One fat geek's SUCCESSFUL attempt to regenerate into a not-so-fat geek by watching the entirety of Doctor Who while walking on a treadmill

The Evil League of Evil: Space Edition

Apr 07 2017
The Evil League of Evil: Space Edition

Today's episode, Mission to the Unknown. is a bit of an oddity in the history of Doctor Who. It is the only story in the entire fifty-plus year history of the show to not include even a brief appearance by either the Doctor or any companions. All of the regulars went on vacation for a week, and instead we got a weird little story about a damaged spaceship, some murderous plants, the Daleks, and a brand new Axis of Galactic Evil. There is also one other significant detail, for which I will leave you, my dear imaginary readers, in suspense for the time being.

Let's talk about that.

Mission to the Unknown

In essence, the story revolves around an Earth spaceship that is stranded on the planet Kembel. Of the crew of three, one has already been infected by the venom of a Varga plant which has turned him into a murderous zombie/plant thing. As for the other two, one is a scientist trying to repair their ship and the other reveals himself to be an undercover agent of the Space Security Service. With a bit of exposition, we learn that it is roughly 1,000 years after the Daleks' unsuccessful invasion of Earth. Since then humans have flourished in this part of the galaxy, while the Daleks have been off conquering another part.

Mister Secret Agent Man suspects that the Daleks have returned, especially when he has to kill ZombiePlantDude. The Varga plant is native to Skaro (the Dalek home world), and is used by them as a natural defense. 

Meanwhile, the Daleks are, indeed, on Kembel. The Dalek Supreme is there in person to meet with delegates from seven other evil races in order to form a new alliance and to wipe out mankind. 


Not Pictured: Bad Horse

With Dalek patrols closing in, the two human survivors abandon their ship and plant to instead send up a warning message in a tiny rocket in order to let the main ship know what is happening. Scientist Dude gets pricked by a Varga thorn while running through the forest and has to be mercy-killed by Mister Secret Agent Man. Sadly, MSAM is also tragically killed by a Dalek patrol before their warning message can be launched. The tape recording, however, has tumbled beneath a plant on the forest floor unseen by the Daleks. What do you figure the odds are that the Doctor will stumble across it in the coming weeks?

So yeah, a weird little story in which all of the sympathetic characters die horribly while the forces of evil rally to obliterate the universe. Not only is there no sign of the series' lead characters, but the following week picked up not with the new Dalek storyline but instead a four-week story about the battle of Troy. There is another significant turn of events there, but I will leave that until tomorrow.

So the significant detail I mentioned earlier? Well, this episode was the last one for which Verity Lambert served as producer. I have mentioned before how much I admire her achievements in the industry. Even leaving aside Doctor Who, she was an amazingly talented woman well ahead of her time. Without her guidance, I doubt the show would have lasted beyond the first season. It would be a minor footnote in British science fiction history, and no more. For her it was three years. For me it was less than two months since the start of the project. Either way it went too fast.

STATS:

Doctor(s): none
Companion(s): none
Episode(s): Mission to the Unknown
Verity Lambert: Goodbye
Steps Walked: 6,896 today, 298,577 total
Distance Walked:  3.27 miles today, 136.98 miles total
Weight: 292.50 lbs (five day moving average), net change -14.80 lbs


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