This was my first experience of one of the so called “lost episodes”, wiped by the BBC in the early 1970s before the dawn of home video and when television was still seen as disposable entertainment. How then, I hear you ask, could I watch it? Well, thanks to the ingenuity and dedication of Who fans, the serial has been painstakingly reconstructed, using audio recordings made by fans at the time of broadcast and multiple still photographs. The reconstruction I was watching was created by Loose Cannon and featured an introduction by Mark Eden, the actor who originally played Marco, and colourised stills.

Did the reconstructed nature of this serial diminish my viewing experience? Obviously the answer is yes, but I was amazed at how little it did so. The episodes played like an illustrated radio drama and for the most part that was enough. Some dynamic battle scenes or scenes with no dialogue were a little confusing but on the whole the reconstruction worked incredibly well.

So, what of the serial itself? The Doctor and his companions find themselves in the Himalayas, where they encounter the Venetian explorer Marco Polo, now in the service of Kublai Khan, who immediately claims the TARDIS (or ‘flying caravan’ as he calls it) as his own, to gift to the mighty Khan. As they journey across ancient China, the group face all manner of threats and treachery.

This was a sprawling epic of a story, clearly designed with the show’s original educational leanings in mind. Different cultures are recreated through incredibly ornate costumes and sets and the drama, while convoluted, never crossed the line into feeling forced or dragged out. Despite the lack of supernatural elements, there were some genuinely chilling moments as well, especially the cliffhanger ending to episode 2.

A great episode that would be sure to send children into school ready to bug their history teachers about ancient Chinese history, this is an excellent serial still well worth a watch 50 years on and in its reconstructed format.

After the excellence of the previous serial this was definitely something of a step backwards. A haunted house style story that sees strange goings on in the TARDIS and the characters all accusing each other of being responsible, this one set, 4 actors teleplay felt very much like filler.

The relationships between the characters, which seemed to be building nicely in The Daleks, are all broken down as The Doctor in particular becomes an unreasonable and at times downright nasty grump. Granted this is supposedly resolved by the end but none of it really rang true. These episodes, particularly the first, also featured by far the worst acting thus far, with William Russell and Carol Ann Ford putting in some very odd deliveries and Hartnell stumbling over his lines on several occasions. The reveal and conclusion to the plot were also very unsatisfying and far less interesting than the possibilities raised in the script.

All in all, while The Edge of Destruction was an interesting attempt at a claustrophobic haunted house story, the execution left a lot to be desired and this won’t be a story I will be revisiting anytime soon.

Next: Marco Polo

Having been brought up on tales of my mother hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks came on screen I was more than excited to see their first appearance and I have to say it did not disappoint! They really are scary and in keeping with the general weird atmosphere the show seems to be going for.

The first  episode picks up directly where the previous serial left off, with the group’s hasty escape leaving them stranded on an unknown world, where a mysterious, abandoned city seems to offer their only hope of escaping back to earth. Before long however it becomes apparent that the city, and the planet, are not as dead as they seem.

This was a much more classic sci-fi episode, the show really finding its identity, against the wishes of the producers who apparently would never have made this serial if they had had any other scripts ready to shoot at the time. I guess that just goes to show that while success undoubtedly involves good ideas and genius it also requires a good deal of luck too. Like all good sci-fi, it is also remarkably topical, with the fear of nuclear apocalypse looming large over everything.

The Doctor seems to be slowly becoming more accepting of his companions, allowing Ian to lead various portions of the expedition without being quite so crotchety, though he is clearly still dismissive of their inferior intellects and more tolerating their presence than enjoying it.

Many other tropes for the series emerged in this serial. The endlessly reused corridor sets, the painted backdrops, and yes, the plungers. All were evident here but none detracted or distracted from the drama thanks to a solid story realised through a good script. That said, there were some portions that seemed a little dragged out, I felt the story could have been told in at least one less episode, but that is likely a product of the time period as much as anything.

An excellent serial that really felt like Who and had some genuinely scary and unsettling moments, The Daleks gets a big thumbs up.

Next: The Edge of Destruction

Ever since the BBC revitalised the TV series Dr. Who in 2005 I have had a desire to go back and revisit the old serials. There are so many references to things past that I wish I understood. A series that has been running for 50 years has such huge potential for depth and yet I feel I am doing it a disservice by only skating over the surface and not doing my homework, so to speak.  There is also the sneaking suspicion that while the budgets may have been much lower back then the writing and stories were much better, and I would like to see if this is really the case.

I remember seeing certain episodes, particularly from the John Pertwee era, when I was a child and they were re-run in the 6pm after school slot, and I was 6 years old when it was cancelled in 1989 so I have vague memories of Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred gallivanting around in the TARDIS, but they are just snatches of memory and don’t form any kind of joined up narrative.

All that is about to change however. I am going to start working my way through all the vintage Who serials, starting at the beginning with the William Hartnell era and hopefully working all  the way through to Paul McGann. I shall post brief thoughts on each serial as I go.

Wish my luck on my adventure in space and time…