Marco Polo: Rider from Shang-Tu

The cliffhanger saw Ian about to attack a guard who it turns out had already been killed. The story very quickly moves on to the bandits that are meant to be attacking soon.  After they come and are quickly disbanded then the action sees Marco Polo and his band of merry (and not so merry) men and women travel to Cheng-Tu.  Judging by the telesnaps Cheng-Ting looks another nice place. The sets have on the whole been impressive and that is what makes the fact that this story only exits on audio so depressing because if this were to be on DVD or VHS then it would probably rank as one of the all time greats in Doctor Who. Barry Newberry has to be complemented on what he has achieved. Daphne Dare also deserves praise because even in the black and white pictures, her designs come off as the sort you would see on movies.

As we enter the latter half of the story, the action moves towards the meeting of Kublai Kahan in Cheng-Ting. The circuit that the Doctor has been spending an eternity working on is now fixed so the drama moves to trying to get back into the TARDIS as soon as possible. It seems that they’ve forgotten what Marco Polo has got planned.

This episode really gets going once they get to Cheng-Tu as we are introduced to some new characters which is what is needed after five episodes. Wang-Lo sounds like a comedy character and comes across as such. He’s played brilliantly by Gabor Baraker and what puts the icing on the cake is the way that the Doctor reacts to his news that he has had the TARDIS moved. William Hartnell had a nice comedy moment after encountering Wang-Lo, doing a rather funny impression. The relationship between Ping-Cho and Susan is put on show again when they are examining the fish in Cheng-Ting, trying to figure out which person looks like which fish. It’s made even more enjoyable to witness after Ping-Cho gives Susan the key that Marco Polo doesn’t want them to have.

Tegana continues to impress me and the way that he sees the TARDIS as his way of getting what he wants. I’ve gone on about how much I like Derren Nesbitt’s portrayl of the character so I wont carry on with him but I think that I find Mark Eden’s Marco Polo to be less grating that I have recently.

The cliffhanger was quite a good one. After wanting the regulars to get into the TARDIS they finally do but it was never going to be that straightforward because Susan gets left behind and cause by Tegana. The plot idea of having them so close to escaping and yet so far is something that is used in The Daleks when they are about to get away before they realise that the fluid link is in the Dalek city.

It’s certainly a lot more enjoyable than the previous episode. It’s not a coincidence that its because Waris Hussein is back in the directors chair as he does have a way of moving the story along at a quicker pace than John Crockett did. The whole episode just had a better vibe to it than the previous episode. The final two episodes should get the story back on track.