Marco Polo (Doctor Who)

004 – Marco Polo
Doctor Who serial
Marco Polo, Susan, the Doctor and Ian
Cast
Doctor William Hartnell (First Doctor)
Companions Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman) Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright) William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Others Mark Eden — Marco Polo Derren Nesbitt — Tegana Zienia Merton — Ping Cho Martin Miller — Kublai Khan Jimmy Gardner — Chenchu Charles Wade — Malik Philip Voss — Acomat Paul Carson — Ling-Tau Gábor Baraker — Wang-Lo Tutte Lemkow — Kuiju Claire Davenport — Empress O. Ikeda — Yeng Leslie Bates — Man at Lop Michael Guest — Mongol Bandit Peter Lawrence — Vizier Basil Tang — Office Foreman
Production
Directed by	Waris Hussein (episodes 1-3,5-7) John Crockett (episode 4)
Written by	John Lucarotti
Script editor	David Whitaker
Produced by	Verity Lambert Mervyn Pinfield (associate producer)
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Tristram Cary
Production code	D
Series	Season 1
Length	7 episodes, 25 minutes each
Episode(s) missing	All 7 episodes
Date started	22 February 1964
Date ended	4 April 1964
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Edge of Destruction The Keys of Marinus

Marco Polo

Author	John Lucarotti
Cover artist	David McAllister
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	94
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	11 April 1985
ISBN

Marco Polo is the completely missing fourth serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 22 February to 4 April 1964. The story is set in China, in the year 1289, with the regular series characters interacting with Venetian merchant-explorer Marco Polo and Mongolian Emperor Kublai Khan. The historical period and context avoids science fiction elements beyond establishing the way by which the Doctor and his companions have travelled to the past. Although audio recordings and still photographs of the story exist, no footage of this serial is known to have survived. This is the earliest known serial that has no recovered episodes.

The TARDIS crew lands in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289, their ship badly damaged, and are picked up by Marco Polo's caravan on its way along the fabled Silk Road to see the Emperor Kublai Khan. The story concerns the Doctor and his companions' attempts to thwart the machinations of Tegana, who attempts to sabotage the caravan along its travels through the Pamir Plateau and across the treacherous Gobi Desert, and ultimately to assassinate Kublai Khan in Peking, at the height of his imperial power. The Doctor and his companions also attempt to regain the TARDIS, which Marco Polo has taken to give to Kublai Khan in effort to regain the Emperor's good graces. Susan gets the key from Ping-Cho but is captured by Tegana before they can depart. They are finally able to thwart Tegana, who kills himself, and, in doing so, regain the Emperor's respect for Marco Polo, who allows them to depart.