Saturday 4th April 1964 - Assassin at Peking

"But what is the truth? I wonder where they are now? The past or the future?"

It's all a little hectic and rushed.

Bah! The sword fight between Tegana and Ian which looked like it would happen at the end of last episode is broken up by the arrival of Ling-Tau and the Khan's soldiers. We have to wait to the end of this episode to see a fight between Tegana and Marco Polo.

It's the role of the Doctor that is interesting in this episode. We see him being manipulative and cunning but without any of the sinister, malicious edge evident in earlier stories - or even the bad-temper he showed at the start of this adventure. When he loses the game of backgammon to the Khan he is sanguine about the loss of the TARDIS and accepts defeat with a smile (I wonder, too, whether he allowed the Khan to beat him - or, alternatively, that the Khan allowed the Doctor to amount sizeable winnings in order to legitimately win the TARDIS from him). The Khan is a useful character as he displays many of the Doctor's qualities. I like the Khan a great deal: he has a sense of humour, intelligence and much self-knowledge. His cheerful reply to Polo's apology for giving the Doctor they key to the TARDIS at the end - "If you hadn't, the old man would have won it at backgammon" - shows his wisdom and grace which was distinct from his declarations about "humbling" his enemies.

This final episode is a rushed series of scenes that cover old ground - Tegana's treachery, Polo's longing to go home, Polo's trust in the Doctor and his companions, Ping-Chu's enforced marriage - that are brought to a climax in the assassination attempt on the Khan (the first we have heard of this plan) and the duel between Tegana and Polo. In the confusion at the end, the companions escape in the TARDIS.

There's an odd, caustic humour evident in this episode shown especially in the scene where the Khan tells Ping-Chu: "Your beloved husband-to-be, so anxious to be worthy of your love, drank a potion of quicksilver and sulphur, the elixir of life and eternal youth, and expired." For Ping-Chu's situation to be resolved off-screen so suddenly probably has more to do with the realisation the writer had that there was no more time in which to properly resolve this story thread.

I 've mixed feelings about this story and happy to be moving on to a new adventure. While there are scenes that I like, I haven't enjoyed it as a whole adventure. Maybe seven episodes is too long. My opinion hasn't been helped by watching the episodes as Loose Cannon reconstructions. Loose Cannon have done a marvellous job with recreating episodes out of photos and audio - seen especially in the reconstruction of the sword fight between Tegana and Polo - but I feel that the strengths of this story were in the sets and costumes plus the epic sense of journey across a vast distance. I'm reading the Target novelisation of Marco Polo at the moment and I'm enjoying that mode of experiencing this adventure far more. I'm more than willing to accept that I'm just wrong about this.

Marco Polo has been held in high esteem by long-time fans of the show. John Peel described it as "Gorgeous, fast, tense, funny and filled with character and feel for the period - Marco Polo is one of the true classics of television."

Next episode: The Sea of Death.

Saturday 28th March 1964 - Doctor Who - Mighty Kublai Khan

"You are asking me to believe that your caravan can defy the passage of the sun? Move not merely from one place to another, but from today into tomorrow, today into yesterday? No, Ian. That I cannot accept."

More travelling, more female characters wandering off into danger alone, more of Tegana's treachery.

An attempted escape by the Doctor and his companions is foiled once again and the episode considers how a desire to get home is a motivator for most of the characters: for the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara the TARDIS is their home (or way home), for Marco Polo the gift of the TARDIS is a means of escaping his service to the Khan and returning home to Venice and, now, Ping-Chu's attempted escape from an arranged marriage by journey home to Samarkand.

Ian returns to Cheng-Ting to retrieve Ping-Chu. She implores him not to take her back and I found myself wondering whether Ian would actually do so (fortunately he's beset by the issue of the stolen TARDIS).  Has Ian's idealism been tempered by the months of travelling across Cathay and failed attempts at escape? Would he actually hand Ping-Chu over to be forced into an arranged marriage. Elsewhere in the episode, Barbara talks about trusting Ian - but I'm not so sure. We see a lot of scenes in which Marco Polo and Ian show a similarity in situation and outlook. One difference is clearly noted by Polo when he says "What is important is the fact that you are capable of lying".

After so many episodes, the travellers FINALLY arrive at their destination: the summer palace of the Khan. All the pomp and ceremony of the audience with the Khan becomes bathos when the Doctor is unable to kowtow because of his painful back (from riding a horse) and the small, hobbling Khan who suffers from gout. The Khan takes a liking to the Doctor - a fellow elderly man suffering with pain - and we have the start of a comic double-act which is emphasised by the off-camera groans that Hartnell and Martin Miller (Kublai Khan) make. Helpfully, Susan laughs to ensure that the viewers at home know this is intentionally funny.

Ian's and Ping-Chu's side-quest to retrieve the TARDIS is quickly resolved when they discovers the eye-patched, Kuiji at campfire on the Karakorum Road and come face-to-face with a sword-wielding Tegana. Having the companions on their own, joining other characters in adventures away from the Doctor is something I'd like to see more.

The climax of this episode is great: Tegana's FINALLY been definitively exposed as a villain and we're going to FINALLY see a fight between him and Ian.

Next episode: Assassin at Peking

Saturday 21st March 1964 - Doctor Who - Rider from Shang-tu

"IAN: Marco, I wish I could explain to you how important the Tardis is to us.  
POLO: And I wish I could explain to you, Ian, how important it is to me."

After a couple of episodes with a more purposeful plot, we're back to more travelling. Nothing has altered: the Doctor and his companions are still prisoners, Tegana is still plotting to kill everyone and steal the TARDIS, they are still journeying to meet Kublai Khan.

At the start, Ian alerts Marco Polo to the impending bandit attack and fights bravely which restores some trust in the Doctor and his companions. After more travelling - broken by the arrival of a messenger who has ridden on horseback 300 miles in a single day - the episode ends with an attempt to escape in the TARDIS which results in Susan being captured by Tegana.

There are some moments that add a little (unnecessary?) texture to the episode: a touching scene between Susan and Ping-Chu watching goldfish and an oddly humorous scene involving the inn-keeper, Wang-Lu, who has the TARDIS stored in the stables rather than spoil the gardens.

After a couple of episodes where the Doctor has played an energetic leading role, he's back to sleeping again. Barbara barely says or does anything (maybe she's still traumatised by being held by the mongol bandits in the Cave of 500 Eyes?).

I'm not sure what Susan was doing at the end which caused her to be caught by Tegana. The Loose Cannon telesnaps made it hard to understand why she was wandering around. Was she following Tegana? Hiding from him? (I also wonder if it's because I'm watching a series of stills that I'm prevented from enjoying this story more.)

Next episode: Mighty Kublai Khan.

Saturday 14th March 1964 - The Wall of Lies

 

"Put that key in the lock, Polo, and you will destroy the ship... You need more than a key to enter my ship. You need knowledge. Knowledge you will never possess."

This is better. The tensions between Tegana, Marco Polo and the Doctor and his companions comes to a head. The pace is stepped up and the episode is better for it. Barbara is rescued. Suspicions abound. The Doctor repairs the TARDIS and prepares to leave. Tegana plans a murderous attack, intending to put a stake through the Doctor's heart. A plan to present Tegana unfavourably backfires and the Doctor and his companions lose what little freedom they have. Ian escapes only to find that Tegana's intended attack has already begun.

It seems to me that the Doctor is playing a much more prominent role in the show now. Ian is, of course, still the one who seems to problem-solve - but it's the Doctor that dominates the scenes he's in. Notice that Doctor doesn't have to go away and have a rest. He even physically stands up to Polo. The Doctor Who Production Diary: The Hartnell Years records Hartnell as being incapacitated with influenza at the start of Marco Polo and having a reduced, "token" role in the early episodes (early February 1964 recordings). Hartnell appears fully recovered by this episode.

Tegana also stands out for his moustatche-twitching villainy. By the end of this episode not only has he convinced Marco Polo to mistrust the Doctor and his companions but also plan an attack which seems to be underway by the time the credits roll.

We are, however, half-way through this adventure and I'm hoping that the attack on the guard represents a change to the repetitive episodes we've seen on this adventure.

Next episode: Rider from Shang Tu

Saturday 7th March 1964 - Five Hundred Eyes

Saturday 7th March 1964 - Five Hundred Eyes

"You crafty old fox."

It's an episode that starts in a bright, waterless desert and ends in a dark, wet cave system. William Hartnell is back and brings a little relief to the episode which is more or less the same as the last one: the caravan moves from one place to another. It's the Doctor that saves Marco Polo's caravan from dehydration: condensation forms overnight inside the TARDIS. (I'm at a loss to see how this happens to the TARDIS. Maybe they left the door open?). We find a rejuvenated Doctor who is up to his scheming ways once more. He's passed off another key to Marco Polo and intends to use the real one to gain access to the TARDIS so he can covertly repair the broken circuit.

We have more voice-overs by Marco Polo to accompany the caravan's progress. I guess we have to assume that this journey takes days and possibly weeks.

The episode seems to want to draw a comparison between the Hashasins of the Cave of 500 Eyes and the actions of Tegana and the conspirators he meets. It's the only reason I can think of for including such a long scene in which Ping-Chu tells the story of Ala-eddin, the Old Man of the Mountains.

It's only in the third act of the episode that things get more interesting. Barbara, already suspicious of Tehana, follows him out of the city and into the Cave of 500 Eyes. Barbara on her own is something we've seen before and, doubtlessly, will see again. We learn that Tegana is working for someone called Noghai (I must have forgotten this as I though Tegana was after the TARDIS for his own). I expected the cliff-hanger to be when Barbara is grabbed from behind but - no - we have another sequence in which the Doctor, Susan and Peng-Chu enter the caves and, after finding Barbara's handkerchief, Susan screams when she sees moving eyes in a carved face.

Next episode: The Wall of Lies.

 

Saturday 29th February 1964 - The Singing Sands

Saturday 29th February 1964 - Doctor Who - The Singing Sands

It sounds as if all the devils in hell were laughing.

It's a slow episode which emphasises the dangers of the desert - particularly lack of water - and the danger of Tegana's villainy. Perhaps the tedium of the episode reinforces how frustratingly long a journey across the Gobi Desert would have been. In fact, the previous adventures happened over a few days - so the TARDIS companions have, by the end of this adventure, spent more time together withe Marco Polo than they have before. The Doctor is missing for almost the whole episode. He's sulking about not having access to the TARDIS and hides himself away. Presumably, in real-life, this was to allow William Hartnell to take a holiday. The use of Marco Polo's voiceover and the maps work well. It's the villainous warlord Tegana who steals the episode and, although Susan is suspicious of him, it's clear that others are not going to see his treachery until it's too late. The cliffhanger has Tegana emptying water onto the ground at the oasis, enjoyig the prospect of the death of the others. (I'm not sure why the Doctor or one of his companions doesn't suggest the Doctor fetching water from inside the TARDIS.)

I think this is the weakest of any of the episodes so far. It has its moments: the sandstorm particularly, but the plot has barely moved from last episode. Maybe it's the lack of the Doctor in his own show.

Next week: Five Hundred Eyes

Saturday 22nd February 1964 - The Roof of the World

"We're always in trouble, Isn't this extraordinary? It follows us everywhere."

No yeti? Not yet.

And here I was expecting that an Abominable Snowman would be somewhere in the background of this story... it turns out that the villain is the Mongol warlord, Tenaga.

I'm watching this as a Loose Cannon reconstruction. The original recordings of this adventure no longer exists - so the version I'm watching is the original audio combined with mixture of production stills and "telesnaps" (photos of the episode taken from a tv screen). It gives the effect of a slideshow and there are helpful subtitles describing actions not obvious from the images on screen. It works well enough and, in a strange way, adds to the charm of watching. Seems to me that this is an episode of frustrated expectations. 

The TARDIS lands in the Himalayas - the Roof of the World - in 1289 and suffers another technical fault (I'm sure that something has gone wrong with the TARDIS during every previous story). The Doctor is concerned about freezing to death but luckily the travellers are rescued by a caravan of Mongols headed by Marco Polo who are travelling to Shang Tu in Cathay to Kublai Khan's summer palace.

Marco Polo, played by Mark Eden, captures our attention from his first appearance. Seemingly courteous (more Home Counties English than Venetian!) - he's actually quite scheming and, without realising, the Doctor and his companions are actually prisoners - plus the TARDIS has been claimed as a gift for Kublai Khan! We are also introduced to the villainous Tenaga who reveals his murderous plan as the cliffhanger of the episode. I liked his description of the TARDIS being like a "warlord's tomb". Plus Ping-Cho, the 15 year-old girl who befriends Susan and is on her way to marry a man in his seventies (much to Susan's shock). Susan avoids answering Ping-Cho's question about where she comes from.

I enjoyed the novelty of the sequence where there's a voiceover from Marco Polo over a map of their travels: "Success. My plan has worked. The strangers and their unusual caravan accompany me to Lop. Our route takes us across the Roof of the World, down to the Kashgar Valley and southeast to Tarkand. Here we join the Old Silk Road, along which the commerce and culture of a thousand years has travelled to and from Cathay. I wonder what the strangers' reaction will be when I tell them what I propose to do?"

Marco Polo also shows off his gold seal, the visible emblem of the authority bestowed on him by Kublai Khan. I suspect this will become important in a later episode.

Our regular characters return to their usual roles. The Doctor becomes worrisome and disagreeable once more. Again he seems old and frail (this time the "mountain sickness" of the altitude affects him). Later in the episode, when he is prevented from accessing the TARDIS and Marco Polo reveals his plans for the ship, he laughs madly. Ian reverts to Science teacher (at one point he explains how the lack of air on the mountains causes the fire to burn less - not the cold making the flame cooler). Barbara shows off her History teacher skills and is able to provide historical commentary on what's taking place. Susan is beat-girl again and has to explain her use of Fab" as a (supposedly) youth colloquialism.

So far the story is... fine... and the historical setting a pleasant change from the previous stories set in the prehistoric past and space.

Next week's episode: The Singing Sands.