2 out of 5

Directed By: Waris Hussein & John Crockett

I know it’s not fair of me to rate this, really – all 7 eps are missing, so the ‘reconstruction’ are snaps of stills with the original audio and some text at various points to detail character action.  However, we’ll let the rating stand as the experience of watching it in that format, as well as my impression of the material… which was way too dry for seven episodes.

The second ‘historical’ entry lacks the frenzied nature of the first serial, which came bundled with the newness of the show as well as a more novel prehistoric setting.  After the uniqueness of The Daleks and the 2-part living TARDIS eps, for the Doc and crew to be stranded in Marco Polo’s era and to, essentially, just be shuffled around in Polo’s company for seven parts… it just feels a tad stale.  The show, at this point, could rarely afford extended action, so talking heads ain’t new, but we’re one further step out: talking heads who aren’t our main characters, who are discussing things that don’t really deal with the main characters.

We’re meant to get wrapped up in a betrayal plot of one of Polo’s traveling buddies, Tegana, who’s also responsible for bending Marc’s ear to constantly assume the worst of Doc and his ‘caravan’ the TARDIS… that he’s an evil wizard, that he’s a liar, and so on.  Susan screams a lot in these episodes, and not at Daleks but at people… glowering.  I’m sure the effect is better when the glowering is imbued with a movie picture to really enhance enhance the glower, but its still rather ridiculous how frequently the girl goes batshit screamy.  Right, you’re a teenager, I get it.  Babs and Ian get sorta’ left out, mostly, just trying to make pals and fill in exposition, while the Doctor sneaks away at any opportunity to repair his broken ship.  Repeat for 7 parts.  The episode starts to get some momentum from the crew having to tag along with Polo, as he’s adopted the TARDIS as a gift for Kublai Khan, and Hartnell’s creepy / odd manner of brushing off everything and being panicked at the same time, but this device of being resigned hostages can only work for so long.

It’s possible if I cared about history or if I wasn’t watching grainy photos that Marco Polo would’ve been more interesting.  But as even the more intense stories thus far are buffered for more episodes than they need, with such a basic story as this one, 7 eps is a stretch.  A nod to Mark Eden as Polo and Derren Nesbitt as Tegana for not playing their roles as one shade hero and rogue, but rather each giving their parts a definite humanity.