Mission to the Unknown

The beginning of the great alliance.

A question. If an episode does not contain the Doctor or his companions, can you officially call it an episode of Doctor Who?

Mission to the Unknown is the prologue story to the saga that is The Dalek's Master Plan. As a stand alone story, it is not bad. On the whole it actually reminded me of an episode of The Twilight Zone, where we have three space travelers from Earth who have crashed on to an alien planet. One is a CIA equivalent who is trying to determine if the Daleks are indeed planning an invasion of Earth. Two of the crew are killed by plants introduced by the Daleks and the agent himself is killed before he can fire the rocket that has the warning message. Meanwhile, the Daleks cement an alliance with six other races to conquer the Earth solar system.

If you treat this the independent story it is, it is quite good. The tension is high and the pacing keeps the story moving. More important, the Daleks are competent and succeed in killing the crew. This is good as it reminds the viewer that the Daleks are to be treated as a credible threat and not as incompetents as they sometimes come off as.

Obviously you wouldn't treat this as a regular Doctor Who episode, but it makes for an interesting space adventure that it wouldn't hurt to watch again.

Overall personal score: 2.5 out of 5