The Daleks’ Master Plan is one of the early Doctor Who stories with episodes missing from the BBC archives, but many skilled, enthusiastic animators have recreated some scenes from the twelve-episode story starring William Hartnell as The Doctor down the years – including “The Real C’rizz”.

A few months back, he unveiled a short animation featuring some scenes from Episode Two of the story, “Day of Armageddon”, the story, to the delight of fans, alongside creating his own Dalek-inspired adventures. The result is a shorty but atmospheric retelling of Dalek skullduggery, that definitely leaves you wanting more.

“Now in hindsight, I probably should have animated scenes from missing episodes of this 10/10 story, but the ones I chose to do are just so iconic, I couldn’t help myself,” the animator says.

The Daleks’ Master Plan sequence was created in Blender and Adobe Premiere Pro over three months. “There are so many things I would change, but would ultimately mean a complete overhaul of the project, which I just don’t want to do in this case – I just want to move on.”

Move on, he has – creating his own story, Extinction of the Daleks, a project he’s clearly put a huge amount of time and energy into over several months.

Fans of Doctor Who across the globe have helped try to track down the original missing episodes of The Daleks’ Master Plan, a story extended from six to 12 episodes at the time. Currently, only Episodes 2 (“Day of Armageddon”), 5 (“Counter Plot”) , and 10 (“Escape Switch”) are known as extant, but audio recordings of the whole story exist.

In 2001, the entire story (together with its prequel, Mission to the Unknown) was released on CD, with additional narration by Peter Purves, who played the Doctor’s companion of the time, Steven, combining the best quality sections from various fan recordings and surviving master copies of the original music and sound effects.

Episode 7 (“The Feast of Steven”), the Christmas episode, holds the dubious honour of being one of the first episodes of Doctor Who to be wiped, the tapes re-used to record other shows, followed by several other episodes from the story, in 1967.

The story was officially adapted into print over two volumes by Target Books, Mission to the Unknown and The Mutation of Time, written by John Peel. BBC Audiobooks released unabridged readings of both volumes by Peter Purves and Jean Marsh, who played Sara Kingdom, with Dalek voices supplied by Nicholas Briggs, in 2010.

In 2019, as we reported at the time, “Mission to the Unknown” was authentically recreated by students, graduates and staff from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston.

• Check out The Real C’rizz Channel on YouTube

• The Daleks’ Master Plan – BBC Audiobooks

William Hartnell is the original Doctor in the most epic Doctor Who story ever made, in which his arch-enemies, the Daleks, threaten to destroy the fabric of Time itself!

In their quest to gain control of the Solar System, the Daleks have taken posession of the Time Destructor, a weapon which threatens the safety of all who stand in their way. As they head up an alliance of alien races bent on destroying the human race, in their midst is none other than the treacherous Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen.

A dangerous chase ensues across volcanos, jungles, deserts, and futuristic cities, as the Doctor and his companions struggle to prevent the Daleks’ plans coming to fruition. The stakes are high, and for the first time in the programme’s history the lives of two TARDIS travellers are lost….

Peter Purves (who played Steven in the story) narrates these thirteen episodes, only two of which survive in the television archives. Included is the special ‘teaser’, Mission To The Unknown, which was transmitted some weeks before the master plan itself was unleashed.

This story marks the first appearance, here playing space agent Bret Vyon, of Nicholas Courtney, who would later create the recurring role of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Jean Marsh and Adrienne Hill also star as companions Sara Kingdom and Katarina.

• Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection Two: 1st Doctor TV Soundtracks

• Mission to the Unknown Recreated

On 9th October 2019, Mission to the Unknown, as recreated by the University of Central Lancashire, came to YouTube on the 54th anniversary of its original broadcast. It premiered on the Doctor Who YouTube channel at exactly 5.50pm BST, to mark the 40th anniversary of the original broadcast of the episode, which was first aired on BBC One in 1965

Further Reading and Listening

• Doctor Who: The Missing Episodes Podcast – Episode 6 – Mission to the Unknown

Missing episode enthusiasts Paul and Tim think they’ve hit on a Varga-ood idea: tracking down lost TV signals in outer space… After they’ve tackled that thorny issue, they set about a more realistic goal: reviewing the Season 3 one-part story Mission to the Unknown.

• Doctor Who: The Missing Episodes Podcast – Episode 8 – The Daleks’ Master Plan (Part One)

The first of two episodes looking at the twelve-part Season 3 story, The Daleks’ Master Plan, the podcast’s regular hosts are joined by author and 3D designer Gav Rymill, who’s well known for his work in Doctor Who related graphic design and for being one of the two men behind the phenomenally successful “Dalek 63:88.” Gav leads the team on a deep dive into the origins of the story, what might have been, what the heck was going on the with casting of companions

• BBC: The Daleks’ Master Plan

• Wikipedia: The Daleks’ Master Plan

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: Animation, Doctor Who, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, Television

Tags: Doctor Who, downthetubes News, Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks’ Master Plan, The Real C'rizz, WebFinds, YouTube