Marco Polo (TV story)

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Marco Polo was the fourth story of Season 1 of Doctor Who. It is generally considered to be the first true historical story over An Unearthly Child, whose depictions of prehistoric cave dwellers was somewhat stylized and speculative. Unfortunately, it is also the earliest of the stories from the 1960s of which no film or video copies are known to exist.

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands in Central Asia in 1289, where the 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 past the fantastic Cave of Five Hundred Eyes 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 Roof of the World (1)

Tegana plans to poison Marco Polo

The TARDIS crew have arrived in the snowy wastes of the mountainous Pamirs, and the ship is damaged and unable to produce light, heat or water. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan face the prospect of freezing to death as night approaches and the temperatures plummet. Ian and Barbara go out into the tundra to look for fuel but Barbara sees a figure in the snow and they hurry back to the TARDIS. Meanwhile, the Doctor has discovered what is wrong with the TARDIS but is interupted by Ian and Barbara's return. The creature follows them back and appears at the TARDIS door. The foursome chase after it but are soon surronded by Mongol soldiers who are on the verge of killing them for being evil spirits when a Western man, who turns out to be Marco Polo, interrupts them.

Polo welcomes the Doctor, who is suffering from altitude sickness, and his companions to his company and introduces some of his fellow travellers including Tegana, a Mongol warlord. Tegana is an emissary of peace from the Khan Noghai who has been at war with Kublai Khan. A young Chinese woman named Ping-Cho is also travelling with Polo so that she may meet her 75-year old groom in her arranged marriage. Ping-Cho forms a strong friendship with Susan.

The Mongols fear the Doctor is an evil sorceror who is powerless while outside of the TARDIS and so Marco Polo forbids him from entering it until their party has made a stop in a town at the edge of the desert where Polo says the Doctor will be able to fix his vessel.

When the caravan stops at the way station in Lop, Marco Polo tells the Doctor that he is requisitioning his "flying caravan" as a prize for the Emperor to attempt to buy his way out of his service.

Meanwhile, the lord Tegana purchases a poison to use on the caravan's water supply as it ventures on into the Gobi Desert.

The Singing Sands (2)

Tegana taunts Marco Polo with water

The travellers make their way across the Gobi Desert. The Doctor, in a show of petulance, refuses to come out of his tent when they settle for the night, distressing Susan. One night when Ian and Marco Polo are playing chess, Susan vents her frustration at the fact that they are stuck on Earth rather than exploring the stars. This spirit for exploring provokes her and Susan to follow Tegana as they see him walk off into the night. A vicious sandstorm, during which Ping-Cho and Susan are briefly lost, prevents Tegana implementing his plan to poison the gourds. Instead he slices open the gourds during the night knowing full well that bandits would get the blame.

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 is dispatched to find a fabled oasis. The Mongol finds the oasis easily, but does not return with water to the caravan as promised.

Five Hundred Eyes (3)

Ian explains condensation to Marco Polo

With the water supply now completely exhausted, the situation becomes ever more desperate. The travellers only survive the arid conditions when the Doctor and Susan are able to collect water from the TARDIS which formed as condensation on the walls during the night.

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 Hashashin (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 deduces that Barbara may be at the cave and heads there accompanied by Susan and Ping-Cho. Susan cries out in fear when she see a pair of 'painted' eyes moving!

The Wall of Lies (4)

The TARDIS travels to Beijing

Marco, Ian and Tegana arrive at the cave having been tipped off by Chenchu. Anxious that his plans will be exposed, when the search party find Barbara and Malik behind a fake wall in the cave, Tegana kills his ally to cover his tracks.

When the party returns to the caravan, Tegana tries another tactic and attempts to make Marco suspicious by telling him that Susan has an unhealthy hold over Ping-Cho, and that the Doctor has got a second key to gain entry to the TARDIS. This is countered when Barbara states that she was only in danger as she followed tegana to the cave, but Tegana flatly denies ever having been there before. 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 that the Doctor has a second key to the TARDIS by getting Polo to witness The Doctor leaving the ship.Polo seizes the key and goes to go in but The Doctor warns him that the ship will be destroyed if an unauthourised person enters it. He is taken away and held under guard.

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 of the caravan are to be killed along with everyone else.Acomat goes to wait in the jungle, waiting for Tegana's signal to attack.

In an endeavour to escape from Polo Ian cuts through the tent and avoids the guard, his plan is to knock the guard out and allow the others to escape. However when he reaches the front of the tent he discovers the guard already dead.

Rider from Shang-Tu (5)

Tegana threatens Susan

Unwilling to leave Polo and his party to their fate, Ian decides to alert them to the oncoming danger. He wakes Polo who goes on to wake Tegana and they begin to arm themselves. Ian decides that it would be best to frighten the attacking bandits off by throwing bamboo in to the fire which explodes noisily. When the bandits attack Acomat is slain by Tegana as he is on the point of exposing him. This causes the other bandits to flee in fear. In thanks for their help defeating the bandit attack, Marco Polo allows Susan and Ping-Cho to share company once more as well as allow the others to walk freely again.

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 tells that this is done by changing horses every three miles. He bears a message commanding the caravan to speed up, and so Marco 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 Karakorum, 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. Later that night The Doctor and his companions sneak out in order to return to the TARDISand escape but Susan returns to say goodbye to Ping-Cho however is accosted by Tegana.

Mighty Kublai Khan (6)

Ian rescues Ping-Cho

Ian takes the blame on himself for stealing the TARDIS 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 Kuiju has stolen the TARDIS from the second convoy. When Ian and Ping-Cho find the bandit on the road to Karakorum, they force him to admit the truth, but then Tegana arrives and threatens to kill Ping-Cho.

Assassin at Peking (7)

Marco Polo and Tegana cross swords

The stand-off between Ian and Tegana is broken 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 Shang-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 that Tegana has not presented himself, being worried that Khan Noghai has now moved his armies from Samarkand to Karakorum.

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 an elixir of life. 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

Uncredited cast

Crew

References

Games

Individuals

  • 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.
  • The Doctor acquires a walking stick from Kublai Khan which he then uses in several subsequent stories.
  • Marco Polo mentions his father Niccolo Polo and uncle Maffeo Polo.

TARDIS

  • The TARDIS contains a circuit that if damaged can deactivate 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.
  • The Doctor makes himself a new TARDIS key, and implies that he made the original as well.

Story notes

  • This was the first true Doctor Who historical story.
  • This was the first story to feature live animals (the Mongol horses).
  • This was the first and only television story to feature a narrative and a map tracking the journey of the main characters (although character voice-over narratives have been featured in part during other stories, such as The Deadly Assassin, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, The Family of Blood, and Forest of the Dead).
  • 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.
  • * This is one of three missing 1960s Doctor Who stories – the other two being Mission to the Unknown and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve – which exist only as audio recordings, with not one frame of footage known to survive either on 16mm Black & White Film or 8mm cine film taken of a television screen.
  • Although originally planned to be the third story in the series it was delayed, with that place being filled 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.
  • John Lucarotti also wrote a Canadian TV series about Marco Polo.

Ratings

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

Myths

  • William Hartnell was on holiday during filming of The Singing Sands. (This was not the case although he did only have one line of dialogue).

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • At the end of episode 2, the caption claimed that episode 3 would be called The Cave of Five Hundred Eyes.
  • The name Peking is an anachronism and the city should properly have been referred to as Khan-balik. Furthermore, had the title of episode 7 been "Assassin at Cambuluc", it would have been an accurate nod to the way that Marco Polo was known to have spelled the name of the city. Of course, use of the Mongol name, or its Polo variant, would have likely confused all but the tiniest fraction of the viewing audience. "Peking" was undoubtedly used simply for the audience's benefit. The TARDIS translates for the Doctor and companions, and very likely would have translated the city into an English variant that Barbara and Ian would have recognised (i.e., Peking).

Continuity

  • It is later revealed in NA: 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 Fourth Doctor mentions his visit to China, saying he hadn't been there in 400 years, in The Talons of Weng-Chiang. If he is referring to this visit, and is using Earth time-scale, he actually hadn't been there in 600 years.

Timeline

It is stated in the story that it takes place in 1289, which would not contradict facts.

Timeline

DVD, Video, Audio and Other Releases

  • Fan produced photo video reconstructions have been made of this story by A Change of Identity and Loose Cannon Productions.
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."
Cover for the 2003 CD release
  • A thirty minute reconstruction (with telesnaps) was released in The Beginning DVD as a bonus feature.

Novelisation and its audiobook

Cover for the Target novelisation
Main article: Marco Polo (novelisation)

This story was published by Target Books as Doctor Who - Marco Polo by John Lucarotti, ISBN 0-426-19967-7, in April of 1985. It was number 94 in the series of 156 Doctor Who novels published by Target.

See also

External links

Feature article and specific information

Template:Season 1 Template:Wikipedia

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