The Daleks' Master Plan
Encyclopedia
The Daleks' Master Plan is a serial in the British
science fiction television
series Doctor Who
. The twelve episodes (the most of any Doctor Who serial, excluding the four 1986 stories that were together called The Trial of a Time Lord
) were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966. This serial marks the final appearance of Adrienne Hill
as companion
Katarina
, the only appearance of Jean Marsh
as Sara Kingdom
and the first ever death of a companion. It was the second Doctor Who story never to be screened in Australia, due to censorship problems. The episode marks the first appearance of Nicholas Courtney
in Doctor Who, here playing space security agent Bret Vyon.
", the TARDIS
arrives on the planet Kembel, and the Doctor
leaves the TARDIS to try to find medical aid for the wounded Steven
, leaving him with the Trojan servant girl Katarina
.
Meanwhile, two Space Agents, Bret Vyon and the injured Kert Gantry, are also on the planet trying to find out what happened to their agent, Marc Cory
. Eventually Gantry tells Vyon to go on without him, as he will slow Vyon down. Seconds after Vyon leaves, a Dalek
finds Gantry and kills him. Vyon then spots the Doctor leaving the TARDIS, and takes the key from him at gunpoint. Eventually finding the TARDIS, Vyon demands that the occupants take him off the planet, but Katarina barely understands what's going on, much less how to work the ship. Steven then briefly recovers and knocks Vyon out after seeing him threaten Katarina. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and finds that Vyon left the key in the door. The Doctor freely enters the TARDIS and places knocked out Vyon in a restraining chair then goes back outside.
On Earth
, Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System, announces to the people that he will be going on a break. However, in reality he is joining the alliance that has been formed by the Daleks, and arrives on the planet Kembel soon afterwards.
Seeing Chen's spaceship (termed a "spar") arrive, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS, only to find it surrounded by Daleks.
Katarina had released Vyon, who cured Steven with some field medicine (two white tablets that he has in jacket pocket), and they meet up with the Doctor soon after, just as the Daleks set fire to the jungle in order to drive out any further intruders. While the alliance prepares for a meeting of its leaders, Chen and another leader, Zephon, watch the jungle burn. Chen goes to the meeting, but Zephon refuses to go with him, saying that he will go when he feels like it. The Doctor and his companions infiltrate the city, and spot Zephon going to the meeting. They knock Zephon out, tie him up, dress the Doctor up in Zephon's large cloak and send him to the meeting while the other three break into Chen's spar.
Arriving at the meeting, the other leaders express irritation at the lateness of "Zephon." The meeting begins, and the Dalek Supreme reports that their ultimate weapon, the Time Destructor, is now complete. Chen reveals that he has procured a sample of the extremely rare mineral taranium (it takes 50 Earth years to produce tiny amount of it), a vital part to operate the Time Destructor. Meanwhile, the real Zephon has managed to untie himself and sounds the alarm. In the resulting confusion, the Doctor steals the taranium and flees. However, Vyon hears the alarm and prepares to take off in the spar without him.
The Doctor manages to get to Chen's spar just in time for take-off. The Daleks blame Zephon for the situation, saying that his tardiness caused the Doctor and companions to find him, but Zephon defends his actions and accuses Chen of arranging to have the taranium stolen back. Chen says that Zephon's accusation is nonsensical and the Daleks agree, concluding that Zephon is the one who's responsible. Zephon tells the Daleks that two of the other leaders will also leave if he does, only to have the leaders in question to swear allegiance to the Daleks. Finally, Zephon announces that he is leaving the alliance. He does not get the chance — a Dalek kills him as he goes to leave.
On course for Earth, the Doctor reveals that he found a tape while he was in the jungle. The group plays it back, and it turns out to be from Agent Cory, whose brief statements confirm what they already know. As they near the prison planet Desperus — where convicts are simply left, without having any guards or means of escape — the Daleks use a randomiser to disable the controls of the spar. The spar crashes down towards the planet below, causing minor damage to the ship upon landing. Realising that the impact should have totally destroyed the spar, the four conclude that the Daleks want them alive and quickly begin repairing the ship. Upon seeing the landing, a group of prisoners attempt to get on-board, but the Doctor electrifies the ship entrance and the prisoners are knocked unconscious. A Dalek ship arrives, but misjudges its landing and suffers a crippling crash. The spar manages to take off again, and Katarina goes to check the airlock but finds a convict who managed to get onboard just before take-off, the other prisoners having discharged the electricity in the ship's entrance.
The convict, Kirksen, holds Katarina at knifepoint and threatens to kill her unless the travellers take him to the nearest planet — Kembel. The group eventually decides to comply, but their decision soon proves irrelevant as Katarina activates the airlock, blowing her and Kirksen into space. Stunned, Steven suggests that she must have done it accidentally, but the Doctor thinks that it was deliberate.
Upon seeing the events, the Daleks remotely destroy the pursuit ship for their failure to land properly, but seem satisfied that the delay caused by the crash will allow Chen enough time to get to Earth and have the trio arrested when they arrive.
Arriving on Earth, the three evade detection, and go to see Vyon's old friend, Daxtar. Daxtar initially seems co-operative, but the Doctor realises he's allied with Chen when he mentions the taranium before anyone else does. Vyon quickly kills Daxtar, much to the Doctor's annoyance, but there's little time to dwell on this as Chen's security agents, led by Sara Kingdom, arrive. Vyon allows the Doctor and Steven to get away by throwing himself at Kingdom, but she overpowers and kills him. She orders Borkar, her colleague, to "shoot on sight" at the intruders.
Sara Kingdom chases the Doctor and Steven to a laboratory, where they are all accidentally caught up in a molecular dissemination
experiment and are transported to the planet Mira.
Chen pretends that he planned this accident, and tells the Daleks where to find the Doctor and Steven. On Mira, Kingdom (who turns out to be Vyon's sister) is forced to join forces with the Doctor and Steven as they are attacked by savage invisible creatures. The Doctor and Steven manage to convince Sara of Chen and the Daleks' true intentions, just as a Dalek ship arrives. The Daleks fend off an attack from the invisible creatures, and demand that the three surrender. The Doctor reluctantly announces that "the Daleks have won."
Fortunately for the Doctor and his companions, more invisible creatures attack, allowing the three to escape and steal the Dalek ship. They try to return to Earth, but the Daleks take control of the ship remotely then use a magnetic beam to draw it to Kembel. Realising that they don't have much time, the Doctor decides to build a fake taranium core, which he can give to the Daleks while keeping the real one. Steven then gets the idea to charge up the fake core with gravitic energy, but in the process encloses himself in a forcefield and is left barely conscious.
Upon landing, the three negotiate with Chen (who has since returned to Kembel) to be allowed to conduct the handover of the (fake) taranium core at the TARDIS. The Daleks refuse, but Chen persuades the Daleks that they don't have anything to lose, thinking that the Doctor will be unable to stop them after the core has been handed over. The Doctor and Sara return to the TARDIS, while Steven hands over the core. The Daleks try to kill him, but the forcefield manages to protect him, though it is exhausted in the process.
After leaving Kembel, the TARDIS lands, but the Doctor warns that "the atmosphere outside is entirely poisonous."
The group has actually landed in 1960s England
, outside a police station. They get themselves arrested, but later manage to escape. The TARDIS next lands on the set of a silent film, causing many problems for the film crew (such as the Doctor being mistaken for a cultural advisor and the lead actress nearly quitting because she thinks the director wants to replace her with Sara) before escaping. Upon their escape, they have a toast to Christmas
, and the Doctor wishes a happy Christmas to the viewers (one of only a handful of occasions in which a character breaks the fourth wall
).
Meanwhile, back on Kembel, the fake taranium core is fitted to the Time Destructor, which is then tested on another representative, Trantis, who has proven useless to the Daleks. However, there is no effect and the fake core quickly exhausts itself, leaving Trantis totally unharmed. The Daleks accuse Chen of lying about the taranium, when Chen realises that it was the Doctor that switched the cores. The Daleks send a request to Skaro for a time machine, in order to pursue the Doctor. Trantis is then killed by a Dalek.
The TARDIS briefly lands back on Earth during a cricket match
, then on a volcanic
planet. The three travellers have been followed by the Meddling Monk
, who damages the TARDIS's door lock, then mockingly informs the Doctor and companions that they are stranded on the planet for the rest of their lives. Not to be deterred, the Doctor performs makeshift repairs to the lock, and gets back inside the TARDIS. The Monk is surprised by this, but follows the Doctor to his next destination.
Meanwhile, the Daleks' time machine has arrived on Kembel. The task force leaves in it and the rest of the Daleks join the Supreme in a victory chant.
The Doctor and his companions and the Monk arrive in ancient Egypt
, along with Mavic Chen and the Daleks, who begin their search for the taranium.
Realising that the Monk and someone else has arrived, Steven and Sara go to find out who it is while the Doctor repairs the lock, but are arrested as looters by the guards of the nearby pyramid and accused of being in league with the Daleks, who have killed a number of other guards. While the two make their escape the Monk tries to find the Doctor, but is instead found by Chen who offers him an ultimatum — help them find the taranium or the Daleks will kill him. Unsurprisingly, the Monk accepts.
The Doctor sees the Monk and follows him back to the TARDIS, where he attacks him before leaving. Soon, Steven and Sara return, looking for the Doctor, but instead see a bandage-wrapped hand reaching out from a large box
It is the Monk, wrapped up by the Doctor. Steven and Sara take him to go and find the Doctor. However, they don't get far before being caught by the Daleks and Chen, who demands the taranium. In desperation, the Monk suggests using Steven and Sara as hostages. Chen accepts this, and tells the Daleks that the Doctor will not allow the two to be killed.
As the Doctor breaks into the Monk's TARDIS and steals something, Chen announces over a loudspeaker that unless he hands over the taranium, Sara and Steven will be killed. The Doctor is dismayed, but has little choice but to comply. When he hands over the core, the Daleks try to kill them and the Monk but they all escape, helped by an attack by the Egyptian guards. While the guards disable some of the Daleks, most of them escape and return to their time machine with Chen.
Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor admits that he did not have time to build another fake, and had to hand over the real taranium. But he's stolen the Monk's directional controller — evidenced when the Monk lands on an ice planet and realises that without having any control over the direction of his TARDIS he now has little chance of ever catching the Doctor.
The Doctor fits the control and takes off, but the console room is engulfed in a flash of white light.
The directional control has burnt itself out almost instantly (due to the Monk's TARDIS being a later model than the Doctor's), but it is enough to get them back to Kembel. The three leave the TARDIS, but Sara and Steven lose the Doctor in the jungle and proceed to the city alone. Upon arrival they find the Dalek city deserted, and the alliance leaders imprisoned. They agree to turn on the Daleks, and in exchange are released from the prison cell. They take off in their ships — apart from Chen, who is apparently killed when his spar explodes just after take-off.
Searching the jungle, they find the entrance to a second, underground city, which the Daleks are now using. As they prepare to enter, Chen returns, having faked his death, and takes the two prisoner. He leads them into the underground city.
They go through the underground city and Chen leads them into the control room in grandiose fashion. Thinking that he was still imprisoned in the first city, the Dalek leader announces that their alliance is over. Chen refuses to accept this, and proclaims himself the leader of the alliance. He tries to kill the Dalek leader, but his blast simply diffuses off the Dalek's shield. The Dalek orders Chen taken outside and killed, causing Chen to flee boasting that he is immortal. He's quickly proven wrong when a Dalek patrol corners him and guns him down.
Taking advantage of the distraction, the Doctor enters the control room and activates the Time Destructor. The Daleks return, but are powerless to do anything due to the danger of the Doctor increasing the Destructor's power. He orders Sara and Steven back to the TARDIS, but Sara refuses to go. The two flee with the Time Destructor through the jungle, which rapidly begins to deteriorate and die. The Daleks pursue them, but seem immune to the effects. The Doctor and Sara reach the TARDIS but have been aged massively by the Destructor. The two collapse and Sara disintegrates. Steven rushes outside and tries to deactivate the Destructor, but cannot do anything. As he begins to rapidly age, he tries to help the Doctor, but is ordered to get back into the TARDIS. Fortunately, when trying to deactivate the destructor he managed to reverse it, thus causing the two to revert to approximately their previous ages. The pursuing Daleks try to destroy the Destructor with their weapons but instead cause it to run uncontrollably fast, destroying the Daleks and reducing the planet to a lifeless, barely habitable wasteland.
The Doctor and Steven emerge from the TARDIS some time later, the Destructor having burnt itself out. "What a terrible waste..." mutters the Doctor, referring to the death and destruction that has taken place.
, did not work on this serial owing to a serious dispute with director Douglas Camfield
. Some time after the production of the serial The Crusade
, the two had a small falling out. On the next serial that Camfield directed (The Time Meddler
), Camfield elected to use percussion music, feeling that it lent to the story's atmosphere. However, Simpson interpreted this as a snub by Camfield, causing the dispute to escalate. By the time this serial had entered production, relations between the two had grown so bad that Camfield refused to even consider Simpson, instead hiring Tristram Cary
. The dispute was still unresolved at the time of Camfield's death in 1984.
Various clips from Episodes 1, 3, and 4 also survive:
had published a novelisation of the story in 1980, as issue #14/15/16 (thereafter reprinted a few times), but was not novelised by Target Books
for almost ten more years, when it finally appeared in two volumes. The first, Mission to the Unknown, consisted of an adaptation of Mission to the Unknown
and Episodes 1-6 of Master Plan. The second, The Mutation of Time, adapted Episodes 7-12. Both were written by John Peel
and were published in September and October 1989, respectively.
Peel had intended to write the novelisation as a single, long book, but at the time Target Books had a page limit maximum which required splitting the manuscript into two parts.
Peel made one major change to the televised storyline by placing a six-month gap between the first and second volumes; he later stated that this was to enable future writers to develop original storylines involving the character of Sara Kingdom.
In May 2010 unabridged readings of both volumes by Peter Purves and Jean Marsh, with Dalek voices supplied by Nicholas Briggs
, were released by BBC Audiobooks. The titles were slightly modified to Daleks - Mission to the Unknown and Daleks - The Mutation of Time.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. The twelve episodes (the most of any Doctor Who serial, excluding the four 1986 stories that were together called The Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord is a fourteen-part British science fiction serial of the long running BBC series Doctor Who. The serial, produced as the twenty-third season of the Doctor Who television series, aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986...
) were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966. This serial marks the final appearance of Adrienne Hill
Adrienne Hill
Adrienne Hill was an English actress.In 1965, she appeared in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who as Katarina, a companion of the Doctor — who at that time was played by William Hartnell...
as companion
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...
Katarina
Katarina (Doctor Who)
Katarina is a fictional character played by Adrienne Hill in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who appearing in the programme from November to December 1965....
, the only appearance of Jean Marsh
Jean Marsh
Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh is an English actress, occasional screenwriter, and co-creator of the television series Upstairs, Downstairs and The House of Eliott....
as Sara Kingdom
Sara Kingdom
Sara Kingdom is a fictional character played by Jean Marsh in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A security officer for Mavic Chen from the 41st century, she would later join the First Doctor and Steven to work against Chen's interests...
and the first ever death of a companion. It was the second Doctor Who story never to be screened in Australia, due to censorship problems. The episode marks the first appearance of Nicholas Courtney
Nicholas Courtney
William Nicholas Stone Courtney was an English television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
in Doctor Who, here playing space security agent Bret Vyon.
Plot
Some six months after the events of "Mission to the UnknownMission to the Unknown
"Mission to the Unknown", sometimes known as "Dalek Cutaway", is an episode in the television series Doctor Who. It is a standalone episode, serving as an introduction to the 12 part story The Daleks' Master Plan...
", the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
arrives on the planet Kembel, and the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
leaves the TARDIS to try to find medical aid for the wounded Steven
Steven Taylor (Doctor Who)
Steven Taylor is a fictional character played by Peter Purves in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A space pilot from Earth in the future, he was a companion of the First Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1965 to 1966.-Character history:Steven first...
, leaving him with the Trojan servant girl Katarina
Katarina (Doctor Who)
Katarina is a fictional character played by Adrienne Hill in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who appearing in the programme from November to December 1965....
.
Meanwhile, two Space Agents, Bret Vyon and the injured Kert Gantry, are also on the planet trying to find out what happened to their agent, Marc Cory
Mission to the Unknown
"Mission to the Unknown", sometimes known as "Dalek Cutaway", is an episode in the television series Doctor Who. It is a standalone episode, serving as an introduction to the 12 part story The Daleks' Master Plan...
. Eventually Gantry tells Vyon to go on without him, as he will slow Vyon down. Seconds after Vyon leaves, a Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
finds Gantry and kills him. Vyon then spots the Doctor leaving the TARDIS, and takes the key from him at gunpoint. Eventually finding the TARDIS, Vyon demands that the occupants take him off the planet, but Katarina barely understands what's going on, much less how to work the ship. Steven then briefly recovers and knocks Vyon out after seeing him threaten Katarina. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and finds that Vyon left the key in the door. The Doctor freely enters the TARDIS and places knocked out Vyon in a restraining chair then goes back outside.
On Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System, announces to the people that he will be going on a break. However, in reality he is joining the alliance that has been formed by the Daleks, and arrives on the planet Kembel soon afterwards.
Seeing Chen's spaceship (termed a "spar") arrive, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS, only to find it surrounded by Daleks.
Katarina had released Vyon, who cured Steven with some field medicine (two white tablets that he has in jacket pocket), and they meet up with the Doctor soon after, just as the Daleks set fire to the jungle in order to drive out any further intruders. While the alliance prepares for a meeting of its leaders, Chen and another leader, Zephon, watch the jungle burn. Chen goes to the meeting, but Zephon refuses to go with him, saying that he will go when he feels like it. The Doctor and his companions infiltrate the city, and spot Zephon going to the meeting. They knock Zephon out, tie him up, dress the Doctor up in Zephon's large cloak and send him to the meeting while the other three break into Chen's spar.
Arriving at the meeting, the other leaders express irritation at the lateness of "Zephon." The meeting begins, and the Dalek Supreme reports that their ultimate weapon, the Time Destructor, is now complete. Chen reveals that he has procured a sample of the extremely rare mineral taranium (it takes 50 Earth years to produce tiny amount of it), a vital part to operate the Time Destructor. Meanwhile, the real Zephon has managed to untie himself and sounds the alarm. In the resulting confusion, the Doctor steals the taranium and flees. However, Vyon hears the alarm and prepares to take off in the spar without him.
The Doctor manages to get to Chen's spar just in time for take-off. The Daleks blame Zephon for the situation, saying that his tardiness caused the Doctor and companions to find him, but Zephon defends his actions and accuses Chen of arranging to have the taranium stolen back. Chen says that Zephon's accusation is nonsensical and the Daleks agree, concluding that Zephon is the one who's responsible. Zephon tells the Daleks that two of the other leaders will also leave if he does, only to have the leaders in question to swear allegiance to the Daleks. Finally, Zephon announces that he is leaving the alliance. He does not get the chance — a Dalek kills him as he goes to leave.
On course for Earth, the Doctor reveals that he found a tape while he was in the jungle. The group plays it back, and it turns out to be from Agent Cory, whose brief statements confirm what they already know. As they near the prison planet Desperus — where convicts are simply left, without having any guards or means of escape — the Daleks use a randomiser to disable the controls of the spar. The spar crashes down towards the planet below, causing minor damage to the ship upon landing. Realising that the impact should have totally destroyed the spar, the four conclude that the Daleks want them alive and quickly begin repairing the ship. Upon seeing the landing, a group of prisoners attempt to get on-board, but the Doctor electrifies the ship entrance and the prisoners are knocked unconscious. A Dalek ship arrives, but misjudges its landing and suffers a crippling crash. The spar manages to take off again, and Katarina goes to check the airlock but finds a convict who managed to get onboard just before take-off, the other prisoners having discharged the electricity in the ship's entrance.
The convict, Kirksen, holds Katarina at knifepoint and threatens to kill her unless the travellers take him to the nearest planet — Kembel. The group eventually decides to comply, but their decision soon proves irrelevant as Katarina activates the airlock, blowing her and Kirksen into space. Stunned, Steven suggests that she must have done it accidentally, but the Doctor thinks that it was deliberate.
Upon seeing the events, the Daleks remotely destroy the pursuit ship for their failure to land properly, but seem satisfied that the delay caused by the crash will allow Chen enough time to get to Earth and have the trio arrested when they arrive.
Arriving on Earth, the three evade detection, and go to see Vyon's old friend, Daxtar. Daxtar initially seems co-operative, but the Doctor realises he's allied with Chen when he mentions the taranium before anyone else does. Vyon quickly kills Daxtar, much to the Doctor's annoyance, but there's little time to dwell on this as Chen's security agents, led by Sara Kingdom, arrive. Vyon allows the Doctor and Steven to get away by throwing himself at Kingdom, but she overpowers and kills him. She orders Borkar, her colleague, to "shoot on sight" at the intruders.
Sara Kingdom chases the Doctor and Steven to a laboratory, where they are all accidentally caught up in a molecular dissemination
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
experiment and are transported to the planet Mira.
Chen pretends that he planned this accident, and tells the Daleks where to find the Doctor and Steven. On Mira, Kingdom (who turns out to be Vyon's sister) is forced to join forces with the Doctor and Steven as they are attacked by savage invisible creatures. The Doctor and Steven manage to convince Sara of Chen and the Daleks' true intentions, just as a Dalek ship arrives. The Daleks fend off an attack from the invisible creatures, and demand that the three surrender. The Doctor reluctantly announces that "the Daleks have won."
Fortunately for the Doctor and his companions, more invisible creatures attack, allowing the three to escape and steal the Dalek ship. They try to return to Earth, but the Daleks take control of the ship remotely then use a magnetic beam to draw it to Kembel. Realising that they don't have much time, the Doctor decides to build a fake taranium core, which he can give to the Daleks while keeping the real one. Steven then gets the idea to charge up the fake core with gravitic energy, but in the process encloses himself in a forcefield and is left barely conscious.
Upon landing, the three negotiate with Chen (who has since returned to Kembel) to be allowed to conduct the handover of the (fake) taranium core at the TARDIS. The Daleks refuse, but Chen persuades the Daleks that they don't have anything to lose, thinking that the Doctor will be unable to stop them after the core has been handed over. The Doctor and Sara return to the TARDIS, while Steven hands over the core. The Daleks try to kill him, but the forcefield manages to protect him, though it is exhausted in the process.
After leaving Kembel, the TARDIS lands, but the Doctor warns that "the atmosphere outside is entirely poisonous."
The group has actually landed in 1960s England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, outside a police station. They get themselves arrested, but later manage to escape. The TARDIS next lands on the set of a silent film, causing many problems for the film crew (such as the Doctor being mistaken for a cultural advisor and the lead actress nearly quitting because she thinks the director wants to replace her with Sara) before escaping. Upon their escape, they have a toast to Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, and the Doctor wishes a happy Christmas to the viewers (one of only a handful of occasions in which a character breaks the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
).
Meanwhile, back on Kembel, the fake taranium core is fitted to the Time Destructor, which is then tested on another representative, Trantis, who has proven useless to the Daleks. However, there is no effect and the fake core quickly exhausts itself, leaving Trantis totally unharmed. The Daleks accuse Chen of lying about the taranium, when Chen realises that it was the Doctor that switched the cores. The Daleks send a request to Skaro for a time machine, in order to pursue the Doctor. Trantis is then killed by a Dalek.
The TARDIS briefly lands back on Earth during a cricket match
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, then on a volcanic
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
planet. The three travellers have been followed by the Meddling Monk
Meddling Monk
The Meddling Monk, or simply The Monk, was a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Played by the British comic actor Peter Butterworth, the character appeared in two stories: as an adversary of the First Doctor.Other than the...
, who damages the TARDIS's door lock, then mockingly informs the Doctor and companions that they are stranded on the planet for the rest of their lives. Not to be deterred, the Doctor performs makeshift repairs to the lock, and gets back inside the TARDIS. The Monk is surprised by this, but follows the Doctor to his next destination.
Meanwhile, the Daleks' time machine has arrived on Kembel. The task force leaves in it and the rest of the Daleks join the Supreme in a victory chant.
The Doctor and his companions and the Monk arrive in ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, along with Mavic Chen and the Daleks, who begin their search for the taranium.
Realising that the Monk and someone else has arrived, Steven and Sara go to find out who it is while the Doctor repairs the lock, but are arrested as looters by the guards of the nearby pyramid and accused of being in league with the Daleks, who have killed a number of other guards. While the two make their escape the Monk tries to find the Doctor, but is instead found by Chen who offers him an ultimatum — help them find the taranium or the Daleks will kill him. Unsurprisingly, the Monk accepts.
The Doctor sees the Monk and follows him back to the TARDIS, where he attacks him before leaving. Soon, Steven and Sara return, looking for the Doctor, but instead see a bandage-wrapped hand reaching out from a large box
It is the Monk, wrapped up by the Doctor. Steven and Sara take him to go and find the Doctor. However, they don't get far before being caught by the Daleks and Chen, who demands the taranium. In desperation, the Monk suggests using Steven and Sara as hostages. Chen accepts this, and tells the Daleks that the Doctor will not allow the two to be killed.
As the Doctor breaks into the Monk's TARDIS and steals something, Chen announces over a loudspeaker that unless he hands over the taranium, Sara and Steven will be killed. The Doctor is dismayed, but has little choice but to comply. When he hands over the core, the Daleks try to kill them and the Monk but they all escape, helped by an attack by the Egyptian guards. While the guards disable some of the Daleks, most of them escape and return to their time machine with Chen.
Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor admits that he did not have time to build another fake, and had to hand over the real taranium. But he's stolen the Monk's directional controller — evidenced when the Monk lands on an ice planet and realises that without having any control over the direction of his TARDIS he now has little chance of ever catching the Doctor.
The Doctor fits the control and takes off, but the console room is engulfed in a flash of white light.
The directional control has burnt itself out almost instantly (due to the Monk's TARDIS being a later model than the Doctor's), but it is enough to get them back to Kembel. The three leave the TARDIS, but Sara and Steven lose the Doctor in the jungle and proceed to the city alone. Upon arrival they find the Dalek city deserted, and the alliance leaders imprisoned. They agree to turn on the Daleks, and in exchange are released from the prison cell. They take off in their ships — apart from Chen, who is apparently killed when his spar explodes just after take-off.
Searching the jungle, they find the entrance to a second, underground city, which the Daleks are now using. As they prepare to enter, Chen returns, having faked his death, and takes the two prisoner. He leads them into the underground city.
They go through the underground city and Chen leads them into the control room in grandiose fashion. Thinking that he was still imprisoned in the first city, the Dalek leader announces that their alliance is over. Chen refuses to accept this, and proclaims himself the leader of the alliance. He tries to kill the Dalek leader, but his blast simply diffuses off the Dalek's shield. The Dalek orders Chen taken outside and killed, causing Chen to flee boasting that he is immortal. He's quickly proven wrong when a Dalek patrol corners him and guns him down.
Taking advantage of the distraction, the Doctor enters the control room and activates the Time Destructor. The Daleks return, but are powerless to do anything due to the danger of the Doctor increasing the Destructor's power. He orders Sara and Steven back to the TARDIS, but Sara refuses to go. The two flee with the Time Destructor through the jungle, which rapidly begins to deteriorate and die. The Daleks pursue them, but seem immune to the effects. The Doctor and Sara reach the TARDIS but have been aged massively by the Destructor. The two collapse and Sara disintegrates. Steven rushes outside and tries to deactivate the Destructor, but cannot do anything. As he begins to rapidly age, he tries to help the Doctor, but is ordered to get back into the TARDIS. Fortunately, when trying to deactivate the destructor he managed to reverse it, thus causing the two to revert to approximately their previous ages. The pursuing Daleks try to destroy the Destructor with their weapons but instead cause it to run uncontrollably fast, destroying the Daleks and reducing the planet to a lifeless, barely habitable wasteland.
The Doctor and Steven emerge from the TARDIS some time later, the Destructor having burnt itself out. "What a terrible waste..." mutters the Doctor, referring to the death and destruction that has taken place.
Continuity
- For the dating of this serial, see the Chronology. The Doctor also makes reference to a Dalek invasion of Earth in the year 2157, though the dating is inconsistent with that of the serial The Dalek Invasion of EarthThe Dalek Invasion of EarthThe Dalek Invasion of Earth is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from November 21 to December 26, 1964....
. - The death of Katarina, played by Adrienne Hill, marked the first time a companion of the Doctor had been killed. Hill appeared in a mere five episodes in two serials before her on-screen death. Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh) also died in this serial.
- A younger version of Mavic Chen appears as a minor character in the Virgin New AdventuresVirgin New AdventuresThe Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
novel LegacyLegacy (Doctor Who)Legacy is an original novel written by Gary Russell and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace, Bernice, the Ice Warriors and Alpha Centauri and a return for the Doctor to Peladon. A prelude to the novel, also penned by...
by Gary RussellGary RussellGary James Russell is a freelance writer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media...
. - Chen notes that the people of the planet Tisar and the entity The Embodiment Gris have both tried to depose Zephon recently. The indigenous population of Mira are the Visians (who are invisible and, according to the Doctor, eight feet tall and extremely vicious).
- Several pieces of licensed fiction have been set between "The Feast of Steven" and "Volcano", allowing for further adventures with Sara KingdomSara KingdomSara Kingdom is a fictional character played by Jean Marsh in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A security officer for Mavic Chen from the 41st century, she would later join the First Doctor and Steven to work against Chen's interests...
. The first of these was a 2003 short story entitled The Little Drummer Boy from the Big FinishBig Finish ProductionsBig Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
book Short Trips: CompanionsShort Trips: CompanionsShort Trips: Companions is a Big Finish original anthology edited by Jacqueline Rayner and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The stories focus on the companions and their travels with the Doctor.-Stories:...
. In 2008, Jean Marsh returned to the role to tell new audio stories for Big Finish, starting with Home TruthsHome Truths (Doctor Who audio)Home Truths is a Big Finish Productions audiobook based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.The Companion Chronicles "talking books" are each narrated by one of the Doctor's companions and feature a second, guest-star voice along with music and sound effects.-...
. In The Guardian of the Solar SystemThe Guardian of the Solar SystemThe Guardian of the Solar System is a Big Finish Productions audiobook based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....
, it is revealed that the TARDIS travels back in time and Sara unintentionally meets Mavic Chen over a year before the events of The Daleks' Master Plan. Sara believes that her interference in this brief sidestep may have driven Chen to strike his deal with the Daleks. - In the graphic novel The Only Good Dalek, the Eleventh DoctorEleventh DoctorThe Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
meets another SSS agent, and uses his old friendship with Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom as a reference to convince the agent that he can be trusted. The agent in return comments that the Doctor's credentials are impressive but he must have started fighting Daleks at a young age, suggesting that Only Good Dalek takes place a few years after these events given the Doctor's physical youth in his eleventh body.
Production
The series' soon-to-be regular composer, Dudley SimpsonDudley Simpson
Dudley Simpson is an Australian television composer who is best known for his work on Doctor Who.Prior to leaving Australia, Simpson composed for the Borovansky Ballet Company, forerunner to the Australian Ballet. Among his early television work was the music for Moonstrike...
, did not work on this serial owing to a serious dispute with director Douglas Camfield
Douglas Camfield
Douglas Gaston Sydney Camfield was an accomplished director for television from the 1960s to the 1980s. His programme credits include Z-Cars, Paul Temple, Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Shoestring, The Professionals, Out of the Unknown, The Nightmare Man, the BBC dramatisation of Beau Geste and...
. Some time after the production of the serial The Crusade
The Crusade (Doctor Who)
The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:...
, the two had a small falling out. On the next serial that Camfield directed (The Time Meddler
The Time Meddler
The Time Meddler is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 July to 24 July 1965...
), Camfield elected to use percussion music, feeling that it lent to the story's atmosphere. However, Simpson interpreted this as a snub by Camfield, causing the dispute to escalate. By the time this serial had entered production, relations between the two had grown so bad that Camfield refused to even consider Simpson, instead hiring Tristram Cary
Tristram Cary
Tristram Ogilvie Cary, OAM was a pioneering English-Australian composer.-Early life:Cary was born in Oxford, England, and educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and Westminster School in London. He was the son of a pianist and the novelist, Joyce Cary, author of Mister Johnson...
. The dispute was still unresolved at the time of Camfield's death in 1984.
Script
- According to the credits, the serial was written by Terry NationTerry NationTerry Nation was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...
(episodes 1–5 & 7) and Dennis SpoonerDennis SpoonerDennis Spooner was an English television screenwriter and story editor, known primarily for his programmes about fictional spies and his work in children's television in the 1960s...
(episodes 6, 8–12), with the credit "From an idea by Terry Nation" on Spooner's episodes. Script editor Donald ToshDonald ToshDonald Tosh was a BBC screenwriter during the 1960s who contributed to the Doctor Who programme in 1965.Before working on Doctor Who Tosh was briefly script editor on the series Compact, and had helped to develop the show that eventually became Coronation Street.Tosh was the story editor for the...
claimed in an interview that the work done by Nation on the serial amounted to less than 20 pages of work, and that he wrote most of Nation's episodes. However, Doctor Who historian David Brunt has disputed this, saying that Nation submitted over 30 pages of script for each of his episodes (apart from "The Feast of Steven") and that Tosh only polished the dialogue and/or cut scenes out for time or budget reasons. - Another controversy involves the title of the serial. Perhaps because of the multiple authors and/or typists, virtually every conceivable variant of the title The Daleks' Master Plan was used in contemporary documents, though this version is on a plurality of camera scripts. During production the story was referred to as Twelve Part Dalek Story on some documents.
- The original intention was that the police station scenes of the Christmas episode would feature a crossover with the characters and location of the BBC's popular police drama Z-CarsZ-CarsZ-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
. However, the Z-Cars production team vetoed the idea, although the LiverpoolLiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
-area location of the police station survived in the transmitted episode. John PeelJohn Peel (writer)John Peel is a British writer, best known for his books connected to several television series. He has written under several pseudonyms, including John Vincent and Nicholas Adams. He lives in Long Island, New York and his wife is a U.S...
's novelisation of the serial references this plan by using the cast names of the Z-Cars actors for the police characters' names. - According to the liner notes for the CD release, the fictional mineral taranium was originally called "vitaranium", but was shortened during production because of concerns about William Hartnell's ability to pronounce it. Also, it was felt that "vitaranium" sounded too much like "vitamin".
The Christmas episode
- Tosh and producer John WilesJohn WilesJohn Wiles was a television writer and producer, now best known for being the second producer of the popular science fiction serial Doctor Who, succeeding Verity Lambert...
would later claim that the scene where the Doctor and his companions celebrate Christmas was not originally in the script, and that either the scene was hastily written by director Douglas CamfieldDouglas CamfieldDouglas Gaston Sydney Camfield was an accomplished director for television from the 1960s to the 1980s. His programme credits include Z-Cars, Paul Temple, Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Shoestring, The Professionals, Out of the Unknown, The Nightmare Man, the BBC dramatisation of Beau Geste and...
when the episode ran short or that Hartnell made an unscripted ad lib. However, it appears on Camfield's camera script and it was indeed common practice at the time for BBC shows to have a direct address to camera for a Christmas episode, whilst editing would have allowed for the removal of the line if necessary.
Cast notes
- Kevin Stoney would return as Tobias Vaughn, another villain working with an alien force — the CybermenCybermanThe Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more...
— against the Earth, in the Second DoctorSecond DoctorThe Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
serial The InvasionThe Invasion (Doctor Who)The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968...
. Additionally, Stoney also played Tyrum in the Fourth DoctorFourth DoctorThe Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
serial Revenge of the CybermenRevenge of the CybermenRevenge of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 19 April to 10 May 1975.-Synopsis:...
. - The lead actress of the film seen in "The Feast of Steven" was played by Sheila DunnSheila DunnSheila Mary Dunn was an actor who worked primarily on television.She appeared in two editions of The Wednesday Play in the early part of her career...
, who was Douglas Camfield's fiancée at the time the episode was in production. The two would marry just before the serial completed production. Camfield would later cast her in a minor voice role in The InvasionThe Invasion (Doctor Who)The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968...
and a major screen role in InfernoInferno (Doctor Who)Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles...
. - Reg Pritchard, who appears in "The Feast of Steven" as "Man in Mackintosh" had previously played Ben Daheer in The CrusadeThe Crusade (Doctor Who)The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:...
, and the Doctor seemingly mistakes him for this character. - The alien delegates at the Daleks' conference on Kembel differ from those seen in Mission to the UnknownMission to the Unknown"Mission to the Unknown", sometimes known as "Dalek Cutaway", is an episode in the television series Doctor Who. It is a standalone episode, serving as an introduction to the 12 part story The Daleks' Master Plan...
, and as that episode is lost, there is some confusion over which is which. Those that do reappear here had all been recast (see Ronald RichRonald RichRonald Rich is a British supporting player best known for his role as Hans, the personal bodyguard of Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice...
), while some are new to Master Plan and some seen in Mission are missing – this only came to light when Day of Armageddon was returned to the BBC archives. - Jean Marsh, who had previously played Princess Joanna in The CrusadeThe Crusade (Doctor Who)The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:...
(and later played Morgaine in BattlefieldBattlefield (Doctor Who)Battlefield is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from September 6 to September 27, 1989. It was the last appearance of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who....
). She was also once married to Third DoctorThird DoctorThe Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
actor, Jon PertweeJon PertweeJohn Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
. - Brian Cant later played Chairman Tensa in The DominatorsThe DominatorsThe Dominators is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in five weekly parts from 10 August to 7 September 1968.-Plot:...
. - Royston Tickner later played Robbins in The Sea DevilsThe Sea DevilsThe Sea Devils is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 26 to April 1, 1972.-Synopsis:...
.
Missing episodes
- Currently, only episodes 2, 5, and 10 are known to exist. All 12 episodes were recorded on and transmitted from magnetic videotape. Subsequently, BBC EnterprisesBBC WorldwideBBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
had 16mm film telerecordings made for potential overseas sales. However, the Christmas episode "The Feast of Steven" was excluded from this and the story offered for sale was an 11-part version. The original videotapes of Episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 are listed among the first Doctor Who episodes ever ordered to be wipedWipingWiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...
, on 17 August 1967. At this point, "The Feast of Steven" became the first episode of Doctor Who to be seemingly lost. - BBC Enterprises retained their film copies, although the story was never purchased by any overseas broadcasters, until at least 1972. A set of viewing prints was sent to the Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, but the story was declined (as it was judged to be A (adults only) on the basis of its overall storyline, rather than cutable scenes) and the fate of these prints is unknown. At some point in the next four years, the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's film copies were junked. - A film copy of "The Traitors" wound up in the BBC Film Library, although the reasons for this are unclear as that library had no formal mandate to retain such material. In 1973, the episode was loaned to the Blue PeterBlue PeterBlue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
production office for a feature on Doctor Who and never returned. Its ultimate fate remains unknown. - By 1976, the entire story was considered to be lost. However, Episodes 5 ("Counter Plot") and 10 ("Escape Switch") were returned in 1983 after being discovered in a trunk inside a LDS Church in ClaphamClaphamClapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
, South LondonSouth LondonSouth London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
. Episode 2 ("Day of Armageddon") was returned to the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in early 2004 by Francis Watson, a former BBC engineer. - Since this was one of only two Hartnell stories that were never screened outside of the UK (the other being "Mission to the UnknownMission to the Unknown"Mission to the Unknown", sometimes known as "Dalek Cutaway", is an episode in the television series Doctor Who. It is a standalone episode, serving as an introduction to the 12 part story The Daleks' Master Plan...
"), the recovery of the missing episodes from overseas sources remains unlikely. For more information, see Doctor Who missing episodesDoctor Who missing episodesThe Doctor Who missing episodes are the instalments of the long-running British science-fiction television programme Doctor Who that have no known film or videotape copies. They were wiped by the BBC during the 1960s and 1970s for economic and space-saving reasons...
.
Various clips from Episodes 1, 3, and 4 also survive:
- "The Nightmare Begins" - In late 1991, a mute copy of the pre-filmed inserts for the story was discovered in a film can in the BBC archive. In 1998, these inserts were combined with the off-air soundtracks. A colourised version of this footage, made by Stuart Humphryes and James Russell, was included as part of The Dalek Tapes, a featurette on the Genesis of the DaleksGenesis of the DaleksGenesis of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975. It marks the first appearance of Davros, the creator of the Daleks.-Plot:...
DVD. - "Devil's Planet" - A clip of around 90 seconds was screened in a 1971 edition of Blue Peter (then co-presented by Peter PurvesPeter PurvesPeter Purves is an English television presenter and actor.Purves was born in New Longton, near Preston, Lancashire, and was educated at the independent Arnold School in Blackpool, he had originally planned to go into teaching, training at Alsager College of Education, but began to act with the...
, who played the Doctor's companion Steven TaylorSteven Taylor (Doctor Who)Steven Taylor is a fictional character played by Peter Purves in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A space pilot from Earth in the future, he was a companion of the First Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1965 to 1966.-Character history:Steven first...
). Purves, in introducing the clip, erroneously identifies the serial by the title Devil's Planet, when it was only this individual episode. - "The Traitors" - A 1973 edition of Blue Peter featured another item on Doctor Who and included a clip of the scene leading up to Katarina's ejection from the airlock.
- In addition, prior to the recovery of the episode itself, the prefilmed inserts for "Day of Armageddon", including the raw soundtrack, were retained by the BBC Film Library and never junked. In 1991, the archive copy was discovered to be missing, but it was recovered in 1993. In 1998, these inserts were combined with the off-air soundtracks to reproduce the scenes as transmitted.
On stage
The serial was adapted as a charity stage production in October 2007 by Interalia Theatre in Portsmouth, UK, as a finale to their highly successful run of previous Doctor Who stage shows. It was adapted and directed by Nick Scovell and produced by Rob Thrush. Scovell starred as the Doctor, as in the company's previous productions. Nicholas Briggs guest starred as the voice of the Daleks and also, briefly, as the Doctor following a regeneration scene at the play's end.In print
The Australian Doctor Who fanzine ZerinzaZerinza
Zerinza was the first, and for many years the only regular Australian Doctor Who fanzine. It ran continuously from 1976 to 1986 when edited and published by Antony Howe, for the Australasian Doctor Who Fan Club , reaching issue number 35...
had published a novelisation of the story in 1980, as issue #14/15/16 (thereafter reprinted a few times), but was not novelised by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
for almost ten more years, when it finally appeared in two volumes. The first, Mission to the Unknown, consisted of an adaptation of Mission to the Unknown
Mission to the Unknown
"Mission to the Unknown", sometimes known as "Dalek Cutaway", is an episode in the television series Doctor Who. It is a standalone episode, serving as an introduction to the 12 part story The Daleks' Master Plan...
and Episodes 1-6 of Master Plan. The second, The Mutation of Time, adapted Episodes 7-12. Both were written by John Peel
John Peel (writer)
John Peel is a British writer, best known for his books connected to several television series. He has written under several pseudonyms, including John Vincent and Nicholas Adams. He lives in Long Island, New York and his wife is a U.S...
and were published in September and October 1989, respectively.
Peel had intended to write the novelisation as a single, long book, but at the time Target Books had a page limit maximum which required splitting the manuscript into two parts.
Peel made one major change to the televised storyline by placing a six-month gap between the first and second volumes; he later stated that this was to enable future writers to develop original storylines involving the character of Sara Kingdom.
In May 2010 unabridged readings of both volumes by Peter Purves and Jean Marsh, with Dalek voices supplied by Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs is a British actor and writer, predominantly associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its various spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks. Briggs sometimes uses the pseudonym Arthur Wallis...
, were released by BBC Audiobooks. The titles were slightly modified to Daleks - Mission to the Unknown and Daleks - The Mutation of Time.
VHS, DVD and CD releases
- Episodes 5 and 10 were released on VHSVHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
on the tape Daleks - The Early Years in July 1992, which also included the silent pre-filmed inserts which had been then-recently recovered (see above). - In November 2004, all three surviving episodes were released on Region 2 DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, in the three-disc Lost in Time box set, along with all extant clips from the story. - Soundtracks of all the episodes survive due to several fans recording the original transmissions. In 2001, the entire story (together with Mission to the Unknown) was released on CD, combining the best quality sections from the various collections.
- The music from this serial was released as part of Doctor Who: Devils' Planets - The Music of Tristram CaryDoctor Who: Devils' Planets - The Music of Tristram CaryDoctor Who: Devils' Planets – The Music of Tristram Cary is a compilation of music by Tristram Cary for the television series Doctor Who. It features all the musical contributions Cary did for Doctor Who except for his music for Marco Polo and "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" from The...
in 2003.
External links
- Surprise, Surprise, Surprise! An interview with Andrew Martin, Steve Roberts & Richard Molesworth regarding the surprise finds of 2003/2004, including "Day of Armageddon".
- Doctor Who Locations - The Daleks' Master Plan
Reviews
- The Daleks' Master Plan reviews at Outpost GallifreyOutpost GallifreyOutpost Gallifrey was a fan website for the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was active as a complete fan site from 1995 until 2007, then existing solely as a portal to the still-active parts of the site, including its news page and forums Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website...
Target novelisation
Audio Adaptation
- The Daleks' Master Plan audio reviews at Outpost GallifreyOutpost GallifreyOutpost Gallifrey was a fan website for the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was active as a complete fan site from 1995 until 2007, then existing solely as a portal to the still-active parts of the site, including its news page and forums Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website...