Well here we are, finally, at the end of Marco Polo! Sorry it took me a year. You probably won't notice a thing if you just click on the links. It's been epic in more ways than one and I've enjoyed it immensely.
Thoughts along the way? I'm very glad you asked. Despite having the soundtrack and linking narration, the telesnaps, the many wonderful photographs, the experience is simply not the same as watching Dr Who on television. Don't get me wrong, I am so chuffed that what still exists exists, I really am. And I am utterly grateful to the many people who have taken the trouble to make such inventive reconstructions. But I yearn to see it in the form it was intended. I still hold out a hope, but as the years go by it seems increasingly unlikely that it will ever be uncovered somewhere. My only true hope around the missing instalments is that some sour fan who may have been keeping an episode or two to themselves will eventually die a horrible death and we may look upon their booty once more as is, after all, our right. That, or technology will allow computers to extrapolate enough data to enable the telesnaps to move and morph. I love 'The Invasion' animations as well, I think those are a great way forward.
After I blogged about the last episode yesterday afternoon, I watched the thirty minute reconstruction on 'The Beginning' boxed set which was very pleasant. Pleasanter still was re-watching the documentary on the same disc about the origins of Dr Who. Lo and behold, there was the documentation supporting my idea that the production team originally planned for 18 episodes which would have been the first story, the Daleks and Marco Polo, and that Beyond the Sun was inserted when the top brass would only commission 13 episodes. The lovely ending to Marco Polo suddenly makes absolute sense.
If you haven't yet 'watched' this story I highly recommend the BBC audio CD. The soundtrack is beautifully restored and the linking narration is helpful and unobtrusive. And it's read by lovely William Russell. There are some great extras on one of the discs, including a map which you can save to your desktop and which has been an enormous help to me. And, unlike me, you will probably not be hampered by losing your copy mid-way through the story only to discover that it has disappeared behind a radiator having been kicked from your desk by a cat seeking more room to stretch. Two grown men with coathangers, much swearing, and a missing afternoon interspersed with dim recollections of Ker-Plunk and fairground machines with hands that failed to grab, and it was back. The reconstructions are all available on Youtube which is becoming quite the resource for Dr Who enthusiasts old and new. The telesnaps are in past editions of Dr Who Magazine which are eay to pick up on eBay and the like, and these have all been scanned by the reconstructors. And there are bucket loads of production photographs from this story available for free on the internet. I've also mentioned the 'The Beginning' DVD boxed set which is well worth having and gives an insight into what the series might have been if it hadn't been recommissioned. Do let me know your thoughts as you watch, via the comments section.
Anyway, although I very much enjoyed the story, I didn't really savour the telesnaps experience and so I take heart that we have a pretty clear run of episodes that still exist on film coming up, and dread a little some of the great swathes of missing episodes that lie ahead. Perhaps if I don't take a year about the next missing story it will seem better!
Next episode: The Sea of Death
