The A-Z of Classic Who | Mission to the Unknown: There Will Now Be A Short Intermission

 

Mission to the Unknown is such an oddity in Doctor Who's history that it's difficult to know where to begin. It's Doctor Who's shortest story, at a single 23 minute episode. It is the only episode of the main show that does not feature the Doctor in any way - he's not even mentioned and William Hartnell is only credited for contractual reasons. The episode only exists as a short teaser for the 12-episode epic that would start a month later and directly links into it. And of course, it was a victim of the Standard Issue BBC Flamethrower™ - to the point where not a single piece of on-screen material from the episode exists in any way. The off-air audio is the only part of the original transmission that still exists.

It's therefore difficult to review this in the context of a look at the whole of Classic Who given how different it is from anything else that aired during its run, which is compounded by its' missing status. But that's what I'm here for.

I'll say that for what it is, Mission to the Unknown is quite effective. It doesn't try anything too ambitious given its runtime, it's simply a story of a few Earth agents discovering the Dalek plot that would eventually form the... err... plot of The Dalek's Master Plan... and that's it. 

It's therefore actually reasonably impressive that the two primary characters of the piece get more development than your average NuWho guest star does in double the time, especially Marc Cory, the primary character in the piece. I was going to call him the protagonist, but I'm not sure that's quite right, as Cory is more of an anti-hero. He's basically a space James Bond, a cold and ruthless man who puts the mission first and those around him second, but who's not without his human side and is not going to throw lives away without a good reason. Bear in mind Mission to the Unknown was broadcast in 1965 at the height of Bondmania - in fact its' airdate was just two months before Thunderball became the highest grossing film in the series up to the present day adjusting for inflation - and this theme would be very present in The Daleks' Master Plan of course. 

Get used to this image because it's pretty much all that exists of what this story looked like onscreen, so you're going to see it from a few different angles during this post

Cory is more interesting than just a naff space version of Bond though. As I said, he's cold and ruthless - he's happy to kill both of his fellows once they're infected by the Varga and does so without a moment's hesitation. He's also very dismissive of Lowery, essentially telling him to pack in with the whining and get on with the bloody job more than once, showing his singlemindedness to the mission. But as I said (again), he's not without a human side - he could easily have left Lowery to die multiple times, but doesn't - he's not a Dalek, he doesn't want to see pointless killing. Only when Lowery's turning into a Varga and there's no other choice does Cory kill him. Without the visuals its difficult to know quite how reluctant a choice this is from Cory, and I suspect we'll never know that, but the idea of him being ruthless, but to a point is a nice comparison with the Daleks.

Unfortunately, there's not much more to him than that though - there's not much character development you can fit in 23 minutes, especially when there are other things happening in the episode, which does make Cory a bit of a forgotten one-shot hero, and his death at the end of the story is a pretty definitive end. I'd personally have preferred it if Cory had survived, and had met up with the Doctor, Steven and Bret at the beginning of The Daleks' Master Plan, perhaps sacrificing himself to let them get away from Kembel in episode three. Or perhaps that would cheapen Katarina's similar sacrifice that actually is in that story, so maybe not - the point is, some kind of link for the character into the rather long story that followed (which let's face it, had the time to spare to develop something like this) would have made this story feel weightier and the character more important.

LOOK WE'RE TRYING TO DISCUSS OUR PLANS FOR GALACTIC DOMINATION MAYBE YOU COULD HAVE A WATERFIGHT ON YOUR OWN TIME

As for the rest of the episode, it's basically just more set up for The Daleks' Master Plan. The delegates from that story appear here and say 'we're teaming up with the Daleks for galactic domination!'... and that's about all they have time for. I can hardly fault it, as that's precisely what they're doing, but it's not exactly gripping entertainment. 

The Daleks' extermination of Cory is a suitably bleak ending, reminding the audience of the power of the Daleks, the threat of this plan and how high the stakes are, so props for that (assuming everyone remembered after four weeks of the silly Greek historical that bridges the gap between this and DMP of course). Additionally, the Vargas are a terrifying idea and I find this concept has a lot of potential, which was unfortunately not explored in The Daleks' Master Plan, but I can't fault this episode for that. But seriously, a half plant half animal that transforms people into homicidal maniacs and then the plant itself? That's a seriously creepy idea, far more so than statues that move when you blink (guess what dipshits? Just wink, then the angel's not going to shit to you. Blink has plot holes large enough to drive an Edwardian ocean liner through, don't you forget it). 

LOOK THERE'S NO POINT TRYING TO HAVE A WATERFIGHT WITH THE TABLE JUST PUT THE BLOODY THING DOWN

Anyway, bashing Steven Moffat is a sign I've probably run out of things to say about the actual episode, which is far enough when I've probably spent longer writing this than I did actually watching it. Mission to the Unknown is honestly pretty good for what it is, but it's difficult to judge something so short and inconsequential.

Which means I'm going to make a pretty hideous copout, but it's my blog so shove it up your arse. I'm not awarding a Final Score to this story - the whole point of the scoring system is that it's for measuring the quality of stories relative to the rest of Classic Who, but when this is so unlike anything else made for the series, that's pretty pointless. There's just no point comparing what's essentially a glorified trailer up to actual Classic Who stories. For what it's worth, as I've said, it's a decent episode for what it is, which some interesting characters, but in the end... it's 23 minutes long and absolutely none of it survives. There's only so far I can take that. Sorry to disappoint.

Next Episode: Nightmare of Eden