I hate this episode so much. SEVEN FREAKING CHAPTERS
This is one of the 'lost and destroyed' ones. Considering it is only the 4th episode of the show, this does not bode well, eh? Already people are feeling deep seeded anger! EXTERMINATE!
Because the video was destroyed, they took the audio and inserted pictures they had taken during the filming, in order to 'describe' so to speak, what was going on in the audio. So it was kind of like a really bad old radio show, with really bad pictures. And if you don't know me, I've always been an enormous fan of old radio shows. I loved listening to them as a child, and I started collecting them as a teenager. So I know how old radio shows work, and I was wanting to like the idea of the stills.
There were several problems with this.
Unfortunately, they didn't get pictures of everyone during the filming, so they didn't have photos of some of the minor actors with their little lines. Guess what they did? Guess? They took other photos of films these minor actors were in, and photo-shopped them into the Doctor Who episode! Holy tamale! Brilliant! Wait...what....
Another obvious problem is that they had a limited number of saved photos. So they had to use the same ones quite a number of times. Multiple times, in fact. Like this one:
Not too flattering.
But it's okay. Because in case you missed that, they showed it a little bit later.
And again much later.
And because they had limited photos, they showed the same ones for different dialogues and different scenes, which did not give an accurate impression of what was really going on. So it was difficult getting emotionally involved while trying to connect the dialogue to the picture. I get that they were showing who was talking, and yet I have a brain, and I could figure that out on my own without too much help. At one point there was an intense argument, and all they had to show was a picture of Marco, Tagana and Ian gazing into each other's eyes in an amusing, creepy way.
So honestly, the added pictures didn't really do much for me. Maybe they should have had Marco Polo narrate it all the way, instead of occasionally using little sentences to describe what was going on in the silence.
"Everyone picks up clubs and swings at Susan's head." [My subtitles.]
Oh, and loved the picture of Marco Polo's fake hand writing in his little girl diary that they would occasionally show. That was an added treasure.
I could tell that they took great pride in this particular episode, which is a crying shame that they lost all the footage.
I won't really go much into the plot, suffice to say that once I got to chapter 3, I was pretty much rolling in agony and wishing the pain would go away. They could have easily fitted this into four chapters, I think, instead of the painful seven. And it was an unholy, unbelievable amount of time before Tegana got killed off! By the second chapter, I was jumping up and down on the sofa screaming, "He's a traitor you idiots! Traitor! Burn the Traitor!", much to my husband's amusement.
I could tell that this episode was actually more about the side characters, but really all I want to do is watch the Doctor do amazing things with his sonic screwdriver and to heck with the rest of everyone else. And maybe I'm just not smart enough for this kind of thing. And this doctor is a stubborn idiot when it comes to being a good, strong, reliable character. Ian has to do all the work, while the Doctor wanders around murmuring, "Hmmm?"
I am bitterly realizing that they have this problem with making a particular plot line way too long. It seems that they could have easily gotten everything down in one short hour, instead of three long, drawn out ones. Part of this is because they would run around doing stupid things, and just when they were done doing one stupid thing, they would do another, and another. They had the TARDIS key, which was taken from them, but then they made another one, which was then taken from them, which they eventually get back and then the TARDIS is stolen from them, and they have to get that back. The Doctor is either very stupid, or very bored, and I suspect it is a bit of both. There is also, I've noticed, a lot of talking, either one-on-one or in groups. I find this tedious. I'm a girl of action. Action! Action! Less talk, more killing! [Sorry, it's all those Jason Statham movies I like to watch.....]
Did we really need a 10 minute story from Ping Cho?? Did we? DID WE????
I think my husband thought the use of the Marco Polo character was nifty. Personally I hate it when this show uses 'famous' characters, like Shakespeare, Churchill, van Gogh, Queen Victoria, Agatha Christie, Dickens, etc. I've always had issue with this. It takes a lot of work to make it believable, and usually I walk away all irritated because I'm not stupid enough to think that the Doctor actually exists. I prefer straight up science fiction. I watch fantasy to take me from the real world. I don't like it when the writers force them to interact.
I thought the episode had a lot of clichés with its Asian theme. Also, the actors were all clearly very white, very British actors even with their ludicrous eye patches, weird hair and funny mannerisms. Some either assumed a very bad Chinese accent, or didn't bother to hide their British accent at all. I don't know which was worse.
He. Has. A. Monkey.
I was greatly disappointed that they didn't show the off-camera pictures, when the Doctor was shoving the TARDIS key up Ian's nose. Or Barbara and Susan having a cat fight. Or Marco Polo and Tagana kissing. Or the three companions cheerfully pummeling William Hartnell as he stumbles through his lines for the 800 millionth time. Now that would have been bloody marvelous.
Next up: The Sea of Death
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