If you're reading this blog, you likely already know the story of all the missing Doctor Who episodes from the Hartnell and Troughton eras. Back in the 1980s, when I first experienced these earliest shows on WTTW channel 11, the PBS station out of Chicago, it was always annoying to tune in next week only to learn the ending of the previous story was just that, the end, with no follow-up on the cliffhangers that frequently ended those earlier episodes.
I would never get to see what that giant footprint in the snow encountered at the end of Edge of Destruction was all about. I could read the novelization, and often the lost stories were my most frequent purchases in that regard, but it would always be out of reach as an actual episodes I could watch.
Of course, this was all pre-internet, when my young brain could only conceive of video taping each and every episodes in order to watch them in the future. How could I have known that one day I'd be able to download a reconstructed version of Marco Polo, and finally experience it in something closer to its original form.
And that's what I did for today's story. It was a reconstruction consisting of colorized photos taken during the filming and publicity shoots for the episodes, along with the audio and occasional caption to clarify the action. It's not as good as the real thing, but it'll do.
I've watched Marco Polo once before, and at the time, I thought it to be the greatest of the lost historical stories. My opinion has shifted since then, as this viewing showed it to be strong at the start, but outwearing its welcome by the end.
It's fine for about the first four episodes, five if I'm generous, but after Tegana betrays Marco Polo for the umpteenth time and the Doctor and his companions repeatedly botch each attempt to escape in the TARDIS, it gets awfully repetitive. When the comedy relief of the Kublai Khan and his wife turns up in episodes six and seven, I was ready to call it a day.
Both Russel Davies and Steven Moffatt have continually reiterated that the companions are often more important than the Doctor. I actually disagree, but in these early episodes, it's certainly the case. Hartnell doesn't contribute much until the end, even vanishing for the better part of two episodes, and the show carries on without missing a beat. Ian, Barbara, Susan, even the temporary players like Marco, Tegana and Ping Cho, all feel more important than the Doctor in this story.
It's tough to judge on still photographs and audio, but the production looks to be of a higher standard than usual. Existing color photographs indicate this to be the case, but we'll never really know. Still, it has an epic feel that's often missing from the historicals.
GRADE: B-
RANDOM THOUGHTS
The TARDIS breaks down. Again.
To my knowledge, there is not a single Asian person in the cast. Apparently Zienia Merton, the actress playing Ping Cho, is half-Burmese. She's a standout in the episode, and one could easily see her being a companion if timing had been different. One thing about these long Who stories - you really get to live with the guest cast a lot longer, and I often find them more memorable than characters I've watched as recently as last year in the new series.
He may obviously be white, but Derren Nesbitt (whom I always remember as one of the Number 2's from "The Prisoner") still does a good job playing the treacherous warlord Tegana. I don't often remember villains or their names from some of these stories, but it's been several years since I last saw this, and I completely remembered his performance.
The TARDIS saves everyone's lives when they run out of water by forming condensation on its walls. Seriously, how unsafe is this thing? Should a ship traveling through time and space have a dampness problem?
NEXT: A personal favorite, "The Keys Of Marinus".
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