Marco Polo is a little like the Holy Grail of Doctor Who. It’s the earliest missing story. Until recently all we knew about the story came from a few photographs and the audio soundtrack. The discovery of telesnaps (for all of the episodes bar episode four, The Wall of Lies) allowed us a more realistic glimpse into the story. Ultimately, though, Marco Polo has, for many years, rested on the laurels of its legacy. The pinnacle of historical stories, we are led to believe.

I beg to differ.

Comparing this to other historical stories, especially those from the first season, it pales into comparison next to The Aztecs and even The Reign of Terror. Marco Polo is just too long. Seven episodes is a rare story length for Doctor Who – the only other stories with 7 episodes are the triumvirate of Pertwee Season 7 serials: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death and Inferno. Those stories, in particular Inferno’s parallel universe plotline, make good use of their seven episodes.

This story has the Doctor, Susan, Ian, Barbara join Marco Polo’s caravan for an interminable journey to meet Kublai Khan. The main thrust of the story revolves around the fact that Marco refuses to let the TARDIS crew return to their caravan (to which the Doctor needs to effect repairs) wishing to give it to the Khan as a gift. Around the fringes of the story are a blossoming friendship between Susan and Ping-Cho and the machinations of the villainous Tegana.

The journey for the characters is long and arduous, and unfortunately it is for the viewer as well. There is an awful lot of talk and not a lot of action. Every episode sees the TARDIS crew trying to convince Marco of their need to return to their ‘caravan’ and Marco refusing. Every episode sees Ping-Cho torn between her loyalty to Marco Polo and her friendship with Susan. Every episode sees Tegana attempt to sabotage the journey, generally fail, be caught out by one of the TARDIS crew and yet remain trusted by Marco.

One of the most frustrating aspects of this story for me is how underused the Doctor and Barbara are. Barbara, as the history specialist, is allowed a bit of ‘knowing the history’ at the beginning, but then spends the rest of the story suspecting Tegana of things which Marco never believes. Her kidnapping in Five Hundred Eyes and The Wall of Lies, is quickly forgotten and as far as I can tell she contributes nothing to the final few episodes. The Doctor disappears almost entirely for Episode 2 (so much so that, until he cropped up for one line towards the end I thought it must be one of the traditional ‘holiday’ episodes). In the next episode he collapses from exhaustion and dehydration. It is only when they meet Kublai Khan that the Doctor is given anything of significance to do. The idea of the aged Khan and the aged Doctor bonding over a game of backgammon is a lot of fun, but comes too little too late.

Added to this is the fact that when the villainous Tegana is defeated at the end of the story, it is Marco, rather than any of the regulars, who fights him leading him to eventually commit suicide. The TARDIS crew simply stand on the sidelines watching, receive the TARDIS key from Marco and depart literally minutes after Tegana’s death.

Throughout the entire story I just had the overriding impression that the TARDIS crew were merely bystanders. As the first proper historical story (100,000 BC was far more concerned with establishing the premise of the show than educating us ‘historically’) Marco Polo suggests that the historical story would gently educate us about famous figures from our past whilst the TARDIS crew potter impotently around the fringes. Thank goodness The Aztecs came along to see the regulars properly interact with history in the same way they were doing in the futuristic stories – contrast the roles of the TARDIS crew in The Daleks with their roles in Marco Polo and you may understand my dissatisfaction.

I think it is telling that The Beginning DVD box set of the first three televised stories contains a 30 minute version of Marco Polo as an extra. Frankly, it manages to tell exactly the same story and very little is lost. I am sure the costumes and sets looked wonderful, particularly for the time, but on the basis of the audio and images available I don’t think I am ever going to rate Marco Polo as one of the all time great lost serials.