Marco Polo: The Wall of Lies

No telesnaps exist of this episode which is a shame.  I have enjoyed going through the episodes being able to look at the telesnaps. This is because Waris Hussein isn’t directing it and so didn’t order any telesnaps to be taken. After Susan shrieks about the eyes in the painting its quickly rubbished by the Doctor. It’s the only time really that Susan gets treated like a child and it’s a theme of the episode where the elder and more responsible people don’t trust those closest to them.

There is also the resolvement of the more important part of the cliffhanger and that was the peril facing Barbara and despite a few moments of stalling Ian picks the moment where the Mongol Malik is about to kill Barbara. I believe that’s what they call a close shave. The next part of the story is about trying to prove that Tegana had gone to the cave of five hundred eyes. That’s basically what the whole episode is about. After all the excitement from the previous episode, it’s somewhat a shame that things slow down. There isn’t much moving around in this episode though we do get some narration from Marco Polo which is always good.

I am still a massive fan of Tegana. He continues to be a great character and well played by Derren Nesbitt. Susan and Ping-Cho’s relationship  is something that has grown on me in recent episodes and its going to be really sad when they have to go their separate ways. Carole Ann Ford and Zienia Merton have a good on screen relationship and it’s the most consistent that Susan has been since the show started. William Russell and Jacqueline Hill are both on good form but neither has a spectacular episode though Russell does get to do a bit of life saving at the beginning when he saves Barbara’s life. William Hartnell was given a slightly better episode but not by much really. My enjoyment of the Marco Polo character is starting to slip a bit. Marco Polo is unwilling to believe that Tegana is lieing. What’s quite fun is knowing that Tegana is working against Polo and if he gets his own way then Polo wont see it coming. I think its fun because Polo deserves it really.

The cliffhanger is ok because as Ian is about to jump the guard he discovers that the guard is in fact dead. The question undeniably will killed him.  Sadly as we don’t have any telesnaps its difficult to see how this would have looked so going on what we hear its fair to say that whilst its not the greatest cliffhanger in the history of Doctor (so far), its better than some that we have had. It’s fair to say that The Wall of Lies is another episode of people talking and not a lot else happening. After the atmospheric episode going into the caves, it’s a shame that we get something that doesn’t have much in the way of energy. There is enough to keep your interest but I suspect that the directing would need to be spectacular to work visually and I think with Waris Hussein in the directors chair then its might have worked so we’ll never know what John Crockett would have done with it. Onto the next episode.