The Temple of Evil

"You can't rewrite history. Not one line!"

That legendary quote is this story in a nutshell. As with 'The Daleks' I am blissfully over-familiar with John Lucarotti's second historical script for this first season and its high production values.

The aspect that has stood out most for me, watching it for the umpteenth time again this afternoon, is the direction. The whole episode, from the opening shot (pictured above) onwards, is beautifully and ambitiously directed by John Crockett. It makes me wonder if the fourth, and only, episode of Marco Polo which he directed might actually have differed in style quite considerably from Waris Hussein's.

The camera is hardly ever still; no mean feat with the heavy, clunky machinery of Lime Grove's Studio D. What is truly remarkable, however, is the choreography. Guards and processions and characters moving in and out of shot are all superbly handled in this real tour de force of 1960s drama. Consequently, it is a real pleasure to watch. I'm very interested to see if it gets noticeably easier to accommodate this fluid style in the ultra modern, for the time, Television Centre Studio 3 in the next instalment.

So much for the technicalities, the story itself belongs to Barbara, and to Jacqueline Hill:

If you've followed this blog from the beginning, you'll know how much I adore this companion and this actress. The depth she brings to the character of Barbara is just phenomenal. You can actually see on Barbara's face the moment when she makes her mind up to challenge the status quo and reform the Aztecs, much to the Doctor's horror. I honestly don't think that we meet another companion who will stand up to the Doctor quite as strongly until Tegan, and it is of course upon the original line-up that John Nathan-Turner would base his companions.

Amongst all this, the Doctor charms and is in return charmed by Cameca, Ian finds he is to challenge the established warrior champion, and John Ringham gives a remarkable and malevolent turn as Tlotoxl who proclaims at the end of the episode, "She is a false goddess, and I will destroy her!"

Gripping stuff. Stand by for:

Next episode: The Warriors of Death

Article: Nicholas Courtney

Five Hundred Eyes

"What misery."

Says Polo about a dreadful night without water in the desert. Everyone is very much up against it at the start of this episode until condensation starts to form in the TARDIS. When I first read the synopsis of this story (in the Radio Times 1973 Doctor Who 10th Anniversary Special - link to be posted later - and which quickly became a bible to me) I assumed that the water formed on the outside of the TARDIS, I hadn't realised that the Doctor and Susan had slept on the inside of the cold, deactivated ship. I assume that they used back projection as it can't have been feasible to build the TARDIS control room set for such a short scene.

"Our fate rests with Tegana."

Indeed it does, and what a manipulative piece of work he's turning out to be. Although I am distracted by the fact that Derrin Nesbitt was rather attractive all those years ago!

"Pray attend me while I tell my tale."

This could be John Lucarotti again, but it's actually Ping-Cho as she tells the story of Ala'ad-Din. This scene makes sense of so many of the on-set photographs that exist of this third episode. In true story-telling tradition, everyone, including protagonist Tregana, gather to hear Ping-Cho tell her story of Aladdin. An interesting, mid-episode educational pause which, followed by Ian's explanation to Susan (having a young alien to aid plot exposition is a marvellous device) is not only beautifully acted, but genuinely interesting, and delightfully enhanced by the oriental music beneath it. I love the way Susan sits so naturally in front of the Doctor, her Grandfather's arms around her.

"A caravan that flies."

Keep your eye on the prize everybody.

And then, delightfully, the scene that has become such an iconic image in the history of Doctor Who, so much so that it was mimicked for the publicity for the eighth Doctor; that of the first Doctor, burning lantern in hand, slipping back to his ship to repair it in the night.

And then we have poor Barbara in jeopardy again, with a knife to her throat as Susan and Ping-cho and the Doctor search for her. I happen to have a rather nice picture of this so here it is:

I thought that drawing the eerie figures of the hashashins around seams of quartz in the walls so that their eyes appeared to be glowing was really clever. And then two of them start moving!

Next episode: The Wall of Lies

Article: William Hartnell

The Roof of the World

The first Radio Times Dr Who cover. Hurrah!


And the now customary half-page article to introduce each new story.

"I wonder what the strangers reaction will be... when I tell them what I propose to do."

This may well have been John Lucarotti's diary entry the night before he showed his script to the Dr Who production team. What an utter delight this episode is! It's beautifully written and, above all after the last two episodes, elegantly plotted. It seems to have been the thing in the early days that something would go wrong with the ship that would prevent the travellers leaving straight away and making them take part in the adventure - the fluid link, the fast return switch and now another broken electronic circuit that will take the Doctor 'days to build a new one'. Yet Lucarotti seamlessly builds in other plot elements that will compel the crew to stay in what will become the norm for the series i.e. that curiosity or circumstances will prevent their leaving as opposed to mechanical failure. I suppose this is already there in 'The Dead Planet'. The Doctor's curiosity is enough to warrant an adventure, so much so that he sabotages the ship. Here, Lucarotti adds the suspicion of the Mongols and both Marco Polo's dream of returning to Venice and Teganna's lust for power as plot devices to prevent our quartet from entering the TARDIS.

I love this episode, and I'm watching a reconstruction. It's well written, it flows, it's believable; it's another journey. The credible journey. For Marco Polo's life was one of travel and so it is entirely appropriate that a Dr Who story involving him includes journeying. It's pure inspiration to call the TARDIS the Doctor's caravan and to make it the prize for just about everyone in the story, including our travellers. There are many echoes of the first episode in this one, perhaps because it has the same director, but possibly because John Lucarotti stuck to his brief. There is another reference to the TARDIS not being on wheels and Ian and Barbara return completely plausibly to teaching. Barbara tells Susan (an alien) of Marco Polo and Ian explains to Mister Marco (who is from the 13th century) about the thin atmosphere affecting the boiling point of water. This is exactly the subtlety and craft that the series set out to achieve I feel sure.

What do you need for a journey? Yep, a map and how lovely is that moving map of Cathay and Marco's narration over it? I'm struck that this story has a tiny number of sets - the TARDIS on the Pamir, the mountainside, Polo's tent, and the way station at Lop - and yet when we arrive at Lop (see, I'm doing it now) it feels like a completely different place with a different style and different costumes.

A great cliffhanger and a great sense of a journey in this episode. Like us, it feels that Doctor Who has arrived.

Next episode: The Singing Sands