Every missing episode of
Doctor Who
is part of the show's mythology. Most are these holy grails that
many fans have never seen. They are often thought of as the best of
the best and are heavily regarded. What fans know of them are based
on memories, novelizations, scripts, Cura tele-snaps, audio
recordings and fan reconstructions. Only when these stories are
found would the truth be known and still, only from a perspective of
watching them in this day and age. We do not have the luxury of
enjoying these over the years. As fans we have been able to see
stories over and over again thanks to home video. We have picked
apart “The Ark” and “Wargames” over and over again. Do these
live up to our memories seeing them when they first aired? What
about when we saw them at the convention, or bootleg or when they
finally came out on DVD?
Any missing episodes, once found, may
eventually be taken for granted. Years from now newer fans won't
even know or care that “The Enemy of the World” was missing for
that many years. It will be placed in the same category as “The
Dominators” and “The Seeds of Death.”
For now though, any episodes found will
either deserve a pass and be considered better than the episodes we
have seen over and over again OR they might go under heavier scrutiny
because they have always been those holy grails fans wanted to see.
Their expectations might be so high never to be reached.
One of the holy grails of
Doctor Who
is “Marco Polo” for many reasons. First off, it is the
Impossible Missing Story! It was sold to more countries than any
other story of the 60's and yet not a clip of it survives. It is the
earliest story to be missing and is often remembered or theorized as
being a visual epic. Fans will state that the story might be long
winded and boring but that does not reduce this story's importance
for the missing episode mythology. In the earliest stages of the
omnirumor, “Marco Polo” was the first story to be rumored and it
is still the most important part of this current rumor. It's
existence is so important to the rumors validity right now. Since it
was part of the original 90+ rumor and it did not make it for release
in 2013, some fans are unconvinced of more finds while others feel
that “Marco Polo” is the next to be released.
One of the strongest images for the
missing episodes is the character Ping-Cho from “Marco Polo”.
Often seen in articles such as this one, Ping-Cho seems to have
become meme for Doctor Who missing episodes. We know little of her
character beyond the usual novels, reconstructions and memories and
if the omnirumor does come true and by next year we are all looking
at “Marco Polo” on our DVD shelf, will Ping-Cho still be this
important icon?
One has to imagine if Ping-Cho had
become a companion, would this have even happened? Her importance
now, on the verge of a potential missing episode recovery and release
was nothing back in 1964 as her character was always meant for only 7
episodes. But what if.......
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| New Companion Ping Cho Joins The Tardis Crew |
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| Arbitan Forces Our Travelers to Find The Keys of Marinus |
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| A Voord Stalks Susan and Ping Cho |
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| Susan Senses the Sensorites |
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| Ping Cho Looks on As The Doctor Comes to the Aid of The Sensorites |
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| The Travelers Lose Perspective in Planet of The Giants |
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| Ping Cho is a Prisoner of The Daleks |
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| Celebrating 20 Years of Doctors and Companions |
I think Anne Chaplet would have made an interesting companion, far better than her descendant Dodo.
ReplyDeleteThat's another good possibility also. But like Marco Polo nothing from that story exists also. Just audio and unfortunately no telesnaps.
DeleteJohn Wiles should have kept Vicki as a companion. She worked well with Steven and there was no need to write her out, but he insisted on putting his own stamp on the series and so we had a revolving door of companions that went nowhere in Season 3 with Katarina, Sara & Dodo until Ben & Polly turned up.
ReplyDeleteYeah your right. Vicki worked well with Steven and the others just didn't have the same chemistry.
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