Talk: Sentreal

The Daleks' Allies

Hello serious DW fans!

I would love to know once and for all which of the six alien allies in 'Mission to the Unknown' is which - but apart from Malpha, of course, there isn't the dialogue in the episode to sort them out.

There seems to be general agreement that we're talking about creatures named Malpha, Trantis, Beaus, Sentreal, Gearon and Warrien (Gearon is the only one of the six names in 'Mission to the Unknown' that's explicitly attached to a planet).

Could someone better informed than me (there are plenty of you out there!) tell me what sources can be used to attach each ally's physical appearance to his name? Is it possible that the DW Wiki currently has the descriptions of Beaus and Sentreal the wrong way round?

All the best

212.219.191.162 13:50, 28 January 2009 (UTC)Andy Campbell

All things are possible as with missing episodes we can't be sure what was seen on screen. However the current identification of Beaus in the pressure suit and Sentreal as the tall being with the cylinder head seems to be the general theory today. It's important to understand that prior to the recovery of Daleks' Master Plan 2 they were commonly identified the other way round (and there's still stuff online, including the fan transcripts, which continues this), but as Sentreal doesn't appear to be in Master Plan it seems likely fandom has had things the wrong way round for decades.

There was a short article about this in Doctor Who Magazine back in 2004 but I can't remember the issue. What can be said about the names and costumes is as follows:

1. We're pretty sure about identifying Mavic Chen and Zephon. But as for the rest...
2. At the time it was not unusual in long running television series for the names and costumes of minor characters to jump around actors and extras with little regard for overall continuity. Examples can be seen in the TV series "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "The Adventures of Sir Lancelot" where the same names are often used for minor Merry Men, Sheriff's aides or Knights of the Round Table, and in the latter case the Knights have individual designs on their tunics, but the actors and extras frequently change. Who has generally had very little of this although there are some "stock" names used for UNIT Corporals and Privates that crop up more than once. So it's quite likely that with changing directors, designers and actors there wasn't a huge amount of effort put into ensuring the delegates matched up all the time - note that the costume for Beaus changes slightly between stories, whilst Gearon's jump suit is significantly different.
3. In the draft script for Mission the delegates were named as Malpha, Trantis, Celation, Beaus, Sentreal, Gearon and Zephon. Zephon was dropped by the final script (though the name returns in Master Plan) but the other six names survive to the final script and can also be found in a news report from the time in the Daily Mail.
4. Only Malpha was a speaking part in Mission and he's one of the few delegates about whom there's no confusion - "tall and well built and had a face covered with a network of dark veins on pale skin, resembling a patchwork". However he's played by at least two actors over his appearances, a sign of the confusion to come.
5. Early fandom came up with a set of identifications apparently based on name plates in the conference room. For Mission Malpha was identified as above. Beaus and Sentreal were identified the other way round from currently (and this even made it into John Peel's novelisation). Gearon was identified as the one with the egg shaped head. The short hunch back with the face tendrils was identified as Trantis, and the one with the white dome head as "Warrien".
6. However documentation indicates that Trantis was played by Ronald Rich (he wasn't credited onscreen) and Rich was a tall actor, making it likely he was one of the others. Is this a case of Rich being a very versatile actor, was the documentation filled in sloppily or were the individual names not really assigned for definite at this stage?
7. And of course when Trantis appears in Daleks' Master Plan where he is clearly identified (played by Roy Evans and with dialogue) he looks different, most notably without the tendrils. Are these the equivalent of Klingon forehead ridges that his people just don't talk about, or is Trantis in Mission actually one of the other delegates - the one in the white dome perhaps?
8. The name "Warrien" doesn't appear in either the script or contemporary publicity. So is he a product of fan confusion/chinese whispers and the sixth delegate is actually Celation, looking radically different from later on? (A fan explanation might be that his skin reacts to Kembel's atmosphere, producing those spots, but he decides to remove the pressure suit as it makes it easier to communicate.) Alternatively the theory that has Trantis with the white dome makes the tendril monster Celation, who has cut them off by Master Plan.
9. Celation in Master Plan is easy to tie down as the one with spots because of a photo from the episode Volcano, where only he, Trantis and Chen appear.
10. As I said above, Sentreal and Warrien (if he ever existed) are not in Master Plan so it's reasonable to assume they are the delegates in Mission with the costumes that don't appear again. Hence the reidentification.

Unless the remaining missing episodes show up we'll never know for absolute certainty but the current identifications seem reasonable. Timrollpickering 19:25, February 28, 2010 (UTC)