6. Doctor Who
Main Character Missing: The Doctor and Vicki and Steven (1 Episode).
Which Episode?: "Mission To The Unknown" (Season 3, Episode 5).
Is It Still Good?: Meh. There have been episodes before that have been diagnosed as "Doctor-lite", especially in recent years, such as "Love And Monsters" or "Blink". Some were good, like the intense and suspensful Blink, and some were not-so-good, like Love And Monsters which consisted of Danny from Hustle talking with his friends who get absorbed by Peter Kay, whose costume was literally designed by a child (Jet Jaguar-style). No other episode has the particular distinction of shunning the Doctor altogether, however, such as is the case with "Mission To The Unknown". The episode is a one-off prelude to the 12 parter "The Dalek's Master Plan", which is a pretty large serial length, even by Doctor Who standards. The episode is also completely lost as of the time of writing, so you can only really judge it by its concept rather than its execution. How does the execution sound? Bland. The episode was only ever created due to one serial being cut down, leaving a gap in the schedule. That's precisely what (it sounds like) it feels like, filler. It is usually referred to as a "cutaway episode" rather than a serial. Relating it to a Family Guy joke sounds pretty accurate, so let's just leave it at that. It just (sounds like it) feels like one of those technically unofficial movies made by fans while the show was off the air in the 1990's, with only The Daleks and some new characters featuring. Can I recommend it? Not really, especially since it isn't even available. If the footage is ever found, there's no point in watching it unless you want some icing on your cake when you watch the aforementioned 12-parter (it doesn't even fit in with that, since there were drastically different costume changes with the some of the recurring characters from both serials, the alien delegates on Kembel), and even if this episode were found, if you went by my recommendation, you still shouldn't watch it until the last 9 episodes of The Dalek's Master Plan are found.