Marco Polo is a Doctor Who story so unlike anything else ever made for the show it is going to be pretty difficult to write about. It's like if I had made a blog about video games, writing carefully about them and reviewing them meticulously and then I'm suddenly asked to write a review of a washing machine. Oh, and I don't actually get to see the washing machine, I just get a few pictures of it and I get to hear what it sounds like.
Marco Polo is not only Doctor Who's fourth ever story, it is not only the first story chronologically to have been hit by the Standard Issue BBC Flamethrower™, it is not only the first true historical and longest historical story ever, it is also, in terms of story and structure, so very different from what would become the standard historical fare throughout the Hartnell era. Most of the remaining historicals would be short four-part affairs (with the exception of the later Season 1 story The Reign of Terror that would have six), with a quick sojourn into a single important moment of history, a formula that would be established by The Aztecs just two stories on from Marco Polo. But Marco Polo isn't that at all - it's a deep study of both a major historical figure and the time period and location that he lived in. And, crucially, it's also a long study - seven episodes long totalling over 2 and a half hours.
I suppose I should probably begin by addressing the most noticeable of Marco Polo's features, and that is that it is entirely missing. Despite being the most widely circulated missing story, not a single frame of footage survives from this, the earliest of the Standard Issue BBC Flamethrower's™ victims. Fortunately, a mostly full collection of telesnaps survives and thus gives some indication of what the story may have looked like, and like most historicals, this isn't a story that necessarily lives and dies on the visuals, but I would be lying if getting through two and a half hours of still images set to a soundtrack wasn't a bit of a slog.
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| The Doctor was convinced Marco Polo had pinched his Mars bar |
Still, I did say when I covered the first missing story on here that I would judge the stories as they were intended to be, not how poor BBC policy-making in the sixties and seventies. So with Loose Canon's reconstruction in one hand and an embarrassing lack of knowledge about the time period in question for a History graduate in the other, and I set about on Marco Polo.
Which almost immediately led me to another of Marco Polo's distinguishing features and one that in the current climate it would be remiss of me not to bring it up. The fact is that this story documents Marco Polo's journey across 13th century Asia, which naturally results in a lot of Asian characters - everyone except the regulars and the title character, in fact. And, as far as I can find out, the number of Asian actors playing non-minor characters in the piece comes to a grand total of.... one (Zienia Merton who played Ping-Cho.) And it is unfortunately very noticeable even in the reconstruction that this is the case. Now I don't want to dwell on this, because when reviewing a program from the 1960s, we are just going to have to accept that standards were very different back then, and something that obviously would never happen today was commonplace back then. And compared to The Talons of Weng-Chiang well over a decade later, where a white man in yellowface doing a funny voice played an Asian villain, this is positively tame, and there are no moments where it's obviously awkward (although that might be different if the episodes existed.) There aren't any obviously overtly racist moments either - yes, all the villains are dastardly Asians, but I'm willing to defend that on the basis that, apart from Marco and the four regulars, all the good guys are Asians as well. Crucially, I don't think this was written and put together maliciously, just in the context of different standards. Therefore, and especially considering there are far more egregious offenders just from Doctor Who, never mind wider in the film and TV sphere, I'm going to give it a pass, but if this kind of thing understandably matters more to you I'd bear it in mind.
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| "You see him there, my dear, hmm? That's someone who's regretting starting that tangent." |
Anyway, what makes Marco Polo so unique is that its main focus throughout the entire story is really on Marco, rather than the main characters. All of the other historicals had important guest characters for sure, but never did they dominate in the way Marco does here, and because the story is so long, it allows him a hefty chunk of time to develop and grow as a character... theoretically anyway, because this does only really half work. Mark Eden does a good job portraying him and his relationship with the regulars does develop believably, from restrained suspicion to regretful exploitation to trust and understanding. It also works as a character arc before he's never really cast as the hero, not until the end at least. Sure, he's a good guy, but he's no saint - not only does he try to steal the TARDIS, he also frequently acts like a controlling prat, especially towards Ping-Cho. Not only does it mean that the 'white saviour coming along to educate the Asian barbarians' stuff which this story could so easily have fallen into is avoided, on the basis that Marco isn't really any better than the locals, it also makes him a believable character. Too often in the historicals, the historical figures were just caricatures of their real life counterparts, but while this is not very accurate (probably... again I don't know much about this time period so I'm at somewhat of a disadvantage), it does put this historical figure into a believable light and therefore makes him a compelling character. If I did have a complaint, is that he sometimes acts a little too stupid to be believable. Tegana is so obviously up to no good that you just have to facepalm at Marco's constant idiocy at constantly taking what he says at face value. Still, whatever serves the plot I guess.
As for the regulars, it's important to remember that the usual Doctor-companion dynamic that would be in place for the vast majority of the show's run, both in the 20th and 21st centuries, was still in the future at the point. The Doctor wasn't necessarily the hero of the series throughout any of the First Doctor's run, but he certainly wasn't in its earliest stories - Ian was the central heroic figure while the Doctor was the strange nutty alien. All of that is pretty crucial to understanding the character dynamic at play between the regulars in Marco Polo and why the Doctor spends most of it sulking and then almost loses the TARDIS because of a game of backgammon. Safe to say we're quite a long way away from holding the wires together in Genesis of the Daleks or giving his own life for Peri in The Caves of Androzani. Still, if you consider it just on its own, the Doctor being short tempered and tiring of Marco's bullshit within about 15 seconds is amusing to watch and it is very much William Hartnell in his element. He also throughout the story shows quite a bit of cunning, which is obviously par for the course normally for the character, but again, early days and all that.
As with all these early stories, the real hero of the piece is the handsome young white male (because it was the sixties), Ian. He does have a good run here though - he gets to pretty definitively prove his strength is brain rather than brawn, although naturally if a punch up if required he is the one called on, and he has some rather good scenes with Marco, being the only one of the four regulars who's able to approach Marco on equal terms, the Doctor being too grumpy and eccentric and Marco being unable to take Barbara and Susan on those terms because of the prejudices of his time. This leads to some great scenes between the two of them, where the Hopefully Immortal William Russell is given the chance to show quite what he can do.
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| Ian had to console Ping-Cho because of her terrible fear of fat men in yellowface |
Of the four regulars, Barbara is the hardest done - mostly because this isn't a story that particularly plays to any of her character strengths and thus she's reduced to 'the woman' with pretty predictable results, a low point of the story being when she's captured by bandits or whatever and becomes a pretty standard damsel-in-distress, something that both demeans the character and Jacqueline Hill. It's a shame given how effectively her character was used in The Aztecs, two stories on from this and considered by many to be the definitive historical, but hey, that was in the future. Overall it's not impressive but with three companions it's pretty much inevitable that someone gets underused. Hell, even Earthshock couldn't really manage to find anything for Nyssa to do and that scored a 10.
Susan at this point was still very much an enigma. Her nature was never really explained at any point during her run and lets remember that in the story before this one she went crazy and tried to kill everyone with a pair of scissors. Marco Polo therefore takes the important step that had never really been done before with the character - it humanises her (Yes, I know she isn't human but 'Timelording her' doesn't make any sense and nobody knew her species at this point so shut up.) To be specific, it humanises her through her relationship with Ping-Cho, who she is put together with at the beginning of the story by virtue of their similar ages (at least apparent similar ages - while Susan claims she's 16, what we later learn about Time Lord aging makes that pretty unlikely). The relationship between these two is the high point of the story's early episodes - for the first time Susan is able to talk to someone she can actually relate to, after 13 episodes of having only her grandfather, the schoolteachers and the bland Thals to yak with. Being able to relate their regrets and wants to each other makes for some very effective interactions between the two of them and gives Susan some strong material throughout the story, although it does trail off as the story goes on and she's a bit invisible as the last few episodes arrive. Still, not too bad.
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| Errr. here's the Doctor and Kublai Khan having a go at each other? idk I'm running out of captions for these surviving images |
Ping-Cho herself is easily the story's most successful supporting character - she's with Marco's party in order to travel to Peking so she can marry an elderly member of Kublai Khan's court in a political marriage. Now the idea of a fifteen year old marrying someone old enough to be her grandfather is pretty shocking to audiences both in the sixties and today, and it is definitely a strength of the story that writer John Lucarotti pulls absolutely no punches with this. It's made very clear that Ping-Cho is being forced into what is essentially sexual slavery - she's being used a political tool but to our heroes, Ping-Cho is a person, a person who's being used against her will, and she is very unhappy about this and being forced to keep quiet about those feelings because of what is expected of her. It's a gutsy move but gives her character a lot of depth and makes her actions (helping the TARDIS crew, running away) believable, and it certainly helps that Zienia Merton plays the part well... well at least she reads her lines well, obviously we don't know if she was any good beyond that. You get the point though.
This aspect is Lucarotti's way of saying 'history is interesting and all, but it's also really goddamn dark and even the guys who are mostly good were probably bastards' which is an obvious message from quite a few later historicals. Not only is it a way of separating Marco's morality from those of our heroes (he's not unsympathetic towards Ping-Cho exactly, but he's at best willing to accept it for the greater good and at worst doesn't care about her feelings about it at all), it's also a tool to allow Lucarotti to form a bond between Ping-Cho and our heroes. Later in the story, Ping-Cho runs away from the caravan to return home, and Ian only agrees to go after her because it's a terrible plan that will probably get herself killed, not because he agrees with that she has to do - he doesn't.
Ping-Cho's story culminates at the end of Marco Polo, when the old man she was to marry pops his clogs before she can even meet him. When she doesn't seem too disturbed by this, she's asked if she is sad about his death, and she replies that she's only sad that someone has died - not because it was anyone she knew or loved. It's a nice interaction that completes her character well - she's a kind-hearted person but she, despite her acting along to what she has been told and what she feels is her duty, is simple unable to truly love a stranger decades older than her. This is common sense both today and in the 1960s - but not in the 13th century, and Ping-Cho's story is an excellent way for Lucarotti to demonstrate the moral questions that history can open up.
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| "Hey Barbara, look at this weird metal thing" |
The rest of the supporting characters are rather weaker. Tegana is a pretty one note villain - as I previously mentioned it's painfully obvious he's the bad guy which makes Marco's refusal to even consider that infuriating, and his motivations are pretty weak. It's also where the length of the story comes into play - it's pretty difficult to take Tegana seriously when his dastardly schemes have been constantly foiled for seven straight episodes. His final sword fight with Marco could be a really great action scene... or it could be shit. Obviously nobody has any idea because of the Standard Issue BBC Flamethrower™, so I guess there's no comment to be made on that. He's not a terrible villain but not a particularly effective one and leaves a bit of a void in terms of dramatic drive.
The rest of the characters are forgettable and weak, which for a story of this length is a shame. Contrast this to another long story, The Invasion, six years later and even an episode longer than this. Remember all the memorable characters from that story? Even if you don't count the Brigadier as a supporting character, there's Vaughn, the Professor, Isobel, that UNIT guy who never appeared again and of course PACKER! And there were memorable villains in the Cybermen and the Cyber Planner. In this story, there's Marco, Ping-Cho, Tegana and a bunch of nameless guys in yellowface. Maybe it isn't fair to contrast the fourth story with a story made when the show's formula was established and maybe it isn't fair to contrast a historical to an earthbound sci-fi story, but to that I'll say fuck off it's my blog I choose what comparisons I make. The point is, the lack of memorable characters hurts the story and means that what takes place around the existing characters becomes repetitive very quickly - Marco has to arguie with the Doctor and Ian about the TARDIS key about twice an episode and as mentioned, Tegana's evil plans get more ridiculous in their failures as the story goes along. Ping-Cho's story works because it's used more sparingly, and with a few more characters to give attention to, it could have used its length more effectively. As it is, the story just waddles along, very slowly. The time is sometimes put to good use (developing the relationship between Susan and Ping-Cho) and sometimes it isn't (the unbelivably dull attack on the caravan by the barbarians).
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| Ian was shocked to find that Marco had a bit of indigestion |
So what do I think overall of Marco Polo? It has its ups and downs to be sure - on the one hand it has an intriguing and unique setup and creates a narrative that flows pretty well. It also makes good use of its title character and gives our main characters some much needed development. On the other hand though, the supporting characters are mostly forgettable and it's unnecessary length does mean that it gets very repetitive and can seriously drag and probably would do even if it did exist. Which it doesn't.
I think an edit down to six parts, maybe one more supporting character in the dynamic and fleshing out Tegana as a villain would have made this a true classic rather than just an acceptable entry into Who canon, but I think there does need to be some slack cut for this one - it is totally missing, it was the first story of its type and only the fourth one ever made. It's not going to fit our definitions of what an excellent Doctor Who story should be because of that, but I think that it could have, with a few changes, fit a definition of a great story, period. But it isn't. It's a good story, which does a great deal right, but it just doesn't go far enough to achieve that. I already made the promise ages ago that a story being missing would not factor into the final score, and again here it won't, but I also can't judge this story based on what I think it might have been like, and it being missing probably doesn't help... but in the end, the flaws are in the story and they can't be forgiven just because the Standard Issue BBC Flamethrower™ may have exacerbated them. Fair? No. But life rarely is.
Final Score: I agonised for a while over this, but eventually I decided on a score of 6/10. I think it's above average, because it does create a decent narrative around a historical figure who's portrayed well. It also does well with character work with the regulars, and Ping-Cho's story is a highlight, but in the end there just isn't enough depth to fill out the runtime, which leads to repetitiveness and dragging. It's still an above average story, but it's a shame it couldn't have been more.
Next Episode: Mawdryn Undead
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