Doctor Who (TV Series) Mighty Kublai Khan (1964) User Reviews

It's excellent.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 5 March 2021]

The TARDIS is now in the possession of Tegana, it now seems desperately out of The Doctor's reach.

The journey finally reached its end, with Kublai Khan finally appearing, Martin Miller did a grand job.

I would love to see the scenes where The Doctor encounters Kublai Khan, The Doctor is so grumpy here, he has no wish to bow down to his host. Hartnell has sounded so much better here than he did in earlier episodes.

I urge you to seek out the tele-snaps for this, it really was a beautiful production.

It sounds a wonderfully decadent episode, lots of detail here.

John Lucarotti really attempted a big, historical story, and he was very successful, it's been a great story.

8/10.

Marco Polo Episode 6: Excellent historic adventure, very well written and acted.

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 9/10 · 30 June 2014]

Review for all 7 episodes:

Marco Polo is a story which covers The Roof of the World and the following six episodes. The adventures take place in the late 1200s in Cathay (ancient China) with Venetian explorer Marco Polo journeying to meet Kublai Khan the Mongol ruler. Polo confiscates the TARDIS and our heroes have an ongoing battle to convince Polo to return it whilst villains try to secure its powers for their own ambitions. The whole story was sadly lost when the BBC wiped the tapes. However the audio survives and along with numerous still photographs from the production a reconstruction is available. There is a full reconstruction with all the audio and stills for all 7 episodes so this is what you need to see, not the 30 minute massively reduced version!

It is a real measure of the quality of this story that even this reconstruction is incredibly interesting and enjoyable. I was totally engrossed despite the lack of moving pictures! The audio preserves the excellent performances of the actors and the brilliant script and story by John Lucarotti.

Marco Polo is an exciting, clever, sometimes amusing and always interesting adventure. The still photographs also leave proof of the superb sets and costumes which make this a top notch production all round.

My Ratings: Episodes 1-4, 6 and 7 - 10/10, Episode 5 - 9.5/10