Marco Polo by John Lucarotti
22 February - 4 April 1964
Episode One - [breathlessly] The Roof of the World!
And so, we speedily arrive at Doctor Who's first lost story. Marco Polo comes with something of an intimidating reputation, a big enough one, in fact, to make me wish I'd known nothing about this story going in. But before we get to the whys and the hows, I'll detour into another point: this is also Doctor Who's first historical! No, the last three episodes of An Unearthly Child don't count - as I said, there's no basis in actual geography, personages, or historical events involved there, it's pure allegory. Marco Polo kicks off the "Hartnell historicals" or "pure historicals" which will, in one way or another, be with us until the midpoint of this thread in 1966. I'll make no secret of being strongly biased towards this genre. I'm a history nerd of the largest and most squeaky variety, and visiting historical places and events is never not a draw factor for me when they feature in the series.
Now, the lead we got at the end of the previous episode, The Brink of Disaster, is actually quite misleading - winding up in the mountains and finding a giant footprint makes us believe that we're on the verge of a story about the Yeti or something. As it turns out, that's not due for another few years. I'm not sure if I should make this out to be a clever subversion or a relic of a story idea that didn't end up panning out. When we get into the story proper, we find Ian quickly dismissing it as having grown as a result of melting in the sun, and learn not too long after that we aren't even in the Himalayas. Figures. Where we do wind up is in the Pamir range, or as the characters keep reminding us in their most breathless tones, the roof of the world!
Their welcoming party to this remote landscape is a pack of Mongol warriors who suspect them to be evil spirits. I’m not sure how to feel about our first meeting with non-European earthfolk being with shifty, superstitious, violent types, but I can only chalk it up to accident for now and move along. There will be more even-handed portrayals later in this story anyway. Their hands are stayed by the calm tones of the square-jawed, forthright adventurer, Marco Polo, here played rather darned well by Mark(o) Eden. His counterpart through this journey is The Warlord Tegana, an instantly untrustworthy character who, nevertheless, won’t have his true colors revealed to Marco for a few episodes yet. Also in their entourage, the quite likeable Ping-Cho, on who more in a bit.
As the group travels out of the Pamirs and into the deserts of western China, Marco tells our plucky protagonists that he is taking the TARDIS for himself as a gift for the Khan. This obviously causes some consternation among the regulars. Things, we learn, are about to get more complicated still as Tegana steals away, plotting against Marco and the TARDIS crew in exactly the way we probably expected him to from the start. But in any case, for all the playful poking I have to give the idiosyncrasies of The Roof of the World, it does a marvelous job of laying out a world for us. There is very much the sense that a fantastic journey is starting here...
Episode Two - The Singing Sands
Was Bill Hartnell on vacation during production of this episode? He vanishes only to have a single line of dialogue towards the very end. All power to him, I guess; having heard all I have about production conditions back then, he deserved it. The episode doesn’t suffer unduly for it at any rate. Title placement notwithstanding, the Doctor is simply not the leading man yet. Even in the other episodes of this serial, Susan, Barbara, and Ian all do a perfectly good job of tugging along the plot when the guest cast isn’t.
Speaking of Susan, in The Singing Sands she finally has a much-needed chance to shine. Putting her opposite Ping-Cho was an inspired choice. Around a character her own age instead of a bunch of adults telling her to calm down, Susan actually gets a chance to express her thoughts and concerns in a relatable way, and to enjoy a rather sweet friendship besides. That said, Susan also gets a very good conversation with Barbara in this episode, so what we really seem to be looking at is a high point of sorts. Thank goodness.
The other points of note in this episode are the desert, and the titular sands there. It’s hard to get a feel for with still images, but the desert sets definitely look sweeping and beautiful, and the sandstorm itself is absolutely creepy, with the howling sound effects and all. I’m not sure when Doctor Who’s reputation for dodgy special effects is going to start coming in; everything I’ve seen so far has been serviceable at worst and pretty impressive at best.
Episode Three - Five Hundred Eyes
Sandstorms thus behind us and the Doctor up and about from his nap, we turn the proverbial corner into Five Hundred Eyes and smack into a wall. This wall is called “EDUCATIONAL MANDATE”. Having taught a 13th century traveller about condensation (sation, sation, sation…) the actual action can commence after this strange detour. Tegana returns from his latest bout of brooding. Barbara, bless her, is immediately suspicious of the bunk story he gives to explain his absence, but it doesn’t amount to much yet. The entourage must move along.
When they do, they finally leave the wilderness settings of the first two episodes and into the land of gorgeous BBC historical sets. Skaro had an iconic look about it in places, but this is what attractive scenesetting should look like - plenty of rich detail for the viewer to check out, even in still motion. We get to stay a while in Lop and appreciate it while Ping-Cho engages in some worldbuilding, telling the story of Aladdin and the Assassins, which ties in, ultimately, with the titular location of this episode. It’s - joy! - another cave. If there’s a cave in The Keys of Marinus too, I’m going to go bonkers. Three of the four stories so far have one - they really had to get some mileage out of that set, huh? The story is nice at any rate. It inspires Barbara to check the place out, much to her own detriment, forcing the others to come looking once they discover her absence...
Episode Four - The Wall of Lies
A duplicitous Tegana tries to trick our heroes off of the trail by hamming out a paean to the spirits haunting the cave. All it wins is a wonderfully bemused “Is it safe to look now?” from Ian. So snide, Mr. Chesterman! Some canny observation reveals the hidden room where two bandits are holding Barbara captive, and they’re (conveniently) dispatched before either can out Tegana. Thus reunited, but no closer to pointing out the obvious to Marco, Tegana instead pulls the Venetian aside to whisper in his ear. “Only a fool protects his enemies” indeed!
I don’t know. This is the least remarkable of the seven episodes to me. Tegana is less convincing than ever, and most of the runtime is spent moving the gang into position for the next bit of action - a bandit raid on their way to Lan-Chow (Lanzhou in Pinyin, I presume) which will be along presently...
Episode Five - Rider from Shang-Tu
It’s touching that Ian feels compelled to spoil his own chance at escape for the purpose of saving Marco and his fellows. The fight sequence that ensues is… pretty alright? Again, this is one of those things that suffers for not being seen in proper motion. Still, one has to be impressed by the coldbloodedness it takes for Tegana to run one of his own buddies through to keep him quiet. A titular rider shows up once they’ve moved on to deliver both a history lesson and a message with instructions from the Khan. Following those to a waystation, Tegana somehow finds another ally despite his track record so far with the others. Heavens.
I should stop a moment and remark on historical accuracy, which I know is a silly thing to nitpick over where Doctor Who is concerned. This story does a splendid job of creating atmosphere and presenting the world its characters travel through as real. I can’t help but to think, though, that most of the image it creates is that of a somewhat later China - the Manchu braids some of the extras are seen wearing weren’t in fashion for another four hundred years as far as I know, for example. I also think that Nogai was busy invading Poland at the time of this serial, and never came as far east as Samarqand, let alone Karakorum. But I can hardly complain. At least it’s rich and interesting.
This bit of the journey ends when, caught by Tegana while thanking Ping-Cho for finding the TARDIS keys while the group is on the verge of escaping, Susan, on cue, screams...
Episode Six - Mighty Kublai Khan
The attempt thus foiled, Ian tries to smooth things over with Marco and explain just where (and when) the TARDIS actually comes from. The whole conversation is quite good - even though it is starting to get incredible just how much Polo refuses to believe Ian and the others. The question of Ping-Cho’s arranged marriage resurfaces as she flees Polo’s entourage back to the waystation in search of a way back home to Samarqand. After being duped by Tegana’s buddy and scolded by the (really quite awful) waystation official, Ian brings her back to safety. It is a bit odd how the issue basically disappeared there for a few episodes, only to resurface twice in this one. It must be hard setting up these serialized stories.
Soon comes the time for the rest of the party bar Ian and Ping-Cho to at last meet with the famous Khan. His court is perhaps the most sumptuous set of this whole production so far, which makes sense. There’s a definite sense that we have built up to keep the best place for last, and it comes across splendidly. The Khan himself is played in an interesting way, and his quick rapport with the Doctor despite his irascible nature is sort of funny.
Far away from the palace, meanwhile, Tegana at last realizes his metamorphosis from shifty stock villain to proper menace. Cornering Ian and Ping-Cho in a campsite in the woods, the moment when he draws his sword and invites Ian to fight back with a “Come… come!” is the most properly chilling villain moment we’ve had in the series yet.
Episode Seven - Assassin at Peking
Tegana doesn’t have a chance to run Ian through. The timely arrival of the rider from earlier and some other soldiers stays the confrontation and at last brings the entire group together at Kublai’s palace. There the Doctor has been trying his hand at backgammon, and has seemingly shown an early sign of his chessmaster’s guile by winning all games but one. It’s nice to see him really having fun for the first time since the program kicked off.
Marco seems to have at last had a change of heart, fessing up to the Khan over the circumstances in which he took the TARDIS. Like the regulars, it seems that his own chances of getting home are now jeopardized. For Ping-Cho’s part, her own plot thread which came up again in the last episode is… quite suddenly resolved. Conveniently, her betrothed died before her arrival. I can’t really call that a satisfying payoff, but at least she gets a happy ending.
As for Tegana, his sly work has gotten him exactly where he means to be. Mercifully, Marco is finally roused into action by the TARDIS gang, rushing into the throne room just in time to redeem himself in the Khan’s eyes. What follows is actually really wonderful. Even in telesnaps, the swordfight between Tegana and Marco is a really cool denouement to the story, and all in Peking seems well as the way to the stars opens up for the Doctor and his companions at last.
Overview
For all its meandering and the occasional frustrating plot allowance, I never found myself getting bored of Marco Polo. I shouldn’t have been so worried about going in with inflated expectations; it definitely deserves its mantle as one of the classics. This is Doctor Who’s first great epic, the first story of its lineup to exist entirely for the journey, not to tell a parable like the first two offerings or to cap off an arc like the third. The show has proven that these sprawling seven-parters really can hold one’s attention without necessarily tapering off badly like The Daleks did. Whether this lesson will be held up by this season’s remaining six-parters remains to be seen. I hope a little apprehension is forgivable?
Anyway, before we move on to The Keys of Marinus, there is a little diversion I would like to take, into another historical from this period that never made it to the silver screen...
Unforgettable Dialogue
"And that's Charleston!"
"One day, we'll know all the mysteries of the skies and we'll stop our wandering."
"When the Warlord Tegana says it is so, Marco, it is so."
"What does he think it is, a potting shed or something?!"
"But what is the truth? I wonder where they are now... the past, or the future?"
Dialogue I wish I could forget
"You foolish child, you've been robbed!"
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 25 September 2017.)
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