Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by Waris Hussein | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 03/07/64
The episode opens with everyone standing around waiting for Tegana to come back. Well, probably not, it sort of sounds like they're heading slowly towards the oasis. Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the Doctor realizes condensation has formed inside his ship, which he excitedly brings out to Marco Polo and the rest. It's weird, though - if condensation can form inside the TARDIS, what happens when the TARDIS is surrounded by lava or is in deep space? Wouldn't the inside of the ship be affected by those conditions, too? Maybe the Doctor reinforces the ship's defenses later and prevents this. Who knows.
Anyway, the episode spends another minute or so explaining condensation to Marco Polo via the Doctor and Ian. Marco Polo is incredulous at first, then later insists he totally knows what condensation is. Suuure, Marco. Tegana doesn't believe in condensation, though. He's questioned a moment later by Ian and Barbara, after Barbara told Ian she suspected Tegana was up to no good. They don't learn anything, though, since Tegana just makes up lies in response, while the Doctor insists to Marco Polo that he has a superior intellect. Polo, somewhat remarkably, seems unfazed by the Doctor's bragging. The condensation scene is presumably there to fulfill the show's original call to be educational, but it is incredibly boring. I'm glad the educational remit is dropped fairly quickly (or just ignored. Either works).
The caravan arrives in Tun-huang, and the TARDIS is set up in the courtyard, where passerby gawk at it. Ping Cho entertains the caravan and others with the story of some hashashi. I have no idea if the story she tells was made up by Lucarotti or is genuine (I hope it's genuine, as it would fit the show's historical remit to educate it's younger viewers, and unlike the condensation scene, is actually interesting).
During Ping Cho's story, Tegana slipped out and went to the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes, and Barbara followed him. From the photo we have of this set, it looks more like the cave of fifty-ish eyes-if-that, but it's only from one angle, so maybe more eyes are on the other walls. A mongol named Malik meets Tegana, and they enter a secret room to discuss their plans. Tegena wants the mongols to attack Marco Polo's caravan and steal the TARDIS, then kill Kublai Khan. Barbara overheard all this, but Malik detected her presence and grabbed her before she could escape. Tegana heads back to Polo's caravan, and when everyone is freaking out about Barbara being missing, Tegana says, "you won't find her alive, now," as if he thinks that will prevent people from looking for her. They do, anyway.
Susan and Ping Cho convince the Doctor to go to the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes to look for Barbara, since they think she'll be there because of her great interest in it while it was being discussed earlier. The Doctor shakes down a passerby for the cave's location and they are off. That passerby warns Tegana that he told them where the cave was, and the episode ends when they're poking around the cave and Susan spots a pair of eyes on the wall move. It's a weird cliffhanger, because the audience knows exactly what that is - one of the Mongols in the secret room looking into the main cave at them. Normally, it'd end when the group is attacked or captured, not upon seeing eyes move.
With no idea what the episode really looks like, and with no interesting weirdo soundscapes like in the last episode, this one was tougher to get through, despite it's shorter running length. The first few minutes spent explaining condensation don't help, either. The title is more interesting than the actual episode, I'm afraid.
Tomorrow, if I'm reading Wikipedia correctly, there are no surviving images of the episode left, since John Crockett stepped in to direct in Waris Hussein's place, and we only have the images we have because Hussein bought telesnaps from John Cura. All we've got is the soundtrack and apparently the script to go by, so hopefully I can come up with something interesting to say about it!
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Wall of Lies"
No comments:
Post a Comment