N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Or as Lurcio might say: “The Prologue”.

“If the Daleks are involved you can bet your life our whole galaxy is in danger.”

Marc Cory, Mission to the Unknown

No Doctor, no Vicki, no Steven, and sadly no visuals either, but the aural landscape of the planet Kembel has a very sinister and claustrophobic feel to it. Whilst our regular protagonists are absent, just in case we were worried that this wasn’t Doctor Who, there are Daleks – and it seems they have a plan.

One thing Mission to the Unknown does is to re-establish some of the threat I felt the Daleks had lost in The Chase. It achieves this in part simply by its existence, showing that the Daleks provide a wider menace to the universe than those semi-regular encounters our usual band of travellers have had with them.

Indeed Mission to the Unknown provides one of the bleaker experiences in early Doctor Who, with none of its guest protagonists surviving. (Well, it is a Terry Nation script!)

But yes, very much a prologue.