Doctor Who: Marco Polo (1964)

Tucked away on the DVD of The Edge Of Destruction is a 30-minute condensed version of Marco Polo, the next story from the first season and one of the 'lost' tales that has been wiped from the BBC archives.

Illustrated with stills from the production, and the occasional subtitle during action sequences, the abridgment makes use of the original, surviving soundtrack.

The First Doctor, Susan, Barbara and Ian arrive in the Himalayas in the 13th Century, and the TARDIS immediately decides to break down. The group are then discovered by a travelling band of Mongols, part of a caravan led by Marco Polo (Mark Eden) who offers to escort our heroes to safety.

Unfortunately for them, he has an ulterior motive, seeing The Doctor's "magic flying caravan" as the perfect gift to buy his freedom from his master, Kublai Khan (Martin Miller).

The TARDIS crew, along with Marco, then embark on an epic journey across the Gobi Desert and Cathay (China) to the court of Kublai Khan - plagued along the way by treacherous Mongols in the shape of ambassador Tegana (Derren Nesbit), dehydration and failed escape attempts.

There's also a strong sub-plot about Ping-Cho (Zienia Merton), another traveler in the caravan, who is on her way to an arranged marriage - a concept that is shocking to Susan and she will encounter again, more directly, in The Aztecs.

As an aside, Zienia Merton returned to the Whoniverse this week as the Registrar for The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith.

The duration of the narrative - weeks, possibly months, of travel - makes Marco Polo an interesting Doctor Who story, as very few others involve The Doctor staying in one place (well, one storyline) for quite such a protracted period of time and this is almost certainly the longest 'real time' story to date on the show.

It even features an interesting linking technique of monologues from Marco Polo over a map of the route, with a line being drawn as the caravan makes its progress (a technique familiar to modern audiences from the Indiana Jones movies).

Finally arriving at the court of Kublai Khan, The Doctor and Khan bond through their common frailty and love of backgammon and when a villainous Mongol warlord marches on the court, Marco saves the Khan from assassination by Tegana and decides it is probably best to let the time travelers go on their way.

It's fascinating how, in these early stories, much is made of the physical infirmity of The Doctor - presumably he has nearly worn this body out through natural use, something that doesn't have a chance to happen with his subsequent regenerations.

Perhaps this "old age" also explains his crotchetiness - that and the fact that he has yet to really develop a strong connection with the planet Earth and its people.

There is even a great of openness about the nature of the TARDIS, not only is Marco (and the Khan) told that it flies, but also, eventually, that it moves in time as well; something that the explorer is less inclined to believe.

I realise there is a CD available of the full soundtrack, but the main thrust of my Doctor Who reviews has always been the visual medium (ie. DVD and TV) and I said quite some time ago that I have 'issues' with the way the linking narration is done of these discs.

I also have to wonder, even with a story as compelling as this one, does it merit seven episodes?