[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\\
'''First Doctor Era'''\\
'''Season 3:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E1Galaxy4 1]] | '''2''' | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E3TheMythMakers 3]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan 4]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E5TheMassacre 5]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E6TheArk 6]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker 7]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E8TheGunfighters 8]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E9TheSavages 9]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E10TheWarMachines 10]]\\
'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E1PlanetOfGiants <<< Season 2]]''' | '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E1TheSmugglers Season 4 >>>]]''']]-]]]
!Mission to the Unknown
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mission_TTU_4225.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Those ''monsters''! [[SkewedPriorities Interrupting Poker Night of all things!]]]]
->Written by Creator/TerryNation\\
Directed by Derek Martinus\\
'''Production code:''' Changed throughout production[[labelnote:List]]\\
'''April/May:''' DC\\
'''July:''' T/A\\
'''Later:''' T Episode 5[[/labelnote]]\\
'''Air date:''' 9 October 1965\\
'''Number of episodes:''' 1

->''"I'll tell you this: there's something very big going on here, and if the Daleks are involved, you can bet your life our whole galaxy is in danger."''
-->-- '''Marc Cory'''

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here a man becomes a killer cotton ball. Also the one without the Doctor.

This episode was the last to be produced by Creator/VerityLambert, with Creator/JohnWiles taking over.
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A LowerDeckEpisode. A bottom deck episode, in fact. The Time Travel Team and TARDIS don't even appear at all - this is just a teaser for the later story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]".

Three dudes, one of whom is a security agent for the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, crash in a jungle. They discover a Dalek plot to take over the solar system, and all end up very dead. Shades of Film/JamesBond abound.

An animated reconstruction exists, made by fan animators, and partly funded by well-known superfan Ian Levine.

The episode was recreated in live action in 2019 by students of the University of Central Lancashire; the recreation had the full support of the BBC. It's likely the only such recreation that could ever be feasibly made, given the story's unusually short nature (only being superseded by the mini-episodes of the revival series) and lack of any of the show's principal cast. It premiered on the official Website/YouTube channel for ''Doctor Who'' on October 9, 2019, exactly 54 years after the original episode was broadcast. It can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW8yk-m5Ig8 here.]]

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!!This episode/story provides examples of:
* BackdoorPilot: After "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E1PlanetOfGiants Planet Of Giants]]" was shortened and a hole in the schedule was created, Terry Nation wrote this episode partially as a teaser for the upcoming "The Daleks' Master Plan" and partially to see if a Dalek spin-off show could work. (It could, but not until ''much'' later and in some [[https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Abslom_Daak_-_Dalek_Killer_(graphic_novel) entirely]] [[http://www.bigfinish.com/ranges/released/dalek-empire different]] media.)
* TheBadGuyWins: Cory never stood a chance.
* BigBad: The Black Dalek leads the council plotting to conquer the solar system.
* BodyHorror: The Varga plants. Used as watchdogs by the Daleks, these are giant ambulatory cacti with at least a basic animal-like intelligence. They hunt animals - any animals, including humans - and then shoot their spines into them. These spines carry a venom with unusual effects: the victim first becomes paranoid and psychotic, obsessed with killing; then, they transform into Varga Plants themselves. Even killing the host body does not arrest the transformation. Brrrrr.
* BottleEpisode: This episode was written hastily when the final two episodes of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E1PlanetOfGiants "Planet of Giants"]] were re-edited into one, creating a one-episode gap at the end of the season. It uses three sets (a human spaceship, the Dalek [[TheWarRoom War Room]] and a jungle) all built for and {{recycled|Set}}[[invoked]] in "The Daleks' Master Plan", a couple of [[PropRecycling Daleks]], a couple of [[PeopleInRubberSuits very low budget monster suits made of glue and fluff]] representing PlantAliens (which also get reused in "The Daleks' Master Plan"), a bunch of rather better-looking aliens on the Dalek ship (also reused in "The Daleks' Master Plan") and a spot of cheap {{Gorn}}. There is no Doctor, no companions, and the majority of the episode takes place with two actors arguing in the jungle.
* ChromosomeCasting: There are no female characters whatsoever. Just men, male aliens and Daleks. (Except maybe Sentreal. We're not quite sure what Sentreal is). The ''only'' ''Doctor Who'' story ever made to hold such a distinction, barring "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]" which features a female voiceover part in one episode (as the voice of a computer) but is otherwise all-male.
* EverybodyDiesEnding: Everyone dies except the Dalek and the mysterious council of aliens (many of which die in "The Daleks' Master Plan" later, although Sentreal doesn't reappear and three of the others survive). Everyone means '''everyone''' -- the Doctor and his companions don't show up in this episode at all, and so are spared.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The episode's alternate title in production was "Dalek Cutaway", which tells you exactly what you're getting. This alternate title was often listed along with or in place of "Mission To The Unknown" as the title of the episode for years until some of the disputed episode titles were standardised.
* {{Expy}}: Creator/TerryNation devised Marc Cory as "a space-age Franchise/JamesBond".
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Lowery gets a three-inch thorn jabbed graphically through his hand, which is going to cause him to transform into a homicidal plant zombie.
* JunglesSoundLikeKookaburras: Stock jungle noises, including the iconic kookaburra call, can be heard throughout the serial, despite this jungle implicitly being on an alien planet. Maybe they're alien kookaburras?
* LowerDeckEpisode: The protagonist is Marc Cory in the absence of the Doctor and his companions.
* MauveShirt: Marc Cory.
* OutOfGenreExperience: This is a one-parter (at a time when serials were the norm) BottleEpisode which is still unique in not having either the Doctor or any of the companions in it - it's a kind of extreme LowerDeckEpisode with just [[VictimOfTheWeek victims]] and Daleks. [[PoorlyDisguisedPilot This had a reason behind it]].
* PlantAliens: The Varga plants — homicidal mobile plants which infect people, first making them turn into homicidal maniacs, and then into Varga plants. And they are native to Skaro, which suggests that they might be another of Davros' projects.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: This was an attempt at pitching a spin-off Dalek SpaceOpera series for an American audience, and so the episode focuses on members of an anti-Dalek military force as well as establishing the Daleks in alliance with a bunch of never-seen-before alien species (which also all had silly voices and outrageous designs, for {{Toyetic}} reasons). A pilot for this series was written, but never made, although Creator/BigFinish recorded an audio adaptation of it, and some of the ideas wormed their way into ''Series/BlakesSeven'' later on.
* RedShirt: Jeff Garvey and Gordon Lowery are infected with Varga thorns and killed by Cory.
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The script uses the terms "solar system," "galaxy" and "universe" interchangeably.
* SequelHook: For "The Daleks' Master Plan".
* SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism: The delegates provide some nice examples. Two are HumanAliens, three are RubberForeheadAliens, and Sentreal is a StarfishAlien.
* TookALevelInBadass: The Daleks, and the whole point of this story. After three defeats at the hands of the Doctor, the latter of which went out of its way to portray them as incompetent buffoons, how do you make the Daleks scary again? Put them up against James Bond and have Bond lose!
* {{Transflormation}}: Varga Plants, the thorns of which contain poison that transforms victims into other Varga Plants.
%% ZCE * TheVirus: Varga plants.
* ZombieInfectee: Lowery doesn't admit to Cory that he's been envenomated by a Varga thorn until he's on the brink of going homicidal and his involuntary murmuring of "kill" gives him away.
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