This morning marked the seventh, and final, episode of Marco Polo. Picture, if you will, me striding away on the treadmill as the big climax unfolds, completely transfixed as Marco and the villainous Tegana finally face off with swords raised. Now imagine the volume of profanity as my stream of the reconstruction chose that exact moment to crap out. I'm just sayin', there may have been some dialog provided by yours truly that would not have met the BBC's broadcast standards of 1964.

Thankfully, after a few minutes of troubleshooting, I was able to resume the broadcast and see the big finale. Let's talk about that.

Assassin at Peking

The cliffhanger from the previous episode was resolved very quickly, with a group of Kublai Khan's emissaries happening upon the conflict and halting it. As per usual, the charismatic Tegana is able to convince the emissaries of his own virtue, thus leading to Ian and Ping-Cho being arrested and the entire group being transported to the Khan's palace along with the now-recovered TARDIS.

The Doctor nearly wins the TARDIS back in a game of backgammon with Kublai Khan, but ultimately loses. Marco Polo falls out of favor with the Khan, due to his not being forthright about the number of times that the "flying caravan" was nearly stolen. Ping-Cho is doomed to be wed by arrangement with a rich old man the next day. Tegana is on the verge of complete victory in his plans to undermine and eliminate Kublai Khan and hand over control of Cathay to the warlord Nogai. In short: everything sucks, all of the good guys are on the ropes, and the bad guys are on the verge of triumph.

Fortunately, the tables turn when the Doctor and companions realize that Tegana is plotting the assassination of Kublai Khan. Upon informing Marco of their suspicion, Mssr. Polo runs into the Khan's throne room just in time to thwart Tegana's plot. Although the royal vizier is killed, Marco successfully faces down and defeats Tegana, who subsequently throws himself onto a guard's spear rather than face The Wrath of Khan. (Come on, you knew I had to throw that phrase in here somewhere, right?)

Ping-Cho is spared from her unwanted marriage by the timely death of her betrothed. Marco is awarded his freedom as a show of gratitude from Kublai Khan for saving his life. The Doctor and companions escape in the TARDIS, the keys having finally been returned by Marco Polo. All is right with the world.

I loved this story so much! If this doesn't go down as my favorite story of the Hartnell era I shall be very much surprised. Contrary to what you might expect, at seven episodes the story never once drags or feels padded. Rather, all of the characters and events are given just enough time to breathe and grow. The villain of the story is intelligent and charismatic, and never once devolves into a cartoonish caricature. Best of all, the sets and costumes (as much as I could see them via still photographs) are simply gorgeous.  

I recognized the name of the writer, John Lucarotti, because he also wrote the upcoming story The Aztecs. He also wrote the Aztecs Target novelization, which I vividly remember reading as a teenager and being wowed by how colorful it was. I just found a copy of  his Marco Polo novelization, and I very much look forward to reading it when it arrives.

Thank you to both Rik Hoskin and Michael Montoure, who convinced me to include the reconstructions in this project. To think I might have skipped this story just because it doesn't exist anymore as filmed episodes....

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Ian Chesterton, Susan Foreman, Barbara Wright
Episode(s): Assassin at Peking
Obvious Pratfalls: 0, it's hard to pratfall in a still image
Steps Walked: 6,522 today, 73,480 total
Distance Walked: 2.87 miles today, 32.07 miles total
Weight: 303.24 lbs (five day moving average), net change -4.06 lbs