THE DALEKS MASTER PLAN

Introduction This page is designed to accompany the recent audio release by the BBC of the The Daleks Master Plan - the longest Doctor Who story ever transmitted. It was also the only Doctor Who story given an extra episode as a 'teaser'. Mission to the Unknown was broadcast on 9th October 1965. Five weeks later, on the 13th November, The Daleks Master Plan began. Click here to see how the Radio Times introduced the story

The Story As Marc Cory discovered in Mission to the Unknown, the Daleks are on the planet Kembel, plotting the conquest of the entire universe. They are aided by beings from many other galaxies. Into this alliance comes the traitorous Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen, who desires ultimate power. The TARDIS arrives on Kembel, bringing the Doctor, Steven and Katarina. They soon discover the presence of the Daleks on the planet. The Doctor audaciously infiltrates the Daleks conference and steals the core of the Time Destructor, the most evil weapon ever devised. The Daleks must retrieve the Taranium Core and so the pursuit is on. The Doctor and his friends are aided by Space Security agents in their attempts to stay one step ahead of the Daleks, until the final showdown on Kembel. But, not all of the Doctor's friends will survive this adventure...

The BBC Release The BBC release of The Daleks Master Plan is probably the most ambitious they have yet attempted - 13 episodes on 5 CDs. Only two episodes (5 and 10) still existed at the time the CDs were prepared and audio recordings of the remaining eleven episodes were acquired from various people. I lent them my recording of Mission to the Unknown, and other recordings were supplied by David Holman, Richard Landen, Graham Strong and Allen Wilson. Mark Ayres did his usual brilliant job of cleaning up and remastering the episodes and the result is the best reproduction of the story that anyone has heard in many years. For the first time on an audio release, the BBC have also included some CD-ROM goodies for computer users. Disc One of the set has all 13 remastered episodes in MP3 format (but without Peter Purves linking narration) plus the linking scripts and some examples of 'before' and 'after' clips from the audio recordings, demonstrating the work the Mark Ayres did on the original recordings. I recommend this BBC release and it is surely essential listening for any Doctor Who fan. Anyone wishing to see the surviving episodes of the story can see them on the new BBC Dr. Who DVD - "Lost in Time".