Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: Marco Polo (BBC Radio Collection)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is Story #4 and the first not only to have a missing episode but the entire story is missing from the BBC film vault. Kind of odd considering that this was one of the most sold abroad of the '60's stories. It was also only in the last few years that photos from some of the missing episodes turned up. This also is the first "proper historical" of the show's run. This show has achived almost legendary statis among fan for it's then visual effects so how does it translate to audio? Quite well actually. The sound remastered from off air fan recordings turns out to be very nice and William Russel (who played Ian Chesterton) does a wonderful job of narrarting and the story itself has a nice big feel to it. If you're a First Doctor fan, you'll want to hear this.

Considering that we will probably never get to see the actual episodes, this is as good as it gets. It's almost like listening to old radio plays. The narrative added to complete the "missing" bits helps to visualize what we cannot see.

I was introduced to the wonder of Doctor Who through the current series (2005 on). Since then, I have started watching every adventure from the very beginning. Unfortunately, many of the early adventures that were filmed were scrapped by the BBC (morons). However, there is hope. The BBC still has the audio, which they've made into audio books. Playing like a mixture of an audiobook and a radio play, we obsessive fans of the Time Lord can now experience these treasures.

Marco Polo is the earliest of these missing adventures. This was the fourth story broadcast, and it's a damn good one. Although there are no aliens, it is a thrilling journey in 13th century China. I do enjoy the historical stories (The Aztecs being one of my favorite stories so far). This story had me on the edge of my seat, wondering what will happen next. This story has plenty of intrigue, political and otherwise. I always felt that the best Doctor Who stories deal with how humans interact with each other, the camaraderie and tension we build. In fact, that is at the heart of all great drama. This story is wonderful, everybody doing a terrific job at portraying their characters. The only part that made me cringe was the role of the hotel owner. It was such a blatant Chinese stereotype. I know I shouldn't judge it by today's standards, but it still made me shake my head. Either than that, this is an essential listen for fans of the First Doctor, and of Doctor Who in general. Happy Listenings.

I thought this episode was VERY good. Alot of the cliches later in the series were actually introduced here(like the doctor getting caught up in things and being misunderstood etc.), and in my opinion not too many episodes matched it's execution in these things.
Also, the actor who played Polo was very good. Though the episode is not 100% accurate to EVERYTHING, it does a good enough job of making a convincing historical world, with deep characters great acting, and superb writing.

As a previous reviewer has stated, if you actually want to get to "see" a condensed version of this seven episode story then you must buy the "The Beginning Collection" DVD and view the 30 minute or so collection of photos with corresponding audio from the episodes. However, to "hear" the ENTIRE seven episodes, you must buy this CD collection. There is no product currently available to hear and see the entire seven episodes (and there won't be unless someone suddenly discovers some long lost tape(s) in their attic or archive).

The sound is good on this collection, not "scratchy" at all and is very clear. On my 5.1 surround sound system, "most" of the sound comes out of the right front speaker, but due to the clarity of sound and the fact we are dealing with an almost 50 year old sound track, that is not an issue with me. The narration is a plus as at least you can keep track of what is happening, especially when people do not speak for a while.

One thing the other reviews do not mention (maybe they didn't realize) is that CD 1 is actually a data disc--plays the episodes in your CD player, but on your laptop/PC, you can also get a copy of the audio script and a pdf map of the route taken during the couse of these episodes.

The William Hartnel era is my least favorite of Doctor Who, but they did good work on these stories for the time in which they were made. William Hartnel is my least favorite Doctor. The sound quality on part of this CD is not that good because the master recording was old and not in very good shape. This is as close as you will ever get to seeing the original story. The In the Beginning DVD has a 40 minute montage of still photos taken from the show with some of the audio to give you an idea of what it looked like. This is the oldest missing episode of Doctor Who.