004 - Marco Polo

Broadcast:

22^nd February - 4^th April 1964

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Ian, Barbara, Susan

Adversary:

Mongol Bandits

Written by:

John Lucarotti

Director:

Waris Hussein, John Crockett (ep4)

Music:

Tristram Cary

Script Editor:

David Whitaker

Producer:

Verity Lambert

Average Viewers:

9.47m (9.4, 9.4, 9.4, 9.9, 9.4, 8.4, 10.4)

Summary: The TARDIS is captured by a great explorer and the travellers are forced to travel through Cathay with him, facing bandits and dehydration along the way

I initially thought this would be an easy review. All episodes of Marco Polo are missing from the archive but the audio is presented on the The Edge Of Destruction DVD in an edited form with telesnaps which I remembered watching a few years ago and not enjoying a great deal. They have condensed seven episodes into 30 minutes so it feels very fast, choppy and a little incomprehensible. There are sections of voice over narrating a journey animated on a map and an explanation of condensation that feels very shoe-horned in just to fulfil the educational remit.

I then remembered that Loose Canon have created full telesnap reconstructions of every missing episode (Marco Polo had a fresh make over just a year ago) and while they make a point of only distributing them on VHS (you provide the tape and prepaid postage) the modern computer age has made it easier for others to convert these videos and upload them to sites like YouTube. At the time of writing, only 5 parts are not available (one complete episode and the first half of three others) which is a mere 2.8% of missing material. Once I watched their version of Marco Polo, it was clear that the 30 minute edit on the DVD did not do it justice and I hold great hope for the remaining stories.

And so to the main review...

During transmission of Marco Polo, Cassius Clay (later known as Mohammed Ali) beat Sonny Liston to become World Heavyweight Champion, Italy requested help to prevent the famous Leaning Tower of Piza from toppling over then won the Eurovision Song Contest! Prince Edward was born, but 125 people were killed in a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in Alaska. Richard Burton married Elizabeth Taylor, for the first time, Radio Caroline became Britain's first Pirate Radio Station and the government announced plans to build three new towns in the South East of England (including Milton Keynes). The Beatles continued to dominate the music world (making up 60% of UK single sales, holding the top 5 places in American charts and top 6 in Australia, and becoming the first pop group to be represented at Madam Tussauds Wax Museum), meanwhile the UK charts were topped by Cilla Black, Billy Jay Kramer And The Dakotas, and the Beatles ("Anyone Who Had A Heart", "Little Children" and "Can't Buy Me Love" respectively). Cinema release included McLintock!, Viva Las Vegas and The Fall Of The Roman Empire

By comparison to all that, Marco Polo is pretty sedate, but not without drama. It is the first truly historical adventure and Lucarotti's sights were clearly set on being educational. Not only is there a genuine figure from history present and indeed leading proceedings through north China (giving a little geography and history lesson, since the area is always referred to as Cathay), but in the first episode alone the 'giant footprints' found in the preceding cliffhanger are explained as normal prints extended by the snow being melted by the moving Sun, Ian talks to Marco Polo about the science of boiling, Barbara tells Susan about Kublai Kahn and the subject of arranged marriage at a young age is discussed between Susan and Ping-Cho - at which point we, the audience, also learn that she is only 16 and has had many homes in many places. Episode three even takes time out to tell the story of the Hashashin (or Hashasheen) from whom we get the word Assassin (though the truth behind the etymology is unclear). The first episode ends with the curious voice over I had heard in the 30 minute edit, only this time it is much clearer that it is from Polo's journal (and not a modern addition as I had originally thought) and is used to portray large passage of time and leave viewers with a suspenseful suggestion that he is not as friendly as the TARDIS travellers think and is up to no good...

Points of note in episode two are the fact that TARDIS police box is physically moved for the first time, in this case it is on the back of a wagon and would be repeated several times throughout the story, Susan uses very 60's words like "Fab" "Crazy" and "Dig" to emphasise how modern she is and how ancient Ping-Cho and everyone else is. The pair are also treated very much like children when they return to the camp after a sand storm - emphasising Susan's youth again, something which is often and easily overlooked in most other stories. Barbara refers to "TARDIS" like a proper noun rather than "The TARDIS" (which the Doctor also does a few episodes later), Marco offers Ian a game of chess and when he replies "Yes, OK" says that he (Marco) accepts the challenge as if it were Ian's idea! Finally, it is also worth noting that the Doctor doesn't appear in the episode until 20 minutes in, with only 4 minutes remaining!

One of the factors keeping the travellers with Marco Polo is a fault in the TARDIS, but when this is finally fixed 20 minutes into episode 4, rather than the adventure being over it simply changes direction because the other factor is Polo's intention to keep the TARDIS for himself (though the Doctor reiterates the security features that just having the key is not enough to open the door) However, about 20 minutes into the next episode they look set to make a getaway... but it's not until episode 7 that they finally do of course, after the Doctor plays backgammon to win it back! Despite having previously won 35 elephants with ceremonial bridal trappings and pavilions, 4000 white stallions and 25 tigers, plus the sacred tooth of Budha, all the commerce of Burma for a year and half of Asia, the Doctor loses and is curiously amused by it and happy to receive paper money as compensation!

It's hard to give a real appraisal of the action from telesnaps, but the sets and costumes look great, there is a lovely model shot of the camp in the first episode and I made a note of an "impressive sword fight" at the end - I guess it sounded good and the still images must have made it look ambitious, but it also shows how easy it is to forget that the frame rate is effectively only 5 seconds per frame on average when the audio is so rich. Going to the negative side and noting the line fluffs as I normally do, Marco Polo suffered quite badly, perhaps because it was quite a serious and detailed production. The first episode alone has three Hartnell fluffs, partly through blustering action and acted exasperation. The first two come as the Doctor leaves the TARDIS for the first time, reporting that there is a problem, while the third is as Barbara and Ian return from a slight exploration and it is clearly Jacqueline Hill who rescues the scene. Beyond that in episode 4, Tegana fluffs "Why not let Cho... let them go on their way" followed by Susan "If only we could find out... if only we could prove Tegana has been to the caves before" (also worth noting that episode 4 features the Doctor singing "pom-pom-papom" style to himself!) Then episode 5 has another fumble from the Doctor. Without the actual video footage of course any set wobbles or camera knocks can not be judged

I'm glad I revisited Marco Polo and was able to watch the full length reconstruction because it really was quite a good adventure, epic in length (in terms of time that passes within the narrative as well as the number of episodes - the same as The Daleks, but more consistent and there wouldn't be another so long until the truly epic The Daleks' Master Plan's 12 nearly two years later, and the next seven parter wouldn't be until Patrick Troughton's The Evil Of The Daleks in 1967) and full of either action drama or intrigue, even suspense in places. I'm really not a fan of the historical adventures but this one does well and I scored it 72% (it has the lowest Content score so far but is saved by high Production score)

I will end this review with a reference to perhaps a prophetic line from episode 6 where the feasibility of the long journey back to England is compared to the return home of the Crusaders... Exactly a year later Doctor Who would begin The Crusades (which is the next story I will be watching as a telesnap reconstruction!)