Talk:Mission to the Unknown

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Mission to the Unknown has been listed as one of the Media and drama good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: July 7, 2023. (Reviewed version).

A fact from Mission to the Unknown appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 1 August 2023 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that "Mission to the Unknown" is the only Doctor Who serial not to feature the Doctor at all?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2023/August. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Mission to the Unknown.

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Planet of Giants

Is it correct that Mission to the Unknown was commissioned because Planet of Giants was shortened? That serial appeared a year earlier, at the start of the previous season. Why would it cause a carry-over into the next year? 68.145.238.33 15:05, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You have to note that the production blocks don't conform precisely to the Seasons. What happened was that when Giants was reduced by one episode in October 1964, the serial that was originally to be at the end of the second recording block was supposed to be extended to seven episodes instead of six. However, that story was replaced by The Chase, which came out at six episodes, so that "extra episode" never got made. Swing around now to 1965, and Sydney Newman extends the recording block from 26 episodes to 35. At this time, Doctor Who serials were always made in 4 episode or 6 episode stories - so to extend it by 9 episodes seems anomalous. The likely explanation is that the additional episode was the extra episode that was promised and budgeted for but never materialised... and since they had that extra episode to play with, that became Mission to the Unknown. --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 15:26, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Planet of Giants was part of the FIRST production block and was simply held over for Season 2. Also, four episodes were produced, even though not broadcast, so the budget was used up.Don Bodo (talk) 20:06, 18 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Donbodo: You do realise that you're replying to a thread that was last posted to almost eight years ago, right? --Redrose64 (talk) 20:53, 18 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

These threads are still up here for a reason. People read them. :) Don Bodo (talk) 15:06, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Screenshot

Just out of curiousity, if no video or film survives from this serial, how did we get the screenshot? --MessengerAtLWU 21:00, 2 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a screenshot, it's a well known publicity photograph. Timrollpickering 23:22, 2 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Gotcha, thanks! --MessengerAtLWU 23:46, 2 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:Galaxy5.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 18:44, 2 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

only standalone

what about five doctors —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.130.8.135 (talk) 08:35, 31 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Good point - I've altered it slightly. Eleventh Doctor (talk) 13:28, 16 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Production

The table in the Production section claims that "Only stills and/or fragments exist", yet the article says no fragments exist. Can this be fixed? Bondegezou (talk) 13:47, 18 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It actually states "no footage is known to have survived" and "with no visual footage currently known to exist". This does not prevent stills from existing. --Redrose64 (talk) 14:46, 18 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It now says "with no broadcast footage of any form currently known to exist." This, to me, includes stills, which is incorrect as there is a Loose Cannon reproduction. 101090ABC (talk) 10:19, 12 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Couldn't somebody reasonable just fix this? Now it reads: - Length 1 episode: 25 minutes - and - Episode(s) missing: 1 episode, 25 minutes - It's on youtube, among other places online. So it's hardly missing. 0244 (CEST), 22 Jan 2015 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.72.211.103 (talk) 01:45, 22 January 2015

If there is something on YouTube that is original (which I seriously doubt), it's a copyright violation. Non-original footage doesn't count for the purposes of describing what portions of the programme as broadcast remain in the BBC archives. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:05, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It's reconstructed, like many other previously lost episodes, but it is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIMGa3Js8N8 I wasn't born yet back then, but it seems to be as original and legit as can be in case of a reconstructed episode. To me anyway... Still doesn't count? (CEST 17:11, 22 Jan 2015) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.72.211.103 (talk)

All copies of the original recording are lost. Reconstructions aren't the same thing as the original recording, so it counts as being lost. DonQuixote (talk) 16:59, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It is not on Youtube anymore. It was taken down by the BBC due to copyright infringement. Vincinel (talk) 13:48, 25 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

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I have twice updated a dead link only to have it reverted. -- Scottandrewhutchins (talk) 05:00, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The dead link is already updated via archived link. And the link you provided is a clear copyright violation. DonQuixote (talk) 06:31, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Vaticidalprophet (talk) 04:01, 24 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that "Mission to the Unknown" is the only Doctor Who serial not to feature the Doctor at all? Source: Muir 1999, p. 116
- ALT1: ... that one episode of Doctor Who is completely missing its titular character? Source: Muir 1999, p. 116
- ALT2: ... that a team of university students recreated an episode of Doctor Who 54 years after the original? Source: The Guardian
- ALT3: ... that the design of the Daleks' conference room in "Mission to the Unknown" was inspired by the Nuremberg rallies? Source: Wright 2017, p. 53
- Reviewed: Habiburokhman

Improved to Good Article status by Rhain (talk). Self-nominated at 00:01, 10 July 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Mission to the Unknown; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.[reply]

Article has achieved Good Article status. No issues of copyvio or plagiarism. All sources appear reliable. QPQ is done. Hooks are interesting and sourced. I like the primary hook. Looks ready to go. Thriley (talk) 00:52, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
ALT1 is untrue, there were several episodes in the 1963-69 period where the Doctor is completely absent, normally because the actor was on holiday that week (examples include "The Screaming Jungle" and "The Snows of Terror"), but also when the actor was playing a different character (e.g. "The Sea Beggar"). --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:42, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't claim that it's the only episode to do this though, so it's not untrue. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 21:36, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not a serial

If this episode is a stand alone episode it cannot count as a serial. 85.255.237.194 (talk) 12:26, 1 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but see Wikipedia:WikiProject Doctor Who/Style advice#Terminology which says:

Serial: A group of episodes from the classic series which together form a single story

and "Mission to the Unknown" is a single story from the classic series, so it's a serial. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 13:56, 1 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There's no other widely used word other than perhaps 'story'. We don't have to be pedantic if the meaning is clear. DonQuixote (talk) 13:56, 1 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]