The good news is that, unlike those other programmes, the complete audio soundtrack for every missing episode still survives (thanks to contemporary viewers with tape recorders) as well as a decent collection of photographs and the odd bit of recovered footage. By matching up the existing soundtracks, photographs and original camera scripts, fans have reconstructed the missing episodes so that we can still watch them, in a manner of speaking. It's often a frustrating and bittersweet experience, but it's about as close as we can possibly get and at least allows us to plug all the gaps.
Ideally I would have liked to ease Hannah into it carefully by watching a reconstructed episode in the middle of an otherwise complete story, making the pill easier to swallow. Unfortunately the next story is entirely missing from the archives, so fate dictates that her first encounter with the reconstructions is to watch seven in a row. Time to grasp the nettle...
The Roof of the World [Episode 1]
Hannah: How many times have you seen these?
Me: I've heard all the narrated soundtracks, but I haven't seen most of them as reconstructions. Try to judge them as if you were seeing the actual episodes as much as you can, and please don't keep looking in my ear. It's very distracting.
Fortunately, each reconstruction still begins with the full title sequence.
Hannah: If they hadn't put that in, I would have been very disappointed.
The story opens with the time travellers stranded in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289. The TARDIS is badly damaged but they're picked up by Marco Polo's travelling party on its way along the Silk Road to see Emperor Kublai Khan.
Hannah: I really like that they've chosen this period of history, I hardly know anything about it. I've heard of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, but I don't know who they are or what they did and I was never entirely sure who Marco Polo was. So China wasn't called China?
Me: Cathay was the name for Mongol-controlled Northern China that was used by European travellers, including Marco Polo. Most of what we know about Marco Polo's travels come from his own accounts.
Hannah: He wrote a diary, didn't he?
Me: Yes, we have a copy in the university library if you want me to get it for you.
Hannah: I'll probably just read a summary.
Accompanying Polo is the Mongolian warlord Tegana, played by English actor Derren Nesbitt.
Hannah: He doesn't look very Mongolian.
Me: Well the actor isn't, obviously.
Hannah: The actor playing Marco Polo doesn't sound very Venetian, either.
Me: No, it's Mark Eden; he played Alan Bradley in Coronation Street. Luckily there are very few trams in the Asian mountains.
Ian explains that the Doctor's blue caravan travels by flying through the air; Marco has previously seen Buddhist monks levitate cups of wine and decides to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Hannah: I wonder if they've taken bits from his actual diary? Observations like that, stories of things he's seen.
Marco recruits his men to carry the TARDIS down the mountain.
Hannah: If you pick it up and put it down sideways, does everyone inside fall over or does it have its own gravity?
Me: Wait and see. We'll get there one day.
A recurring sequence in this story has Marco's voice narrating parts of the journey while a map of the route is shown onscreen.
Hannah: (grinning) They're doing it like his diary!
Susan befriends Marco's ward, a teenage girl called Ping-Cho. Ping-Cho has a little trouble with Susan's sixties slang, so Susan explains that "fab" is a word they often use on Earth.
Hannah: "On Earth"? She is on Earth!
Messer Marco seizes the TARDIS with the intention of offering it as a gift to the Khan in exchange for his freedom, much to the Doctor's outrage. Barbara tells Marco that this isn't necessary, as she knows that he will eventually see his home in Venice again regardless.
Hannah: Is this the first time it's implied that history is changing? This is the first time someone has said "I know what happens in history, so it doesn't matter." She believes that no matter what he does, he will see home again, but now they've become part of Marco Polo's story so they have an influence on it; either they'll help it happen or they'll become an obstacle he has to overcome to still make it happen. Time travel in general is interesting because you don't know how it would have worked out if you'd never gone there. Now it's the first proper history story where the characters know what should happen, and now that they're part of the story you don't know how it's actually going to play out.
The episode ends as we discover Tegana's plan to murder his fellow travellers, steal the flying caravan and bring mighty Kublai Khan to his knees.
Hannah: Ah, good. I was waiting for some back-stabbing.
Following the confiscation of the TARDIS, the Doctor is apparently sulking and refuses to come down for dinner. Hannah finds this behaviour a little surprising.
Me: The real reason is that William Hartnell took a week off.
Hannah: What, he went on holiday while they were filming?
Me: The show is running pretty much the whole year, so sometimes one of the main characters will go on holiday in the middle of a story and get written out for an episode or two.
Hannah: So is he not in the whole episode? The main character isn't in the whole episode? Because that's silly.
Me: Pretty much, except he does turn up at the very end.
Hannah: That's silly!
Me: How else is he supposed to go on holiday?
Hannah: I still think it's silly.
Me: My advice is to get used to it for a while.
Barbara tries to comfort Susan with the thought that "he'll come bouncing out of there soon, full of ideas."
Hannah: Yeah, when he gets back off holiday.
When Tegana goes off for a moonlight stroll into the Gobi Desert, Susan and Ping-Cho decide to follow him.
Hannah: Follow the random warlord into the desert? Sounds like a good idea.
I love the old historical stories that don't contain any science fiction elements. When the episode finishes I'm happy to see Hannah apparently enjoying it, especially in spite of not being able to actually see it.
Hannah: Good story.
Me: Yep, you don't need aliens to have a good time.
Tegana has managed to sabotage the party's water supply. The next morning, Marco gives Tegana permission to ride off into the desert to bring back water from a nearby oasis. He tells the others that Tegana is their only hope now.
Hannah: You're all fucked.
Luckily the inside walls of the TARDIS are full of condensation from the cold night (or, as Hannah would have it, "wall sweat"). When we reach the way station at Tun-Huang, the still images give us a tantalising glimpse of what we're missing.
Hannah: It looks like they spent so much money on these sets.
The antics with a group of bandits in the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes passes without much comment, but I get the impression that Hannah has been warming to the Doctor much more in this story than she did in the last three.
Hannah: Not much to say, it's just a really good story. But it's hard not being able to imagine people's facial expressions and little subtle things.
Hannah: It's difficult to see how people are reacting to things when you can't see their faces.
Me: You get a fair idea sometimes. To be fair we're incredibly lucky to have so many surviving images, let alone the minor miracle of having every single soundtrack. And it says a lot for the story that you can enjoy it so much, even without the visuals.
The Doctor has almost completed the necessary repairs on the TARDIS circuit.
Hannah: He said it would only take him a couple of days, didn't he? If he had the materials?
Me: They're probably a little hard to come by in 13th century China.
Hannah is clearly a little troubled when he tells the others that "the Chinese child makes me nervous," and is visibly relieved when she realises that it's because Ping-Cho knows about the extra key he has been secretly making.
Me: Did you think he meant something else?
Hannah: I didn't know what he meant! Something like "that Asian girl looks a bit dodgy." I was wondering what the Doctor could have against her. She's lovely!
Me: Are you liking him better now?
Hannah: Well, I never didn't like him...
Me: You called him a dick.
Hannah: Yeah. I like dicks.
Marco grants Tegana permission to go into town.
Hannah: He's the most un-Mongolian Mongol I've ever seen. He's just a slightly beardy European.
Tegana is meeting with the bandits from the previous episode, where he makes arrangements for them to attack Marco Polo's party. When asked how to kill the old magician (i.e. the Doctor), Tegana recommends a stake through the heart.
Hannah: Ah, but what about the other one?
Hannah: Tegana's playing a long game.
Me: Well, you say that...
Hannah: Yeah, I know, the whole thing's a long game. Considering the distance they're travelling, the whole story must take place over several weeks.
Me: This is why it's sometimes a good thing to have so many episodes. I don't think there are any other Doctor Who stories that take place over such a long period in "real time", without skipping ahead or anything. You really get a sense of the scale of the journey with this one, and when they finally reach their destination you feel like they've earned it.
Meanwhile, we've reached the way station in Cheng-Ting. After four episodes of non-stereotypical Asian characters, it comes as a bit of a shock to the system when we meet the way station's manager who looks like he's walked straight out of a 1930s Warner Brothers cartoon. It doesn't help that his name is Wang-Lo, either.
Hannah: His accent is painful.
Speaking of ethnic stereotypes, we're also introduced to Tegana's latest hired accomplice: Kuiju, a Mongol bandit with an eyepatch and a monkey on his shoulder.
The TARDIS crew try to make a break for it under cover of darkness, but the Doctor is flustered when he realises Susan isn't with them.
Hannah: Did he say "greater leopards"?
Me: "Great Olympus."
Hannah: Is that a common phrase?
Me: Not for me, no.
Hannah: But in 1964?
Me: How should I know? I wasn't there.
Hannah: No, but you seem to know an awful lot about it.
During the credits...
Hannah: (scoffing) "Derren Nesbitt."
Me: Is that the first time you've noticed his name?
Hannah: No, but it's the first time I've taken the piss. "The warlord Tegana." "Derren."
After having their escape attempt foiled, Barbara decides they need to talk to Marco one last time to convince him to give back the key. Rather than do it herself, she manages to talk Ian into doing it for her.
Hannah: Sneaky cow! Why can't she talk to Marco?
Ian finally comes clean and tells Marco that the Doctor's caravan is capable of travelling through time. Marco chooses not to believe him after their last deception, but admits that if he did, he would give back the key.
Hannah: All they have to do is show him the inside and say "clearly it's not normal, of course we can do that." He hasn't even seen it fly! Why does he believe it can fly?
Me: It's got no wheels.
Hannah: Doesn't matter! Maybe they carried the wood up and built it at the top of the mountain.
Me: So they were doing carpentry in the Himalayas?
Hannah: Why is it more believable that it's a flying box? Nobody ever questions it or asks for proof.
Back at the way station we encounter everyone's favourite multi-cultural characters, Wang-Lo and Kuiju. Mercifully, Ping-Cho soon turns up to restore some much-needed credibility. In fact, she's pretty much the only non-"yellowface" Asian character in the entire story.
Hannah: Was there any outrage at the cultural representation when this was aired? She's the only vaguely Asian one there!
Me: Actors at the BBC were a lot less diverse in those days. A surprisingly large number of Asian characters were played by English actors.
Hannah: I suppose if you don't have as many Chinese actors available to you, you have to make the best of it. But these characters... he looks like an English pirate! What's the point of the eyepatch? I'm not expecting them to have an accent or something because that would be even more wrong, but they don't look Chinese or Mongolian!
The travellers finally arrive in the summer palace at Shang-Tu and are ordered by the vizier to kowtow before the mighty Kublai Khan, but five days of hard riding on horseback has taken its toll on the Doctor and he refuses.
Hannah: He really is an old man.
This doesn't go down too well with the Khan.
Hannah: Two old men having an argument. I like it.
Hannah wonders why a dictator so apparently frail hasn't yet been deposed or usurped.
Hannah: Maybe he's just a nice person and everyone wants to keep him in power.
Me: Yeah, he's probably just a really nice warlord.
The episode ends with Tegana finally declaring his intentions to Ian.
Hannah: Yay!
Me: What?
Hannah: Well, it's exciting, isn't it? I want to finish it.
Me: And after that, the next one will have moving pictures and everything.
Hannah: YES!
The Doctor and Kublai Khan are playing backgammon; the result is a bit one-sided so far, and the Khan now owes the Doctor pretty much half of Asia.
Hannah: I really want to see this properly! It's so fun.
The Khan's empress makes an appearance.
Me: That actress was in a Star Wars film, by the way.
Hannah: Which character is she?
Me: She's in Return of the Jedi, where she's credited as "Fat Dancer".
The Doctor bets all his winnings against the TARDIS, hoping to win it back, but loses the game. He seems to find this hilarious.
Hannah: He's so strange.
Ping-Cho's arranged marriage to an important member of the Khan's court is thwarted when the old man dies after drinking a curious-sounding potion at the banquet.
Hannah: So that guy was going to get married, and he drank something poisonous?
Me: "The elixir of life," they called it.
Hannah: Quicksilver and sulfur. So did he know it would kill him? Is nobody concerned that he's clearly been poisoned? There's been so much backstabbing and suspicion for seven episodes, but here they just accept that an old man drank something and then he died.
Me: He was 74, it probably wasn't the biggest surprise.
Hannah: I don't care. Why aren't they more concerned?
Me: Maybe it's not the first time it's happened.
Hannah: If it's not the first time, why are they still drinking it?
Me: I don't know, I'm not a Mongolian emperor.
Hannah: It's very convenient that they didn't have to write a child bride situation.
Meanwhile, Marco is starting to realise he may have misjudged Tegana.
Me: At this point, it's worth pointing out that the whole journey has taken about three months.
Hannah: And?
Me: Well, it just gives you a sense of scale and perspective. The journey that they've all been on, finally coming to its end...
Hannah: Yes, you've mentioned this before.
Me: You said earlier that it must be taking several weeks, but the best estimate is around three months.
Hannah: I can't imagine how awful they feel. They just want to fly around doing nothing and they've suddenly ended up in this three-month trek, having to walk through the desert and stop to put tents up every night and take them down again. It sounds shit.
The Doctor and his companions work out that Tegana is about to kill the Khan, but they need to get past the guard so that they can warn him. The Doctor shouts to the guard outside and tells him to open the door; when the guard enters, the Doctor trips him with his stick and they run for it.
Hannah: Did he literally just ask him to come in so that they could overpower him?
After Tegana is defeated and sentenced to death, he takes his fate into his own hands and impales himself on a guard's weapon instead.
Hannah: Wow. And they showed that.
Me: Yeah, it was often a much more violent programme in the old days.
Hannah: It must have gone in through the belly, in which case it takes hours to die.
After the TARDIS dematerialises, Marco wonders where they are now: the past, or the future?
Hannah: (happily) He believes!
Hannah: I really liked it. It was a very interesting story because it's such an interesting period of history, and visually it was very pretty. I like the way they've done it, lots of beautiful costumes and sets. And I like the segments of Marco writing his diary where they show the map, and there was a nice mix of talking and action. But it's stupid that nobody ever questions the flying caravan, and it's so hard to judge it properly when you can't actually watch it.
8/10
Ian explains that the Doctor's blue caravan travels by flying through the air; Marco has previously seen Buddhist monks levitate cups of wine and decides to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Hannah: I wonder if they've taken bits from his actual diary? Observations like that, stories of things he's seen.
Marco recruits his men to carry the TARDIS down the mountain.
Hannah: If you pick it up and put it down sideways, does everyone inside fall over or does it have its own gravity?
Me: Wait and see. We'll get there one day.
A recurring sequence in this story has Marco's voice narrating parts of the journey while a map of the route is shown onscreen.
Hannah: (grinning) They're doing it like his diary!
Susan befriends Marco's ward, a teenage girl called Ping-Cho. Ping-Cho has a little trouble with Susan's sixties slang, so Susan explains that "fab" is a word they often use on Earth.
Hannah: "On Earth"? She is on Earth!
Messer Marco seizes the TARDIS with the intention of offering it as a gift to the Khan in exchange for his freedom, much to the Doctor's outrage. Barbara tells Marco that this isn't necessary, as she knows that he will eventually see his home in Venice again regardless.
Hannah: Is this the first time it's implied that history is changing? This is the first time someone has said "I know what happens in history, so it doesn't matter." She believes that no matter what he does, he will see home again, but now they've become part of Marco Polo's story so they have an influence on it; either they'll help it happen or they'll become an obstacle he has to overcome to still make it happen. Time travel in general is interesting because you don't know how it would have worked out if you'd never gone there. Now it's the first proper history story where the characters know what should happen, and now that they're part of the story you don't know how it's actually going to play out.
The episode ends as we discover Tegana's plan to murder his fellow travellers, steal the flying caravan and bring mighty Kublai Khan to his knees.
Hannah: Ah, good. I was waiting for some back-stabbing.
The Singing Sands [Episode 2]
Following the confiscation of the TARDIS, the Doctor is apparently sulking and refuses to come down for dinner. Hannah finds this behaviour a little surprising.
Me: The real reason is that William Hartnell took a week off.
Hannah: What, he went on holiday while they were filming?
Me: The show is running pretty much the whole year, so sometimes one of the main characters will go on holiday in the middle of a story and get written out for an episode or two.
Hannah: So is he not in the whole episode? The main character isn't in the whole episode? Because that's silly.
Me: Pretty much, except he does turn up at the very end.
Hannah: That's silly!
Me: How else is he supposed to go on holiday?
Hannah: I still think it's silly.
Me: My advice is to get used to it for a while.
Barbara tries to comfort Susan with the thought that "he'll come bouncing out of there soon, full of ideas."
Hannah: Yeah, when he gets back off holiday.
When Tegana goes off for a moonlight stroll into the Gobi Desert, Susan and Ping-Cho decide to follow him.
Hannah: Follow the random warlord into the desert? Sounds like a good idea.
I love the old historical stories that don't contain any science fiction elements. When the episode finishes I'm happy to see Hannah apparently enjoying it, especially in spite of not being able to actually see it.
Hannah: Good story.
Me: Yep, you don't need aliens to have a good time.
Five Hundred Eyes [Episode 3]
Tegana has managed to sabotage the party's water supply. The next morning, Marco gives Tegana permission to ride off into the desert to bring back water from a nearby oasis. He tells the others that Tegana is their only hope now.
Hannah: You're all fucked.
Luckily the inside walls of the TARDIS are full of condensation from the cold night (or, as Hannah would have it, "wall sweat"). When we reach the way station at Tun-Huang, the still images give us a tantalising glimpse of what we're missing.
Hannah: It looks like they spent so much money on these sets.
The antics with a group of bandits in the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes passes without much comment, but I get the impression that Hannah has been warming to the Doctor much more in this story than she did in the last three.
Hannah: Not much to say, it's just a really good story. But it's hard not being able to imagine people's facial expressions and little subtle things.
The Wall of Lies [Episode 4]
Hannah: It's difficult to see how people are reacting to things when you can't see their faces.
Me: You get a fair idea sometimes. To be fair we're incredibly lucky to have so many surviving images, let alone the minor miracle of having every single soundtrack. And it says a lot for the story that you can enjoy it so much, even without the visuals.
The Doctor has almost completed the necessary repairs on the TARDIS circuit.
Hannah: He said it would only take him a couple of days, didn't he? If he had the materials?
Me: They're probably a little hard to come by in 13th century China.
Hannah is clearly a little troubled when he tells the others that "the Chinese child makes me nervous," and is visibly relieved when she realises that it's because Ping-Cho knows about the extra key he has been secretly making.
Me: Did you think he meant something else?
Hannah: I didn't know what he meant! Something like "that Asian girl looks a bit dodgy." I was wondering what the Doctor could have against her. She's lovely!
Me: Are you liking him better now?
Hannah: Well, I never didn't like him...
Me: You called him a dick.
Hannah: Yeah. I like dicks.
Marco grants Tegana permission to go into town.
Hannah: He's the most un-Mongolian Mongol I've ever seen. He's just a slightly beardy European.
Tegana is meeting with the bandits from the previous episode, where he makes arrangements for them to attack Marco Polo's party. When asked how to kill the old magician (i.e. the Doctor), Tegana recommends a stake through the heart.
Hannah: Ah, but what about the other one?
Rider from Shang-Tu [Episode 5]
Hannah: Tegana's playing a long game.
Me: Well, you say that...
Hannah: Yeah, I know, the whole thing's a long game. Considering the distance they're travelling, the whole story must take place over several weeks.
Me: This is why it's sometimes a good thing to have so many episodes. I don't think there are any other Doctor Who stories that take place over such a long period in "real time", without skipping ahead or anything. You really get a sense of the scale of the journey with this one, and when they finally reach their destination you feel like they've earned it.
Meanwhile, we've reached the way station in Cheng-Ting. After four episodes of non-stereotypical Asian characters, it comes as a bit of a shock to the system when we meet the way station's manager who looks like he's walked straight out of a 1930s Warner Brothers cartoon. It doesn't help that his name is Wang-Lo, either.
Hannah: His accent is painful.
Speaking of ethnic stereotypes, we're also introduced to Tegana's latest hired accomplice: Kuiju, a Mongol bandit with an eyepatch and a monkey on his shoulder.
The TARDIS crew try to make a break for it under cover of darkness, but the Doctor is flustered when he realises Susan isn't with them.
Hannah: Did he say "greater leopards"?
Me: "Great Olympus."
Hannah: Is that a common phrase?
Me: Not for me, no.
Hannah: But in 1964?
Me: How should I know? I wasn't there.
Hannah: No, but you seem to know an awful lot about it.
During the credits...
Hannah: (scoffing) "Derren Nesbitt."
Me: Is that the first time you've noticed his name?
Hannah: No, but it's the first time I've taken the piss. "The warlord Tegana." "Derren."
Mighty Kublai Khan [Episode 6]
After having their escape attempt foiled, Barbara decides they need to talk to Marco one last time to convince him to give back the key. Rather than do it herself, she manages to talk Ian into doing it for her.
Hannah: Sneaky cow! Why can't she talk to Marco?
Ian finally comes clean and tells Marco that the Doctor's caravan is capable of travelling through time. Marco chooses not to believe him after their last deception, but admits that if he did, he would give back the key.
Hannah: All they have to do is show him the inside and say "clearly it's not normal, of course we can do that." He hasn't even seen it fly! Why does he believe it can fly?
Me: It's got no wheels.
Hannah: Doesn't matter! Maybe they carried the wood up and built it at the top of the mountain.
Me: So they were doing carpentry in the Himalayas?
Hannah: Why is it more believable that it's a flying box? Nobody ever questions it or asks for proof.
Back at the way station we encounter everyone's favourite multi-cultural characters, Wang-Lo and Kuiju. Mercifully, Ping-Cho soon turns up to restore some much-needed credibility. In fact, she's pretty much the only non-"yellowface" Asian character in the entire story.
Hannah: Was there any outrage at the cultural representation when this was aired? She's the only vaguely Asian one there!
Me: Actors at the BBC were a lot less diverse in those days. A surprisingly large number of Asian characters were played by English actors.
Hannah: I suppose if you don't have as many Chinese actors available to you, you have to make the best of it. But these characters... he looks like an English pirate! What's the point of the eyepatch? I'm not expecting them to have an accent or something because that would be even more wrong, but they don't look Chinese or Mongolian!
The travellers finally arrive in the summer palace at Shang-Tu and are ordered by the vizier to kowtow before the mighty Kublai Khan, but five days of hard riding on horseback has taken its toll on the Doctor and he refuses.
Hannah: He really is an old man.
This doesn't go down too well with the Khan.
Hannah: Two old men having an argument. I like it.
Hannah wonders why a dictator so apparently frail hasn't yet been deposed or usurped.
Hannah: Maybe he's just a nice person and everyone wants to keep him in power.
Me: Yeah, he's probably just a really nice warlord.
The episode ends with Tegana finally declaring his intentions to Ian.
Hannah: Yay!
Me: What?
Hannah: Well, it's exciting, isn't it? I want to finish it.
Me: And after that, the next one will have moving pictures and everything.
Hannah: YES!
Assassin at Peking [Episode 7]
The Doctor and Kublai Khan are playing backgammon; the result is a bit one-sided so far, and the Khan now owes the Doctor pretty much half of Asia.
Hannah: I really want to see this properly! It's so fun.
The Khan's empress makes an appearance.
Me: That actress was in a Star Wars film, by the way.
Hannah: Which character is she?
Me: She's in Return of the Jedi, where she's credited as "Fat Dancer".
The Doctor bets all his winnings against the TARDIS, hoping to win it back, but loses the game. He seems to find this hilarious.
Hannah: He's so strange.
Ping-Cho's arranged marriage to an important member of the Khan's court is thwarted when the old man dies after drinking a curious-sounding potion at the banquet.
Hannah: So that guy was going to get married, and he drank something poisonous?
Me: "The elixir of life," they called it.
Hannah: Quicksilver and sulfur. So did he know it would kill him? Is nobody concerned that he's clearly been poisoned? There's been so much backstabbing and suspicion for seven episodes, but here they just accept that an old man drank something and then he died.
Me: He was 74, it probably wasn't the biggest surprise.
Hannah: I don't care. Why aren't they more concerned?
Me: Maybe it's not the first time it's happened.
Hannah: If it's not the first time, why are they still drinking it?
Me: I don't know, I'm not a Mongolian emperor.
Hannah: It's very convenient that they didn't have to write a child bride situation.
Meanwhile, Marco is starting to realise he may have misjudged Tegana.
Me: At this point, it's worth pointing out that the whole journey has taken about three months.
Hannah: And?
Me: Well, it just gives you a sense of scale and perspective. The journey that they've all been on, finally coming to its end...
Hannah: Yes, you've mentioned this before.
Me: You said earlier that it must be taking several weeks, but the best estimate is around three months.
Hannah: I can't imagine how awful they feel. They just want to fly around doing nothing and they've suddenly ended up in this three-month trek, having to walk through the desert and stop to put tents up every night and take them down again. It sounds shit.
The Doctor and his companions work out that Tegana is about to kill the Khan, but they need to get past the guard so that they can warn him. The Doctor shouts to the guard outside and tells him to open the door; when the guard enters, the Doctor trips him with his stick and they run for it.
Hannah: Did he literally just ask him to come in so that they could overpower him?
After Tegana is defeated and sentenced to death, he takes his fate into his own hands and impales himself on a guard's weapon instead.
Hannah: Wow. And they showed that.
Me: Yeah, it was often a much more violent programme in the old days.
Hannah: It must have gone in through the belly, in which case it takes hours to die.
After the TARDIS dematerialises, Marco wonders where they are now: the past, or the future?
Hannah: (happily) He believes!
The Score
Hannah: I really liked it. It was a very interesting story because it's such an interesting period of history, and visually it was very pretty. I like the way they've done it, lots of beautiful costumes and sets. And I like the segments of Marco writing his diary where they show the map, and there was a nice mix of talking and action. But it's stupid that nobody ever questions the flying caravan, and it's so hard to judge it properly when you can't actually watch it.
8/10
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