Skipping Marco Polo

Marco Polo

Series 1
Title - Marco Polo
Production Code - D
Story # - 004
Episodes:
"The Roof Of The World"
"The Singing Sands"
"Five Hundred Eyes"
"The Wall Of Lies"
"Rider From Shang-Tu"
"Mighty Kublai Khan"
"Assassin At Peking"

Doctor - 1st - William Hartnell

Originally broadcast between February 22 and April 4, 1964, the serial "Marco Polo" is one of three Doctor Who serials of which no known copies of the broadcast have survived. As of the date I write this, July 14, 2014, there only remains for public use audio copies of the programs, recorded off air, and "telesnaps" images of the airing broadcast.

The episodes are known to have last aired publicly in Ethiopia sometime in early 1971, but the fate of those copies of the show are unknown.

In the last few years, there has been rumor upon rumor that the copies used in the Ethiopian broadcast do still exist and are in the hands of private collectors, the BBC, archivists, and any number of other groups. So far, there has been no truth to any of these rumors, although most recently, another serial that was missing parts, "The Web Of Fear", was revealed to not only exist but was restored to the best possible quality that could be done and was released to the public. WoF was among those frequently mentioned in what has become known as the "Omnirumor" of the missing but found episodes. Many people assumed that for the 50th anniversary of the show that it would be finally, publicly confirmed by the BBC what episodes, if any, they currently had, and what episodes they might still be negotiating the return of.

But as of today, nothing more has been announced, and nothing more has changed.

With that, I am officially going to skip watching the Marco Polo serial and continue on to The Keys Of Marinus, watching whatever episodes are available.

If any part of Marco Polo does become available, I, like the rest of the Whovian fandom, will rejoice and eagerly watch such a treasure.

Allons-y!

Marco Polo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo_(Doctor_Who)