Marco Polo (TV story)

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Summary

The TARDIS lands in Central Asia in 1289, where the First Doctor and his companions fall in with Marco Polo as his caravan makes its way along the fabled Silk Road from the Pamir Plateau, across the treacherous Gobi Desert and over the Himalayas to end up in Peking at the height of its imperial power.

Along the way they face many dangers, from natural hazards to assassination attempts from a Mongol warlord. The Doctor strikes up a friendship with Kublai Khan in his summer palace, before eventually departing again in the TARDIS, which has been carried with them across thousands of miles.


Plot

The TARDIS crew arrives in the snowy wastes of the Gobi Desert, and the ship is damaged and unable to produce lights, heat or water. The First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Susan Foreman face the prospect of freezing to death as night approaches and the temperatures plummet. Fortunately they spot a caravan in the distance. It is managed by Marco Polo, Italian trader and, like his father and uncle before him, an Italian in China as an emissary of Kublai Khan. He welcomes them to his company and introduces some of his fellow travellers including the Mongol warlord Tegana, who is emissary of peace from the Khan Noghai, who has been at war with Kublai Khan; and a young Chinese woman named Ping-Cho, who is travelling to meet her 75-year old groom in her arranged marriage, and who forms a strong attachment to Susan. Marco Polo is fascinated by the TARDIS, which is taken as a prize within the caravan, and tells the Doctor he is requisitioning the “magic caravan” as a prize for the Emperor to attempt to buy his way out of his service. Indeed, Marco takes the TARDIS key from the Doctor to make sure of his prize.

It is 1289 and the caravan is heading to the imperial capital of Shang-Tu in Cathay (as China was then known) where the Emperor Kublai Khan is expecting to see Marco Polo once more. It is a journey of many weeks and at the next stop at the way station in Lop the lord Tegana reveals his true colours when he purchases a poison to use to despoil the caravan’s water supply as it ventures on into the Gobi. However, a vicious sandstorm, during which Ping-Cho and Susan are briefly lost, prevents him implementing his plan. Instead he slices open the gourds during the night and ensures the bandits are blamed. Marco Polo insists the caravan presses on to the next stop, but the water rations get fewer and fewer as the days pass by and eventually Tegana – the wrong choice – is dispatched to find a fabled oasis. The Mongol finds the oasis easily, but does not return with water to the caravan as promised and the situation becomes ever more desperate. Indeed, the travellers only survive the arid conditions when the TARDIS forms moisture during the night, and they drink the water to live.

The caravan moves on to the next way-station at Tun-Huang where stocks are replenished and they meet an incredulous Tegana, who rejoins their caravan. Ping-Cho makes their stay pleasant with the tale of Ala-eddin (Aladdin) and the Hashshashin (or assassins). Tegana slips away during the performance and makes his way to the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes, where he is told by the Mongol agents Malik and Acomat that Noghai is assembling an army and marching toward Karakorum. Tegana tells Acomat, a bandit, to attack the caravan soon and kill Marco Polo and the others. Their plans, however, have been partially overheard by Barbara, who followed Tegana to the cave, though she does not realise the extent of Tegana's involvement. She is found and then kept prisoner by Malik while Tegana returns to the caravan, feigning surprise when her disappearance is discovered. The Doctor works out she may be at the cave and heads there accompanied by Susan and Ping-Cho, followed soon after by Marco, Ian and Tegana. Anxious that his plans will be exposed, when the search party find Barbara and Malik, Tegana kills his ally to cover his tracks.

When the party returns to the caravan Tegana tries another tactic and tries to force suspicion into Marco’s mind by telling him Susan has an unhealthy hold over his charge, Ping-Cho, and that the Doctor has somehow made a second key to gain entry to the TARDIS. Other suspicions are aroused when Barbara admits how she ended up at the Cave, but Tegana flatly denies ever having been there. Marco stamps his authority on the caravan by separating Ping-Cho and Susan, making both of them ever more suspicious of Tegana. At the next way station Tegana’s plans are further bolstered when he proves to Marco the Doctor has a second key to the TARDIS, forcing the old man to hand it over, and driving ever deepening enmity into the travelling party.

The caravan now catches sight of the Great Wall of China and the journey heads South to Lan-Chow along the banks of the Yellow River. At the next town of Sinju Tegana meets with the evil Acomat and tells him to attack the caravan two nights later as they journey through the bamboo forest. The guards on the caravan are killed and Acomat waits in the jungle, looking for Tegana’s signal, but badly times their attack so that they assume the explosions of bamboo are gunfire from the caravan. Acomat is slain – again by Tegana to protect the truth – while the other bandits flee in fear. In thanks for their help defeating the bandit attack, Marco Polo allows Susan and Ping-Cho to share company once more.

The Doctor and his companions have meanwhile worked out that Tegana is the source of many of the journey’s troubles, but cannot make Marco Polo realise how dangerous he is. A new traveller now arrives at the caravan, a message rider named Ling-Tau, who has travelled from Shang-Tu (300 miles away) in just 24-hours. He bears a message commanding the caravan to speed up, and so Marco Polo commands that once they reach the city of Cheng-Ting that the travellers should all take to horseback to speed up their journey while the TARDIS and the other belongings are brought on later. As ever, Tegana has another plot at the next way station. He meets an ally called Kuiju and bribes him to try and steal the TARDIS when the convoy is split up, and take it to Karkorum, where Noghai's troops are massing.

Ping-Cho knows where Marco has hidden the two keys to the TARDIS and gives one to Susan to help the time travellers escape, but things go wrong and they are prevented from fleeing, with Ian taking the blame on himself for stealing the key. As the journey enters its final phases the travellers attempt to ingratiate themselves with Marco Polo once more by telling him the truth about the TARDIS. Marco deduces Ian did not steal the key and so determines it was Ping-Cho after all and, fearing detection, she flees the caravan. Ian finds her back at Cheng-Ting, having ridden there alone, which is just as well as while there he uncovers the fact that Kuiji has stolen the TARDIS from the second convoy. When Ian and Ping-Cho find the bandit on the road to Karkorum, they force him to admit the truth, but then Tegana arrives. The warlord had broken away from the main party in the pretence of finding Ping-Cho, but in reality he is once more scheming. The situation is solved when Ling Tau and a band of soldiers arrive. They kill Kuiju, but once more Tegana talks his way out of a tight situation and the entire party agrees to ride on to the imperial palace in Peking,

The main convoy has meanwhile finally reached the summer palace of Shangh-Tu. Kublai Khan presides over a rich and beautiful city. When the travellers are brought before the great Khan, the Doctor is so bruised after his horse ride he is unable to kow-tow properly. Ironically, the aged Khan sees the aches of age as a point of friendship with the Doctor. He decrees they will all leave the following day for Peking, and the Doctor will travel with him in his own carriage. But he is concerned Tegana has not presented himself, being worried that Khan Noghai has now moved his armies from Samarkand to Karkorum. When the imperial party reaches the capital city, the Khan engages the Doctor in a game of backgammon. The Doctor wins 35 elephants, 4000 white stallions, 25 tigers, the sacred tooth of the Buddha and the entire commerce of Burma for a year - but loses the key to the TARDIS. The Khan presses Marco for the history of the "magic caravan" and the emissary admits he was wrong to try and obtain the vehicle, but only did it to try and buy his freedom. The Khan is not impressed, and warns Marco that if he does not regain his trust somehow then he will be banished from court.

Nevertheless, events take a turn for the better for another. Ping-Cho is spared a loveless marriage when the elderly man she was due to marry passes away after drinking a love potion. She is content to make eyes at Ling Tau, with whom she has formed an attachment.

When Ling Tau's party arrives at the palace, Marco Polo begins to have serious doubts about the actions and motivations of Tegana. He confides in the Doctor and his friends and together they work to unmask Tegana before it is too late, as they now deduce Tegana has come to Peking to kill the Khan. Tegana slays the Khan's guards and is moving in for the kill when the Doctor and his allies arrive and is prevented in his actions. His mission failed, Tegana takes his own life. In the ensuing melee, Marco Polo gives the Doctor and his party the key to the TARDIS and bids them escape. The "magic caravan" fades away before the eyes of the Khan and his courtiers. As a final act, the Khan forgives Marco Polo and agrees he can return to Venice.

Cast & Characters


Crew


Notes

  • The first true Doctor Who Historical
  • The first story to feature live animals (the Mongol horses)
  • The first and only television story to feature a narrative and a map tracking the journey of the main characters
  • 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 reconstruction of this story. (see external links)
  • The working title for this story was A Journey to Cathay
  • Episode 3 was made under the working title The Cave of Five Hundred Eyes and this name even appeared at the end of Episode 2
  • No footage of this story now exists having been lost in the purges of the 1970's
  • The original audio soundtrack of this episode remains and was released on CD as Marco Polo as part of the BBC Radio Collection in November 2003. This was narrated by William Russell
  • Although originally planned to be the third story in the series it was delayed by The Edge of Destruction
  • Although Telesnaps of this story were made all of these were lost. However in 2004 telesnaps of episodes 1,2,3,5,6 and 7 were found by Derek Handley in the private collection of Waris Hussein who directed these episodes. These telesnaps were reproduced in Doctor Who Magazine
  • Kuiju the mercenary bandit is never named in the story and is only included in closing credits
  • As Lance Parkin notes in A History of the Universe, some historians now question the veracity of Marco Polo's accounts, particularly his friendship with Kublai Khan.


Influences

  • The real life of Marco Polo
  • John Lucarotti's Canadian TV series about Marco Polo


Ratings

  • The Roof of the World - 9.4m viewers
  • The Singing Sands - 9.4m viewers
  • Five Hundred Eyes - 9.4m viewers
  • The Wall of Lies - 9.9m viewers
  • Rider From Shang-Tu - 9.4m viewers
  • Mighty Kublai Khan - 8.4m viewers
  • Assassin at Peking - 10.4m viewers


Myths


Location Filming

The story was filmed at both Ealing and Lime Grove Studio D


Continuity

  • The Doctor aquires a walking stick from Kublai Khan which he then uses in several subsequent stories.
  • It is later revealed in Birthright that after the Doctor departed, the court of Kublai Khan was visited by Jared Khan who wished to acquire the TARDIS for the Charrl
  • The TARDIS contains a circuit that if damaged can deactive the lights, water supplies, and heating. Without this circuit the external temperature can affect the inside of the TARDIS allowing condensation to form on the walls.
  • Barbara is interested in Buddhist history
  • Ian can ride a horse and is an experienced swordfighter
  • Susan has travelled to the metal seas of Venus.


Discontinuity

  • At the end of episode 2 the caption claimed that episode 3 would be called The Cave of Five Hundred Eyes
  • In episode 7 Kublai Khan refers to backgammon as a card game
  • No explanation is provided for why Marco's father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo are not present during this journey
  • The name Peking is an anachronism and the city should properly have been referred to as Khan-balik
  • William Hartnell appears to have a strange fit of laughter in episode 1 laughing for a full minute about the trouble that the travellers have found themselves in
  • The TARDIS contains a circuit that if damaged can deactive the lights, water supplies, and heating. Without this circuit the external temperature can affect the inside of the TARDIS allowing condensation to form on the walls. (why would a ship such as the TARDIS have one circuit which could cause this much damage if it became defective)


DVD, Video, and Audio Releases

The reconstruction of this story by Loose Cannon Production includes the following features
A Celebrity introduction by Mark Eden
An interview with Mark Eden
A historical documentary detailing the real Marco Polo narrated by Mark Eden
A documentary about the making of Marco Polo


See Also


External Links


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