And here we come to the first of a few stories that I have never seen. Of course, in the case of Marco Polo, I am not alone in that regard. It is one of the episodes that have been lost to the ages when the BBC wiped a ton of tapes including many of the Hartnell and Troughton stories. Unfortunately this was a more primitive time when things like the VCR didn't exist and as a result there are no known copies of Marco Polo in existence or copies of a great number of other episodes.
In any case, much has been written by many more knowledgeable that I about that subject and I can do little to add to the discussion. Fortunately a group of fans known as Loose Cannon have done some incredible work and have created "reconstructions" of some lost stories using the surviving audio tracks, some very short video clips and a lot of photos. Marco Polo is one of the stories that get the reconstruction treatment. In fact it is kind of cool as many of the photos are actually color whereas all the episodes are black and while. It is a bit weird seeing it in color, even if it is only still photos.
While I do love audio books and audio dramas --having listened to many Big Finish stories and all 7 unabridged Harry Potter books in the format -- I prefer to listen to them while driving or walking on my blackberry rather than watching them on my television. I get distracted. Marco Polo is 7 episodes long. I'm working on it but it will be a bit before I actually get it watched and I have moved on to the next surviving video.
I'll repost when I get the chance.
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