Doctor Who: Daleks - Mission to the Unknown

By: John Peel

Narrated by: Jean Marsh

Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Stranded in the jungles of Kembel, the most hostile planet in the Galaxy, Space Security agent Marc Cory has stumbled across the most deadly plot ever hatched - the Daleks are about to invade and destroy the Universe. Cory has to get a warning back to Earth before it's too late - but the Daleks find him first. Months later the Doctor and his companions arrive on Kembel and find Cory's message. But it may be too late for Earth - the Daleks' Master Plan has already begun... Peter Purves and Jean Marsh read this exciting novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure, with Dalek voices by Nicholas Briggs. This is the first of two novelisations written by John Peel and based on the TV serial The Daleks' Masterplan. The second, Daleks: The Mutation of Time, is also available from AudioGO.

©2012 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2012 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Thrilling story!

Any additional comments?

When I bought it, this book only had a one-star rating by one person. I don't understand why anyone would just give it one star. It is exciting, witty (I laughed out loud at one point) and has a really complicated plot (though it isn't hard to follow). A correction to the description: it is narrated by Jean Marsh (who played Sara Kingdom in the original series) AND Peter Purves, who played Steven Taylor. Another reader who should not be forgotten is Nicholas Briggs, who does all the Dalek voices. Marsh, Purves and Briggs are all terrific, of course. Long may they keep doing Doctor Who in all its various forms!

The Great Epic part one.

The closest Doctor Who ever got to an epic style like the Lord Of the Rings saga, was the Daleks Masterplan. It was longest serial of the whole original series. 12 episodes in all. The first Doctor meets the Daleks one last time. Lot people died in this serial, nobody was safe even the Doctors Companions. By the end two will die. No one has ever seen it since it originally went out, because some idiot at BBC destroyed most of the episodes. Luckily John Peel was finally was allowed to novelize the story. Which concludes in the next book. Can hardly wait to listen to it.

the daleks masterpiece

Any additional comments?

I cant believe someone gave this book such a poor rating, it's one of the best classic doctor who audios i've listened to, both narrators do a brilliant job of bringing the first doctor and his companions to life. You could argue that it's a little overlong and some of the mini adventures they have just drag things out but they do add a bit of much needed humor to quite a serious story and whats not to love about a story that has the daleks at their devious scheming best, It's such a shame I'm never going to see the television version of this story as most of the episodes are missing, but this book along with the second part(the mutation of time) more than make up for it.

Good but an odd decision in narration

So I will admit this is a good listen to if you want the masterplan in a different flavour and some differences from the original source which is fine and not a problem however when I discovered this was being done by two of the original actors that being Peter Purves and Jean Marsh how I thought this was going to be handled was That Jean would’ve handled the female voices and Peter would’ve handled the male voices yes I’m fully aware most of the dialogue was handled by male characters but you get my point but instead they have Peter narrating a couple chapters then Jean narrating a couple and then just doubling back and forth repeatedly till the audio ends and to me that is a little confusing it’s not bad it’s actually understandable when you work out what’s going on if it’s your first listen to with Doctor Who novelisation narration is that when it starts to become confusing as as the flipping back and forth becomes irritating at times when it goes from one chapter into the other which is a direct continuation of the previous chapter but then you get the different narrator slightly doing the voice different I know part two is going to be the same but it is still somewhat irritating at the same time this is not me saying I do not like this release this is me saying it is a good release for the narration is a bit awkwardly handled

Dale deadline

great storey, just wished it had gone on longer, great performances by two legends of the small screen.

Doctor Who: Darleks - Mission to the Unknown

Took a long time to get into. Having two narrator is irritating I would not recommend it Not value four money

The Doctor 1, Daleks nil

What did you like most about Doctor Who: Daleks - Mission to the Unknown?

Doctor Who how it used to be, nice and simple, the Doctor bumbles along from one near disaster to another but manages to constantly thwart the Daleks and their dasterdly plans

What was one of the most memorable moments of Doctor Who: Daleks - Mission to the Unknown?

The Black Dalek resisting the urge to exterminate a human

What does Jean Marsh bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

This is actually narrated by Jean Marsh and Peter Purves and both do a very good job, Peter manages to sound very like the original doctor

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, dip in a chapter or 2 at a time

Any additional comments?

Well worth a listen, the description does state it is 7hrs 22m but the last hour of mine is just a repeat of an hour from earlier in the book

Looking forward to part 2