Season 1, Episode 4 | 7 parts | First broadcast: 22 February – 4 April 1964 | Writer: John Lucarotti | Director: Waris Hussein and John Crockett
Cast
- William Hartnell as the Doctor
- Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman
- William Russell as Ian Chesterton
- Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright
- Mark Eden as Marco Polo
- Derren Nesbitt as Tegana
Summary
The TARDIS lands in the Pamir Mountains of the Himalayas in 1289, damaging its systems, and the travellers are found by the famous Venetian explorer Marco Polo, who is escorting a caravan across Asia to the court of Kublai Khan. Believing the TARDIS to be the fabled “flying caravan,” Polo confiscates it as a gift for the Khan, forcing the Doctor and his companions to accompany the caravan across the Silk Road while contending with the treacherous warlord Tegana.
Interesting Facts
- This purely historical serial was Doctor Who’s first to feature a real historical figure as a major character, and its longest at seven episodes shared only with The Daleks.
- No footage from any of its seven episodes is known to survive, making it, along with The Massacre, one of only two complete stories lost entirely from the archives.
- It was reconstructed for release using surviving audio, production photographs (“telesnaps”), and narration, and received an animated recreation in 2015.
- Writer John Lucarotti drew on his own travels and research into Marco Polo’s own account of his journeys for the serial’s historical detail.
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