"We should be up there."
Susan says wistfully looking towards the stars from outside Polo's tent on the Gobi desert in a touching scene with Ping-Cho. Another high quality episode of thoughtful dialogue and imaginative plotting. The tension comes from knowing that Tegana is about to sabotage the expedition together with the oncoming storm, the 'Singing Sands' of the title, which is cleverly explained and realised, culminating in Ian's real voice calling for Susan. The approaching sandstorm is preminiscent of the 'Robots of Death' thirteen years later. Very clever, and very educational. As was 'Shah-K-Mate' - the King [the Shah] is dead [Mate as in Matador - killer]. The Doctor is strangely absent in this episode, sleeping a lot and generally being rude according to Polo and Susan. Barbara intuitively interprets this as feeling powerless at having his TARDIS taken off him by a 'primative'. He'll bounce back like a rubber ball, full of ideas, she thinks and I was reminded of David Tennant's Doctor.
A great cliffhanger as Tegana stands astride the oasis, gourd in hand, 'Here's water, Marco Polo. Come for it!'
An erroneous caption at the end shows 'Next episode - The Cave of Five Hundred Eyes'
But really, we know it's
Next Episode: Five Hundred Eyes
I can't wait.
