Marco Polo

Serial D, in 7 parts

• The Roof of the World: first broadcoast 2-22-64 / 9.4 million viewers
• The Singing Sands: 2-29-64 / 9.4
• Five Hundred Eyes: 3-7-64 / 9.4
• The Wall of Lies: 3-14-64 / 9.9
• Rider from Shang-Tu: 3-21-64 / 9.4
• Mighty Kublai Khan: 3-28-64 / 8.4
• Assassin at Peking: 4-4-64 / 10.4

Written by: John Lucarotti
Directed by: Waris Hussein, John Crockett (part 4 only)
Produced by: Verity Lambert

Mini-Reviews and Quotes:

"I had written a fifteen-part, half-hour radio serial in Canada during 1956 about the three journeys of Marco Polo and, seven years on, I still had my notes and a copy of his diary...

"In Marco Polo Bill (Hartnell) found his direction and crystallised his performance with the authority and stature he brought to it for the next three years." - John Lucarotti, quoted in The Doctor Who File by Peter Haining (W.H. Allen: 1986)

"Marco Polo must surely rate as one of the finest Doctor Who stories ever transmitted." - The Handbook: The First Doctor by Howe, Stammers, and Walker (Virgin: 1994).

The Brian Review:

Since the BBC cleaned out their archives and destroyed the only known copies of Marco Polo before I was born, I'm a bit daunted by the prospect of reviewing the episode! I read Lucarotti's novelisation a while back and thought it was superb. The characters were vividly drawn, with clear motivations and interesting conflicts. The interplay between "mighty" Kublai Khan (who wound up being a rather cute old man) and the Doctor was hilarious.

The publicity photos from the episode are attractive, indicating that it had some lovely sets and costumes. Hussein did a good job directing An Unearthly Child, and I suspect that he did an equally good job here. But I'll probably never know for sure!

The high ratings, a rarity for a historical storyline, also suggest that this was a classic.

OVERALL RATING: A (I think)