 'Mission
to the Unknown' was a one-off episode that didn't feature any of the regular
cast. It was used to set up the epic 'The Daleks Masterplan' which was to follow
a few weeks later.
 The
same four hero props were used, carried over from 'The
Chase'. They were: two original Daleks from their debut story, plus the top
of a third, along with one prop made for 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth', (now with
new film-style gunboxes) plus the second skirt from that story (with its bad hemisphere
alignment). The three original top halves can be identified by the unique thin
collar, plus the two sets of "high screwed" gunboxes which were added
to two 1963 props during 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth'.
Three props were
painted in silver with blue studs, with the Supreme Dalek in black and silver
with blue studs. As the  Black
Dalek in the last story had been painted to be a silver prop for episode two onwards
of 'The Chase', when it came to making a new Supreme prop for 
'The Daleks Masterplan' it was an arbitrary choice as to which should be painted.
As a result, the Black prop in this story is not the same as the black
prop from the previous one. All four props were silver for the sequence of the
Daleks burning down the jungle and during other studio blocks in which the Black
Dalek does not feature, such as during the entirety of the episode 'Escape Switch'.
It
was during refurbishments for this story that two distinctive bolts appear in
the second panels of each side of one of the skirts that was built for 'The Dalek
Invasion of Earth'. On the right side, the bolt sits behind
the hemisphere, and
on the left side the bolt sits forward of it. These helpful identifiers can be
seen picture on the right.
During
the course of the story several different attachments were used on the Dalek arms,
including burners and a seismic detector. A couple of different methods were used
for Dalek destruction scenes, one being smoke canisters let off inside the prop,
and this allowed for minimal cleaning. Special lightweight shoulder sections were
made which, when the charge was let off, made the prop appear to collapse. These
FX shoulders can be seen above left.
It
was around this time that, due to their popularity, Terry Nation began laying
down plans for the Daleks to have a series of their own, although he didn't approach
the BBC with his pilot script ('The Destroyers') until 'Power of the Daleks' was
being filmed some months later. The series would have featured elements from 'Masterplan'.
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Chapter: 'Daleks Invasion' Film >>> |
