Marco Polo (Doctor Who)
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| 004 - Marco Polo | |
|---|---|
| Doctor | William Hartnell (First Doctor) |
| Writer | John Lucarotti |
| Director | Waris Hussein (episodes 1-3,5-7) John Crockett (episode 4) |
| Script editor | David Whitaker |
| Producer | Verity Lambert Mervyn Pinfield (associate producer) |
| Executive producer(s) | None |
| Production code | D |
| Series | Season 1 |
| Length | 7 episodes, 25 mins each |
| Transmission date | February 22–April 4, 1964 |
| Preceded by | The Edge of Destruction |
| Followed by | The Keys of Marinus |
| IMDb profile | |
Marco Polo is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 7 weekly parts from February 22 to April 4, 1964. Although audio tracks and still photographs of the story exist, none of the footage of this serial has survived.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The TARDIS lands in Central Asia in 1289, where the First Doctor and his companions fall in with Marco Polo as his caravan makes its way along the fabled Silk Road from the Pamir Plateau, across the treacherous Gobi Desert and over the Himalayas to end up in Peking at the height of its imperial power.
[edit] Plot
The TARDIS crew arrives in the snowy wastes of the Gobi Desert, and the ship is damaged and unable to produce lights, heat or water. The First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Susan Foreman face the prospect of freezing to death as night approaches and the temperatures plummet. Fortunately they spot a caravan in the distance. It is managed by Marco Polo, Italian trader and, like his father and uncle before him, an Italian in China as an emissary of Kublai Khan. He welcomes them to his company and introduces some of his fellow travellers including the Mongol warlord Tegana, who is emissary of peace from the Khan Noghai, who has been at war with Kublai Khan; and a young Chinese woman named Ping-Cho, who is travelling to meet her 75-year old groom in her arranged marriage, and who forms a strong attachment to Susan. Marco Polo is fascinated by the TARDIS, which is taken as a prize within the caravan, and tells the Doctor he is requisitioning the “magic caravan” as a prize for the Emperor to attempt to buy his way out of his service. Indeed, Marco takes the TARDIS key from the Doctor to make sure of his prize.
It is 1289 and the caravan is heading to the imperial capital of Shang-Tu in Cathay (as China was then known) where the Emperor Kublai Khan is expecting to see Marco Polo once more. It is a journey of many weeks and at the next stop at the way station in Lop the lord Tegana reveals his true colours when he purchases a poison to use to despoil the caravan’s water supply as it ventures on into the Gobi. However, a vicious sandstorm, during which Ping-Cho and Susan are briefly lost, prevents him implementing his plan. Instead he slices open the gourds during the night and ensures the bandits are blamed. Marco Polo insists the caravan presses on to the next stop, but the water rations get fewer and fewer as the days pass by and eventually Tegana – the wrong choice – is dispatched to find a fabled oasis. The Mongol finds the oasis easily, but does not return with water to the caravan as promised and the situation becomes ever more desperate. Indeed, the travellers only survive the arid conditions when the TARDIS forms moisture during the night, and they drink the water to live.
The caravan moves on to the next way-station at Tun-Huang where stocks are replenished and they meet an incredulous Tegana, who rejoins their caravan. Ping-Cho makes their stay pleasant with the tale of Ala-eddin (Aladdin) and the Hashshashin (or assassins). Tegana slips away during the performance and makes his way to the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes, where he is told by the Mongol agents Malik and Acomat that Noghai is assembling an army and marching toward Karakorum. Tegana tells Acomat, a bandit, to attack the caravan soon and kill Marco Polo and the others. Their plans, however, have been partially overheard by Barbara, who followed Tegana to the cave, though she does not realise the extent of Tegana's involvement. She is found and then kept prisoner by Malik while Tegana returns to the caravan, feigning surprise when her disappearance is discovered. The Doctor works out she may be at the cave and heads there accompanied by Susan and Ping-Cho, followed soon after by Marco, Ian and Tegana. Anxious that his plans will be exposed, when the search party find Barbara and Malik, Tegana kills his ally to cover his tracks.
When the party returns to the caravan Tegana tries another tactic and tries to force suspicion into Marco’s mind by telling him Susan has an unhealthy hold over his charge, Ping-Cho, and that the Doctor has somehow made a second key to gain entry to the TARDIS. Other suspicions are aroused when Barbara admits how she ended up at the Cave, but Tegana flatly denies ever having been there. Marco stamps his authority on the caravan by separating Ping-Cho and Susan, making both of them ever more suspicious of Tegana. At the next way station Tegana’s plans are further bolstered when he proves to Marco the Doctor has a second key to the TARDIS, forcing the old man to hand it over, and driving ever deepening enmity into the travelling party.
The caravan now catches sight of the Great Wall of China and the journey heads South to Lan-Chow along the banks of the Yellow River. At the next town of Sinju Tegana meets with the evil Acomat and tells him to attack the caravan two nights later as they journey through the bamboo forest. The guards on the caravan are killed and Acomat waits in the jungle, looking for Tegana’s signal, but badly times their attack so that they assume the explosions of bamboo are gunfire from the caravan. Acomat is slain – again by Tegana to protect the truth – while the other bandits flee in fear. In thanks for their help defeating the bandit attack, Marco Polo allows Susan and Ping-Cho to share company once more.
The Doctor and his companions have meanwhile worked out that Tegana is the source of many of the journey’s troubles, but cannot make Marco Polo realise how dangerous he is. A new traveller now arrives at the caravan, a message rider named Ling-Tau, who has travelled from Shang-Tu (300 miles away) in just 24-hours. He bears a message commanding the caravan to speed up, and so Marco Polo commands that once they reach the city of Cheng-Ting that the travellers should all take to horseback to speed up their journey while the TARDIS and the other belongings are brought on later. As ever, Tegana has another plot at the next way station. He meets an ally called Kuiju and bribes him to try and steal the TARDIS when the convoy is split up, and take it to Karkorum, where Noghai's troops are massing.
Ping-Cho knows where Marco has hidden the two keys to the TARDIS and gives one to Susan to help the time travellers escape, but things go wrong and they are prevented from fleeing, with Ian taking the blame on himself for stealing the key. As the journey enters its final phases the travellers attempt to ingratiate themselves with Marco Polo once more by telling him the truth about the TARDIS. Marco deduces Ian did not steal the key and so determines it was Ping-Cho after all and, fearing detection, she flees the caravan. Ian finds her back at Cheng-Ting, having ridden there alone, which is just as well as while there he uncovers the fact that Kuiji has stolen the TARDIS from the second convoy. When Ian and Ping-Cho find the bandit on the road to Karkorum, they force him to admit the truth, but then Tegana arrives. The warlord had broken away from the main party in the pretence of finding Ping-Cho, but in reality he is once more scheming. The situation is solved when Ling Tau and a band of soldiers arrive. They kill Kuiju, but once more Tegana talks his way out of a tight situation and the entire party agrees to ride on to the imperial palace in Peking,
The main convoy has meanwhile finally reached the summer palace of Shangh-Tu. Kublai Khan presides over a rich and beautiful city. When the travellers are brought before the great Khan, the Doctor is so bruised after his horse ride he is unable to kow-tow properly. Ironically, the aged Khan sees the aches of age as a point of friendship with the Doctor. He decrees they will all leave the following day for Peking, and the Doctor will travel with him in his own carriage. But he is concerned Tegana has not presented himself, being worried that Khan Noghai has now moved his armies from Samarkand to Karkorum. When the imperial party reaches the capital city, the Khan engages the Doctor in a game of backgammon. The Doctor wins 35 elephants, 4000 white stallions, 25 tigers, the sacred tooth of the Buddha and the entire commerce of Burma for a year - but loses the key to the TARDIS. The Khan presses Marco for the history of the "magic caravan" and the emissary admits he was wrong to try and obtain the vehicle, but only did it to try and buy his freedom. The Khan is not impressed, and warns Marco that if he does not regain his trust somehow then he will be banished from court.
Nevertheless, events take a turn for the better for another. Ping-Cho is spared a loveless marriage when the elderly man she was due to marry passes away after drinking a love potion. She is content to make eyes at Ling Tau, with whom she has formed an attachment.
When Ling Tau's party arrives at the palace, Marco Polo begins to have serious doubts about the actions and motivations of Tegana. He confides in the Doctor and his friends and together they work to unmask Tegana before it is too late, as they now deduce Tegana has come to Peking to kill the Khan. Tegana slays the Khan's guards and is moving in for the kill when he is prevented in his actions by the arrival of Marco Polo, who fights him until stopped by Palace Guards. His mission failed, Tegana takes his own life. In the ensuing melee, Marco Polo gives the Doctor and his party the key to the TARDIS and bids them escape. The "magic caravan" fades away before the eyes of the Khan and his courtiers. As a final act, the Khan forgives Marco Polo and agrees he can return to Venice.
[edit] Cast
- Dr Who — William Hartnell
- Ian Chesterton — William Russell
- Barbara Wright — Jacqueline Hill
- Susan Foreman — Carole Ann Ford
- Marco Polo — Mark Eden
- Tegana — Derren Nesbitt
- Ping Cho — Zienia Merton
- Kublai Khan — Martin Miller
- Chenchu — Jimmy Gardner
- Malik — Charles Wade
- Acomat — Philip Voss
- Ling-Tau — Paul Carson
- Wang-Lo — Gabor Baraker
- Kuiju — Tutte Lemkow
- Empress — Claire Davenport
- Yeng — O. Ikeda
- Man at Lop — Leslie Bates
- Mongol Bandit — Michael Guest
- Vizier — Peter Lawrence
- Office Foreman — Basil Tang
[edit] Cast notes
- Actors shortlisted for the role of Marco Polo included Clement Freud, Richard Hearne and Ernie Wise.
- Actors Mark Eden, Derren Nesbitt, and Martin Miller were later cast in The Prisoner episode "It's Your Funeral".
[edit] Continuity
- This is the first "pure historical" Doctor Who story, in that there are no science fictional elements other than the fact that the Doctor and his companions have travelled to the past. (The very first story, An Unearthly Child largely took place within a historical setting, but the first episode featured the TARDIS heavily.) Marco Polo is notable for featuring many educational elements, both historical and scientific (it was originally part of the show's remit to include such elements regularly) and is highly regarded among Doctor Who fans. The next historical adventure arrived later in the first season with The Aztecs, and continued to be regularly featured until 1967, when the purely historical format would be discontinued after The Highlanders.
- The Doctor is mostly absent from the whole of episode two The Singing Sands with only a few lines. When the character properly returns in episode three, Hartnell's portrayal of the Doctor shows less cantankerousness and more empathy. While occasionally dictatorial and selfish, the Doctor is no longer spiteful or bitter; neither would he contemplate murder in response to threatening situations, as he had done in An Unearthly Child and The Edge of Destruction.
[edit] Production
The seven episodes of the serial had individual titles. They were, respectively, "The Roof of the World", "The Singing Sands", "Five Hundred Eyes", "The Wall of Lies", "Rider from Shang-Tu", "Mighty Kublai Khan" and "Assassin at Peking".
[edit] Missing episodes
This is one of only three serials, along with Mission to the Unknown and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, of which not a frame of footage survives. (See Doctor Who missing episodes.) "Telesnaps" (images of the show during transmission, photographed from a television set) of episodes 1-3 and 5-7 do exist, and are in the possession of the director, Waris Hussein. The audio soundtrack also still exists, having been recorded "off air" during the original television transmissions.
[edit] In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by John Lucarotti, was published by Target Books in December 1984.
[edit] Broadcast, CD and DVD releases
- The audio soundtracks were released in a three CD set in 2003, as part of Doctor Who's 40th anniversary. This CD set is unique in containing a map of Cathay (China) as represented during the period of the Doctor's visit to China, and also explaining historical inaccuracies. Further, the first disc in the set contains data as well as audio; the data includes MP3 files of the soundtracks without additional narration (which is provided on the CDs by William Russell, filling in details when action was mostly visual), PDF files of the narration scripts, and computer wallpaper versions of the aforementioned map of Cathay.
- In 2002, Loose Cannon Productions, a group of fans who have produced several reconstructions of missing Doctor Who serials using still photos, clips, and surviving audio recordings, released a specially "colorised" reconstructed version of this serial, using the large number of colour photographs taking during the production. Mark Eden, who played Marco Polo, recorded an introduction for this release, including a brief segment where he reprised his role from the serial. Unlike most Doctor Who reconstructions, this project made no use of the existing telesnaps, as they had not yet been made available during the making of the project.
- The 2006 DVD box set, The Beginning, has a condensed form of this story included as an extra on The Edge of Destruction. This version of the story, compiled by Reeltime Pictures, lasts for just 30 minutes, and consists of parts of the audio track and telesnaps.
[edit] External links
- Marco Polo at bbc.co.uk
- Marco Polo at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- Marco Polo at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Marco Polo at Outpost Gallifrey
[edit] Reviews
- Marco Polo reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- Marco Polo reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
[edit] Audio adaptation
- Marco Polo audio reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
