Written by: Terry Nation. Directed by: Derek Martinus. Produced by: Verity Lambert.
THE PLOT:
Three men have crashed on the hostile planet Kembel: Jeff Garvey (Barry Jackson), pilot Gordon Lowery (Jeremy Young), and their mysterious passenger: space security agent Marc Cory (Edward da Souza). Cory directed them to Kembel on a hunch, after learning of a sighting of a Dalek ship in the area. He believes the Daleks are plotting something, and that Kembel - a planet avoided by all - would be an ideal location for a Dalek base.
Cory is right, as he discovers when Garvey becomes the victim of a Varga Plant, which infects anyone it pricks with an uncontrollable urge to kill. The Varga was created by the Daleks - It could not possibly be on Kembel unless the Daleks are too!
With the ship damaged beyond repair, there is only one chance for escape: Launching a message beacon and hoping to stay alive long enough to be rescued. Then Cory discovers that the Daleks are hosting dignitaries from other hostile powers, plotting an all-out invasion of Earth and the solar system. The message beacon is now the only hope of warning Earth of the danger to come!
But the Daleks are closing in. And while evading a Dalek patrol, Lowery brushes up against a Varga plant, and becomes infected...
CHARACTERS:
The only episode featuring neither the Doctor nor any of his companions, meaning that we only spend about 20 minutes with the characters. Edward da Souza does a good job of investing Cory with a cold detachment, able to gun down a man he was just working with because of necessity. Lowery is appalled when Cory shoots the infected Garvey, but he is rational when Cory explains the full situation, coming up with the idea of the message beacon when it becomes clear they will not be able to repair the ship. Lowery's dislike of Cory, and Cory's indifference, give their interactions a starkly different flavor than the usual Doctor Who story, which serves the bleak overall mood of the piece.
THOUGHTS:
Galaxy Four was original producer Verity Lambert's final serial for the show, the last story she produced featuring the Doctor and his companions. Thanks to the combining of the final two episodes of Planet of Giants, however, she still had one episode remaining in her contract... Allowing her run to end on a much stronger note.
Mission to the Unknown isn't really a story in itself; it's a prologue to The Daleks' Master Plan, and in a modern story, its action would be reduced to a brief teaser. It does work on its own terms, though. There's not a lot of plot, but it does set up an intriguing plot strand in the Dalek alliance with other hostile aliens. The Varga plant is a memorably horrific creation, allowing for some good body horror as Lowery sees himself being slowly but steadily transformed.
Most of all, the atmosphere is strong. The grimly detached lead character, well-played by Da Souza, fits the bleak mood of the episode. Everything is hostile, everything is out to kill the three human characters - And by the midpoint, most viewers will realize that there is only one possible ending for this trio.
Contemporary viewers likely expected the TARDIS to materialize at some point, for the regulars to team up with Cory at least in stopping the Daleks. But that wheezing, scraping noise never comes. We're watching a relatively brief action on a world without hope, and with no realistic chance of rescue.
I'm not going to give this episode an individual rating, as it's really more of a prologue to the longer story to come than a story in its own right. It is an effective piece, however.
THE 2019 REMAKE:
Mission to the Unknown was already reconstructed effectively by Loose Cannon, in one of their more effective offerings, and also brought to life on audio to BBC Audio's usual professional standard as part of their excellent Daleks' Master Plan release. But the action of this missing episode is now more accessible than others. It was remade in 2019 by students at the University of Central Lancashire.
This remake takes pains to feel as exactly like an episode of mid-1960s television as possible. Not only was the color removed from the final video, it was also recorded at the same framerate as 1960's Doctor Who, which helps it to avoid feeling "modern." The young actors deliver their lines in clipped, RP accents, and the acting style and staging reflects what would have been seen in a 1960's episode. As the episode features none of the regular cast, casual viewers could simply slot the remake into a viewing marathon and largely never know the difference.
Given that the original episode was never sold overseas, and therefore was almost certainly destroyed, this recreation is as close to the real thing as we're ever likely to get. To its credit, it does its job well.
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