Marco Polo (TV story): Difference between revisions

{{real world}}

{{ImageLinkTV}}

|novelisation          = Marco Polo (novelisation)

|image                  = MarcoPolo.jpg

|season serial number  = 4

|story number          = 4

|adapted into          = Marco Polo (home video)

|doctor                = First Doctor

|companions            = [[Susan Foreman|Susan]], [[Ian Chesterton|Ian]], [[Barbara Wright|Barbara]]

|enemy                  = [[Tegana]]

|setting                = [[China|Cathay]], [[1289]]

|director              = [[Waris Hussein]], [[John Crockett]]

|producer              = [[Verity Lambert]]

|format                = 7x25-minute episodes

|serial production code = [[List of production codes|D]]

|prev                  = The Edge of Destruction (TV story)

|next                  = The Keys of Marinus (TV story)

|epcount                = 7

}}{{dab page|Marco Polo (disambiguation)}}

This was the first occasion in which a famous person from history appeared on the series. It also saw [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] act as a plot piece rather than something the travellers must return to once they have finished their adventuring.

== Synopsis ==

The stand-off between Ian and Tegana is broken when Ling-Tau and a band of soldiers arrive. They kill Kuiju, but yet again Tegana talks his way out of a tight situation. The entire party agrees to ride on to the [[Imperial Palace|imperial palace]] in [[Peking]]. During the stand-off, expecting Ian and Ping-Cho to be killed, Tegana pledges his allegiance to Noghai.

When Tegana returns to court, he convinces Khan that Polo has been defying the laws of the land by not confiscating the TARDIS and slaying the Doctor and his companions when they tried to steal it back. The Khan presses Marco for the history of the "magic caravan". The emissary admits he was wrong to try to obtain the vehicle, but he only did it to buy his freedom. The Khan is not impressed and proclaims that the TARDIS only belongs to him because it was won fairly from the Doctor in backgammon. He scolds Marco for his selfish behaviour and warns that if he does not regain his trust, he will be banished from court. However, the Khan also states that he will be on his guard against Tegana, recognising the warlord's dangerous powers of persuasion.

* [[Tegana]] - [[Derren Nesbitt]]

* [[Ping-Cho]] - [[Zienia Merton]]

=== Uncredited cast ===

== Crew ==

* [[Producer]] - [[Verity Lambert]]

* [[Script Editor]] - [[David Whitaker]]

* [[Designer (crew)|Designer]] - [[Barry Newbury]]

* [[Associate Producer]] - [[Mervyn Pinfield]]

* [[Incidental Music]] - [[Tristram Cary]]

* [[Doctor Who theme|Title Music]] - [[Ron Grainer]]

=== Uncredited crew ===

* [[Vision Mixer]] - [[Clive Doig]]<ref>[[DOC]]: ''[[Vision On]]''</ref>

* Barbara is interested in [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] history.

* Ian can ride a [[horse]] and is an experienced [[sword]] fighter.

* The Doctor acquires a [[walking stick]] from Kublai Khan.

* Ian wears an [[Ulster coat]] that the Doctor acquired from [[Gilbert and Sullivan]].

* No episodes of this seven-part story exist in the [[BBC Archives]].

* This is the earliest ''Doctor Who'' story to be missing from the BBC Archives.

* This was the second story of ''Doctor Who'' to be commissioned, discounting previous storylines that were later abandoned.

* Many colour and black-and-white photographs of this story remain. Along with the soundtrack, these were used by [[Loose Cannon Productions]] to make a full colour video reconstruction of this story. (''See external links'')

* The third episode was made under the working title "The Cave of Five Hundred Eyes" and this name even appeared at the end of the previous episode, "The Singing Sands".

* This is one of three 1960s ''Doctor Who'' stories for which no moving images of the actual production or even the characters in costume survive. Though most [[missing episode|missing]] [[serial]]s have at least one surviving clip from a [[16mm]] black & white [[telerecording]] or a few frames from an [[8mm]] home movie, nothing remains of this, ''[[Mission to the Unknown (TV story)|Mission to the Unknown]]'', or ''[[The Massacre (TV story)|The Massacre]]''.

* Although originally planned as the third story in the series, it was delayed, with its place filled by ''[[The Edge of Destruction (TV story)|The Edge of Destruction]]''.

* Although [[telesnap]]s of this story were made, none were known to exist until those for "The Roof of the World", "The Singing Sands", "Five Hundred Eyes", "Rider from Shang-Tu", "Mighty Kublai Khan" and "Assassin at Peking" were found in 2004 by [[Derek Handley]] in the private collection of [[Waris Hussein]], who directed those episodes. These telesnaps were reproduced in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]''. The telesnaps for "The Wall of Lies" are still missing, however, because Waris Hussein did not direct it and thus did not have a reason to buy them. It is unknown if John Crockett possessed any telesnaps of the episode. If they were in fact taken in the first place, they were either destroyed or sit with a private collector.

* Originally, it was intended that the narrators would be the Doctor, Ian and Barbara before it was decided instead that these should represent extracts from Marco Polo's diaries.

* During production, ''Doctor Who'' featured for the first time on the cover of ''[[Radio Times]]''; the debut episode of ''[[An Unearthly Child (TV story)|An Unearthly Child]]'' had originally been slated to receive this treatment the previous November. The black-and-white photograph featured [[William Hartnell]] with guest stars [[Mark Eden]] and [[Derren Nesbitt]]. Unfortunately, this provoked an angry response from [[William Russell]], via his agent T. Plunkett Green, who felt that the rest of the regular cast had been slighted by their omission from the cover.

* The cast found the spider monkey difficult to work with. [[Carole Ann Ford]] recalled that "it was a nasty little thing, peeing all over the place and biting anyone who came near it".

* When [[William Hartnell]] became ill, quick rewrites were performed on "The Singing Sands" to eliminate the Doctor from most scenes; Hartnell only had one line of dialogue in the episode. A scene of him and Susan at the beginning of the episode was re-written for Barbara.

* For the sandstorm in "The Singing Sands", a wind machine was used, with other footage superimposed on top; [[Waris Hussein]] was unhappy with the effectiveness of the effect, later stating that "it looked like everyone's aerials had blown over". [[Zienia Merton]] recalled the wind machine blowing sawdust into her eyes, rendering her unable to see for the rest of the scene.

* During camera rehearsals for "Assassin at Peking", [[Mark Eden]]'s right hand was accidentally lacerated by a dagger used by [[Derren Nesbitt]].

=== Ratings ===

* [[William Hartnell]] was on holiday during the filming of "The Singing Sands". (''This was not the case, although he had fallen ill, and only had one line of dialogue''.)

* There have been rumours that a viewer in Australia had 8mm film recordings of all seven episodes, which he filmed off the television screen during transmission using an 8mm home movie camera, but these had been destroyed in a house fire. (''As revealed in the Finding Galaxy Four documentary on the official'' ''Galaxy Four release, all 8mm clips exist on one shared reel made by one yet-to-be-identified Australian fan, so it is unlikely Marco Polo was ever recorded.'')

=== Filming locations ===

=== Audio releases ===

* This story's soundtrack was released on CD by the [[BBC Radio Collection]], with linking narration by [[William Russell]], in [[November (releases)|November]] [[2003 (releases)|2003]].

* The story was released again on Vinyl by Demon Records, also with the William Russell narration, on [[11 September (releases)|11 September]] [[2020 (releases)|2020]].

<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true">

Marco Polo Vinyl.jpg|Vinyl Record release

</gallery>

{{DWTV}}

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[[cs:Marco Polo (TV příběh)]]

[[cy:Marco Polo (stori deledu)]]

[[pt:Marco Polo (arco)]]

[[ru:Марко Поло (ТВ история)]]

[[Category:Doctor Who (1963) television stories]]

[[Category:1964 television stories]]

[[Category:Seven part serials]]

[[Category:Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2019]]