📝8/10

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"Marco Polo: A Lost Classic with Some Bumps Along the Way"

Marco Polo shines as one of Doctor Who's most unique serials, with its travel-diary format and animated map sequences that visually track the journey, a feature never seen again in the series. The story seamlessly blends historical, cultural, and scientific lessons, staying true to the educational roots of the show.

The production values are impressively high, given the BBC's budget, giving the story a cinematic, period-drama feel, which only heightens the regret that it’s mostly lost. Despite this, the surviving stills and telesnaps showcase what could’ve been a truly iconic visual experience.

Performances across the board are excellent. Mark Eden delivers a nuanced portrayal of Marco Polo, straddling the line between ally and adversary. This version of Polo is a conflicted, yet commanding leader, which adds depth to the narrative. William Hartnell’s Doctor, though not in control of the situation for once, desperately works to outwit his circumstances, giving his character a fresh angle that’s fascinating to watch.

Susan benefits from being separated from the group, and while her teenage companion Ping-Cho proves more competent, it’s nice to see Susan have moments of growth and agency. As for the villain, Tegana stands out as the first truly memorable foe in the series, calm, calculating, and unnervingly methodical—his subtle threat creates a sense of quiet tension throughout.

However, some elements don’t hold up as well in the reconstructed form. The sandstorm in Part 2 is a frustrating auditory mess, and the fight scene in Part 5 loses its impact in stills. The story is slow-moving, with much of the middle bogged down by repetitiveness and long filler sequences like Ping-Cho’s subplot, which stretches the narrative unnecessarily. Still, the final episodes regain the mystery and tension, culminating in a satisfying resolution that leaves us with a hauntingly unresolved fate.

While Marco Polo offers a fascinating historical adventure, the slow pacing and occasionally problematic stereotypes, particularly in the portrayal of certain characters, prevent it from being an absolute classic. It’s an ambitious, well-crafted serial that ultimately shows both the series’ potential and its growing pains.

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.

The first of the missing stories has distinct, well developed characters who jump out of the screen despite the lack of the visual cues. I ache to see the visuals for these 7 episodes but thankfully the loose cannon reconstruction shows off the beautiful sets and costumes used for the production. Its a particular shame to miss the sword fight in the final installment. The choreographer for this is credited, so I imagining it took a bit of coordination. I hope at least Marco Polo Part 7 is out there somewhere waiting to be rediscovered.

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.

I did not expect a story comprised of seven missing episodes to be as enjoyable as this is. While I do think they could have cut down as episode for a tighter story, this serial is remarkably engaging. I mostly wasn't bored during it, and found that there were enough pictures to keep me engaged. I didn't get nearly as much knitting done as I had expected to.

Marco Polo and Ping-Cho are both likeable and realistic characters. I like their dynamics with the main cast, as well as the dynamic between Khan and the Doctor.

The story was a little repetitive with the constant escape attempts and all the things Tegana tried to do throughout their travels. Thankfully, it didn't drag the story down too much.

The costumes and sets look gorgeous, even in black and white telesnaps. This is a serial I would love a colourisation of, though I know it's an impossible dream unless the film is found.