“Doctor Who… without the Doctor. Bold move, Cotton.”
Short Synopsis
On a lonely jungle planet, Space Security Agent Marc Cory stumbles across the Daleks plotting something ominous (surprise: it’s always ominous). Cory and his expendable companions don’t live long enough to stop it, but at least they manage to send out a warning before getting exterminated. The Daleks, meanwhile, happily scheme away, setting up a future storyline because even in the ’60s, Doctor Who loved its cliffhangers.
Extended Storyline
This episode is Doctor Who’s version of an off-brand energy drink: same packaging, but missing the main ingredient. The Doctor and his companions are nowhere to be seen. Instead, we get Marc Cory, a “Space Security Service” agent — which sounds glamorous but mostly involves hanging around planets with deadly jungles, watching your crew die one by one, and yelling into radios that never work.
The planet in question is Kembel, a cheerful little holiday destination full of thorny plants, toxic atmosphere, and alien life that really just wants you dead. Naturally, Cory discovers that the Daleks are here, plotting to take over the galaxy (shocking twist). He tries to warn Earth but — this being a Doctor-less episode — things don’t exactly work out for him.
Cory and his fellow doomed redshirts get picked off by the environment and then exterminated by the Daleks for good measure. The Daleks, in between shouting “EXTERMINATE!” and waving their plungers about, introduce us to their “Galactic Council of Evil.” Yes, apparently even Daleks have board meetings, complete with alien delegates who look like they’ve just walked out of a second-rate costume shop.
By the end, Cory is dead, the Daleks are gloating, and the audience is left thinking: “Wait, was that really an episode of Doctor Who? Did I tune into the wrong show?” Nope. It was real. It happened. And it was basically one giant prologue to the epic Daleks’ Master Plan story that followed.