Marco Polo was recommended to me a long time ago as a great example of a historical story from the early days, and a personal favourite of said person.  There is indeed a lot to like here.  The structure of this one - going from destination to destination and showcasing the journey on a map as they travel - was very creative and definitely ahead of its time a bit.  What we know and have seen of the costumes and sets are quite impressive, too.

The characters are pretty good even if there are a lot of white actors playing other races.  It's harder to be overly critical of that kind of stuff when looking back on a low-budget show from 1964.  The culture of the time simply did not even think such a thing could be considered, well, racist.  Yet it is certainly racist.  I won't excuse that or pretend it doesn't exist.

But I won't pretend that it still isn't a fundamentally pleasant watch, either.  While it is important to discuss and mention these racist depictions (Kublai Khan is particularly problematic) it is worth pointing out that the most important Asian role in Marco Polo is played by an Asian woman.  Ping-Cho is a pretty well realized character and a critical part of the story.  Personally, I liked her quite a bit and found her desire not to be married well done on the whole.  Sure, that sort of plot point is so old it is literally used in fairy tales, but Marco Polo does a good job at making it work as a plot point anyways.  It's pretty impressive how they wrote her character on the whole.  Plus, it is an important reminder that even in 1964, Doctor Who was able to cast an Asian actor to play an Asian role.  That is critical in remembering The Talons of Weng-Chiang being produced a decade later as it kind of highlights just how embarrassing the racism is in that story.

It should also be applauded and noted there is a lot of great character work here for pretty much our entire main cast, Ping-Cho included.  The Doctor is fun and it really feels like the companions are all a big part of this story, too.  Marco Polo is also an entertaining character.  I like how he narrates this story and a lot of this content could be argued as being seen from his perspective.