Mission to the Unknown was transmitted on the 9th of October 1965.
It was sometimes called the Dalek Cutaway.
Now, this episode is unique for several reasons.
One, the most important of which, is that there was no Doctor Who.
It's the only episode of Doctor Who with no Doctor Who, nor are there any of his companions.
It was produced as a teaser for the 12-episode epic, which followed, starting about a month later.
Now, it was filmed back-to-back with another story, the preceding story, Galaxy 4.
And it also marked the last appearance as producer of Verity Lambert.
Now, another curious thing about this episode is that it was never transmitted abroad,
because it was thought to be far too violent.
There was a great deal of killing.
The Daleks, of course, were doing their dastardly deeds.
And the place was infested by things called Varga plants.
In fact, when I was at drama school some years before, there was an actor who was a little bit older than us,
and he always played the big parts, and we all thought that he was the one who was going to be a star.
Anyway, I was going up into the lift to the rehearsal room, and I saw him, and I said,
Oh, hello, how are you? We chatted, and I said, Which floor are you going? He said, The same floor as me.
And I said, Which rehearsal room? He said, It's the same one as me.
So I said, Well, what are you playing? He said, Oh, I'm playing a Varga plant.
Well, a Varga plant wasn't exactly Richard III or a great part.
All you had to do was to stand and clothe yourself in an enormous green costume,
looking rather like an overblown cactus, and wave your arms about.
So that was his role.
Also, it struck me as very curious, having been a fan of Doctor Who for years before,
that the Daleks themselves didn't have their Dalek costume on.
So all these Daleks were played by actors, all stooping about and twisting their things and going,
choo, choo, choo, choo, which struck me as being highly comical.
And after that, I was not quite as convinced about the menace of the Daleks as I had been when I had been a fan.
Well, considering the limited quantity of material, Loose Cannon, the team, Loose Cannon,
pulled together a really extraordinary representation of the story,
which I reckon is pretty close to how it was when it first appeared on our screens.
The episode begins with Mark, Corey, that's me, and the captain of the ship,
and another member of the crew, Jeff Garvey, landing on this planet,
well, crash landing on the planet, and we start to mend the ship.
What we didn't realise is that Jeff Garvey has gone off wandering in the jungle,
and he is spiked by a vaga plant, which of course is a disaster.
It turns him into a homicidal maniac, with one idea in his head, which is to kill the other members of the crew.
So, that's how it begins.
So, sit back and have a look at Mission to the Unknown. Those of you who saw it originally will have a happy or frightening trip down memory lane,
and those who have never seen it will have a very good idea of what it was like.