Marco Polo, the seven part season one classic, officially remains missing. Somewhat surprising as it was one of the most widely distributed of all classic Doctor Who serials, around ten prints being sent abroad in all. Here we shall put forward firstly the information surrounding the final locations of those prints and their eventual fate.
The Prints
The BBC prints for all seven episodes of Marco Polo were junked on August 17, 1967. Telesnaps for all episodes except 4 (The Wall of Lies) survived.
There were around ten (possibly nine, ten or eleven) prints of Marco Polo created for overseas sales and a great many of them have no record of ever being destroyed. There are as follows:
1: Australia (ABC), broadcast April 12, 1965. Fate officially unknown, no documentation survives to suggest it was returned to the BBC or junked.
2: Canada (CBC), broadcast May 5, 1965. Fate officially unknown, no documentation survives to suggest it was returned to the BBC, TIE or junked. There is some speculation the prints were sent to Bermuda, see possible 11. Possibly however returned to BBC Toronto and then vanished.
3: Singapore (RTS), broadcast July 7, 1965. Likely sent to New Zealand (ZNBC) for October, 27 1965 broadcast. Episodes 1 and 2 sent to Iran (Channel 3) as audition prints. Iran never bought the serial nor aired it. The remaining New Zealand prints were junked some time in 1972. The empty can for episode 7 was found in 1990. The fate of the Iranian audition prints is unknown.
4: Gibraltar (GBC-TV), broadcast July 13, 1965. Fate officially unknown, no documentation survives to suggest it was returned to the BBC, TIE or junked they may have been sent to Aden however.
5: Malta (MTV), broadcast August 23, 1965. Likely bicycled to Cyprus for June 10, 1965 broadcast. Sent to Hong Kong (RTV) for July 26, 1966 broadcast, final destination. Fate officially unknown, no documentation survives to suggest it was returned to the BBC, TIE or junked.
6: Aden (SATS), broadcast October 3, 1965. Likely sent to Kenya for September 29 broadcast. Fate officially unknown, no documentation survives to suggest it was returned to the BBC, TIE or junked.
7: Nigeria (RKTV), broadcast November 2, 1965. Likely sent to Zimbabwe (RBC) for December 26, 1965 broadcast and almost immediately sent to Zambia (ZTV) for January 16, 1966 broadcast. Possibly further bicycled to Uganda (UTS) for April 19, 1966 broadcast before ending up in its final destination of Ghana (GTV) in October. Fate officially unknown, no documentation survives to suggest it was returned to the BBC, TIE or junked.
8: Trinidad and Tobago (TTT), broadcast January 30, 1966. Likely sent to Bermuda (CBC-TV) for March 1966 broadcast, to Jamaica (JBC) for June 2, 1966 broadcast and then likely to a final destination of Barbados (CBC-TV) for the July 25, 1966 broadcast. Fate officially unknown, no documentation survives to suggest it was returned to the BBC, TIE or junked. There’s some possibility they were sent to Kenya, this is however unlikely. See possible 11 for a potential anomaly.
9: Thailand (Channel 7), broadcast November 19, 1966. Fate officially unknown, no documentation survives to suggest it was returned to the BBC, TIE or junked.
10: Mauritius (MBC), broadcast January 20, 1967. Likely sent to Sierra Leone (SLTV) for July 12, 1967 broadcast and then possibly sent to its final destination in Ethiopia by January 21, 1971, yet this is speculation. Fate officially unknown, no documentation survives to suggest it was returned to the BBC, TIE or junked.
Possible 11: Jon Preddle speculated in late 2012 that Trinidad sent its prints directly to Barbados and that Bermuda received their own prints with an unknown fate, this speculation may be backed up by a July 1965 memo. Jon had previously speculated that the Canadian prints could have been sent to the country. If Bermuda did have it’s own prints, that may have been what was sent to Jamaica meaning that Trinidad, Bermuda and Barbados all become potential final destinations for two sets of prints. Of all the areas of sales, the Caribbean seems the most confusing and with the area with the least information.
Ten prints and only one (New Zealand) is confirmed as having being destroyed. This leaves nine full prints possibly still in existence in: Australia, Canada, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Kenya, Ghana, Barbados, Thailand and Ethiopia, plus a slim chance of episodes one and two in Iran and speculative copies in Trinidad and Barbados.
Where is Likely
“Records show that nine episodes from Doctor Who were shipped to Bangkok, and now we’re looking for anybody who has any information about it, there are at least a few thousand episodes of Doctor Who, but we are still missing 108 of them and nine may still survive in Thailand. We’re looking all over the place to recover what we can. We don’t mind if you have them on VHS or on film, and we don’t care if it has been dubbed into Thai. We just need to find them. Doctor Who has great historical and cultural value - the missing episodes are a lost heritage.”
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