Written by John Lucarotti | Directed by Waris Hussein | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 02/22/64
This is the first missing episode reconstruction I've ever viewed. In the past, I'd just listened to the audio with linking narration. It's an interesting distinction - being able to see what is going on, to a certain extent, helps the story. I was more interested in this episode while watching the recon than I was in just the audio, which partly explains why people want this story returned to the BBC archives so badly. What's odd is, the reconstruction I've got has a sort of prologue stuck onto the beginning, in which Marco Polo, years after this adventure, is narrating in his diary about his adventures. It was made years later by, presumably, the recon people, and I think stars the same actor who played Marco Polo. It is entirely pointless and adds nothing to the story. Yes, I'm aware it's just attempting to be like a pre-credits bit of world building, but it falls flat. I'm not going to hold this against the actual Doctor Who production, though.
Anyway, the story proper begins with the footprint seen at the end of the last episode being explained away by Ian as being a normal footprint, made to appear bigger by being melted a bit around the edges. The Doctor is absolutely infuriated because the TARDIS has apparently broke - everything, the heating, the lights, it's all out. The TARDIS crew needs to find shelter and, failing that, something to burn for heat. "We shall all freeze to death!" he growls. Hartnell is as angry as I've ever heard him, here. He's angrier here than he is when he wants to kick Barbara and Ian off the TARDIS in the last episode, even. I suppose he's scared, and expresses that emotion through fury, at least at this point in his life.
Later, Susan screams when she sees someone, and the Doctor quickly locks the ship's doors and they run off, only to be surrounded by a group of men. The leader refers to the other men as Mongrols, and says that the TARDIS crew are not human but evil spirits, and suggests they kill them before the evil spirits kill the Mongrols. Then, according to the subtitles, "a European man appears," which is interesting because it appears everyone in the scene is European save for the outfits they're wearing (I'm kidding, just ignore me being slightly annoyed at the all-white cast save for Ping Cho who appears in a moment) and orders them to stop in the name of Kublai Khan. We find out this "European man" is none other than the famed Marco Polo (which is also the name fandom attributes to this stretch of seven episodes, rather than their individual titles).
The group is taken to a tent, where a young woman is making soup. Barbara, being the history teacher, already seems to realize where they are and who they're with, as she begins to explain to Susan who Kublai Khan is. Not to be outdone, Ian explains how water boils at a lower temperature because of the height they're at (Barbara is so much cooler and more interesting than Ian, I'm sorry. Ian, you're a nerd). The Doctor introduces everyone, but calls Ian "Charleton," before Ian corrects him. I love the tradition set in this season of the Doctor kind of being a jerk to his male companions. Mickey being called Ricky at first by the Tenth Doctor seems an explicit nod to this, as does the Eleventh Doctor calling Rory a Pond.
Marco Polo is suspicious of the group, and becomes even more so when the Doctor just flat out asks what year it is and where they are. Polo, audibly surprised, tells him it's 1289 and they're on the Roof of the World. The Doctor doesn't seem like he has traveled much, yet - it's very rare to see him just flat out ask bluntly what year it is. We learn Ping Cho, who is 16, is to be married off. Susan asks if her fiancee is handsome - perhaps she's yearning for "perfect" Alydon from Skaro? She's quickly knocked from her reverie as Ping Cho reveals she's marrying a very powerful man who also happens to be 75. Susan, as far as I can tell without video, is disgusted (as am I).
Later, Marco Polo, Ian, Barbara, and Tegana examine the TARDIS, and Ian tells them it doesn't roll on wheels, but instead flies through the air. This convinces Tegana that they're evil, and Polo asks... if they're Buddhists. Apparently he's seen Buddhists flying cups through the air right to Kublai Khan's lips. I'm not sure what he's referring to (I'm largely unaware of Marco Polo's real, actual writing, so maybe I'm missing a reference to that, here). Polo wants to see it fly, but Ian explains only the Doctor has the key and only he can fly it, and since he's not with them, Polo is out of luck. Polo decides to take the TARDIS with them.
We then get an interesting sequence in which Marco Polo seems to be narrating over a map (which is done several times throughout this serial, and is why the recon people grafted their little prologue onto the beginning of this episode, and, presumably, after the last episode, though I'm not sure yet), showing the TARDIS crew traveling with Polo's caravan to Lop, just outside the Gobi desert. He says, "I wonder what the strangers reaction will be when I tell them what I propose to do?" That sounds ominous, and I suppose it is, but Polo is played as such a nice guy that it's hard to be fearful that he's going to hurt our heroes.
When they arrive in Lop, the Doctor is prevented from going inside his TARDIS and is unhappy. Turns out Polo wants to give the ship to Kublai Khan to bargain his way home to Venice, since he's not been home in many years. The Doctor says it's his property and that won't be happening, but Polo says, basically, deal with it, and that the Doctor can just make a new one. The Doctor scoffs. Interestingly, Barbara says she knows that Polo eventually makes it back to Venice, but no one seems to pay her any mind and the comment is ignored. That line would be a major pivot in later Doctor Who stories, where the time travelers knowledge would get them in trouble. When the Doctor asks Polo what the Khan will do with the TARDIS he won't be able to fly it, Polo says that surely the Buddhists will figure it out. The Doctor finds this and the whole situation very, very funny, and begins laughing uncontrollably. Ian is amused when the Doctor tells him it's funny and he has no idea what to do. The episode ends with Tegana obtaining some poison, so he can present the TARDIS to the Khan himself to gain favor.
Lots of set up in this episode. It almost seems too much - this is a seven part story, and we've got a lot of episodes to get through, so hopefully it isn't a padded boring mess (as I recall, most of it is. But this story gets a lot of love, so I'm going to try to like it this time through). The reconstruction I'm watching colorized the screenshots John Cura took, which is a weird stylistic choice - if they ever find these episodes, they will be in black and white, and that's kind of what I wanted to see here. Granted, we have color photos of some of the sets, so the colorization is probably pretty accurate, and is pretty well done, anyway. I wish I had some information about these recons, who made them, why they were made this way, etc. but I don't (they're apparently made by Loose Cannon, but I don't know who they are, and find them difficult to Google since I think they made these reconstuctions 10-20 years ago). As far as feeding me plot goes, it did a good job. It was easier to follow than the audio narration, from what I recall. But - and this won't be the last time I say it - it's truly a shame that there's so much non-existent video of Doctor Who. I'd really like to see this.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Singing Sands"
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