Carole Ann Ford, who played the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan, says the missing Doctor Who serial she’d most like to be recovered is Marco Polo. She describes it as “so beautiful”, and adds that she’s “mortified” that it currently can’t be watched by fans.
When asked which she’d like to see returned to the BBC archives, Ford said:
“Marco Polo! Such a beautiful one, so beautiful. Such a loss. Well, hopefully it’s not lost forever.
“Please, if there’s somebody out there who’s got Marco Polo, return it because we’re suffering… Please, let us have it back just for a while so we can see again what that loveliness was.”
Many do think the story exists in the hands of a private collection, so perhaps her plea will be heard.
And let’s not forget that, while to Who fans, Marco Polo is a classic that we sadly can’t see, especially as it was so seminal in the history of the show, to Carole, filming the story is a treasured memory and a chance to see her departed co-stars — William Hartnell, Jacqueline Hill, and William Russell — again.
Marco Polo is the first serial missing from the archive, being the fourth ever story and the first in which we meet a historical figure of note. It’s also the second, and last, tale directed by Waris Hussein, who contributed so much in the early days of the programme and who also directed the first serial, An Unearthly Child.
Currently, 97 episodes are missing, leaving 26 stories from the 1960s incomplete, but that total will likely come down at some point (hopefully soon!) in the future.
