10 Doctor Who Episodes That Were Banned Or Censored
3. Mission To The Unknown
We've already seen how Australian censors cut contentious material from 1960s episodes of Doctor Who, but Mission to the Unknown is worthy of its own entry.
This prologue to the 12-part epic The Daleks' Master Plan was offered to Australia's ABC network in 1966, as part of a group of serials that included The Myth Makers and Galaxy 4. But when Australian censors sat down to watch the episode, they were disturbed by its content.
Mission to the Unknown is certainly bleak, as none of the new hero characters make it out alive. And as well as the Daleks, it also features the creepy Varga plants, which infect their victims and turn them into homicidal maniacs.
All of this was clearly too much for the Australian censors, who reportedly banned the episode from being broadcast.
To this day, the original, too-horrific-for-Australian-TV Mission to the Unknown remains completely missing, but fortunately, it was lovingly restored by the University of Central Lancashire in 2019. Everyone involved seems to have been over the age of 18, which would surely please the Australian censors.