Story 4: "Marco Polo" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Barbara Wright

At the end of the previous serial, the teaser for "The Roof of the World" showed Barbara and Susan finding footprints in the snow outside the TARDIS. In short order, while Barbara and Ian scout out the area at the beginning of the episode, Barbara sees someone (or something) all wrapped in furs, and she shrieks. At first Ian doesn't believe her, but then they see more footprints.

A group of Mongols accosts them, and their leader (Tegana) believes that they must be evil spirits and is about to kill them when Marco Polo arrives and forbids it. With his arrival, the travelers realize that they are on Earth in the late 13th century (AD 1289, to be exact).

Tegana was played by Derren Nesbitt, while Marco Polo was played by Mark Eden.

The Doctor's Companions were:

His granddaughter Susan Foreman, played by Carole Ann Ford;
Susan's teacher Barbara Wright, played by Jacqueline Hill; and
Another of Susan's teachers, Ian Chesterton, played by William Russell.

Answer: Shang-Tu

All four location options feature in "Marco Polo". It is on the Plain of Pamir that the TARDIS has landed at the beginning of "The Roof of the World", Karakorum is where Kublai Khan's rival Khan Noghai (liege lord to Tegana) travels with his army, and Shang-Tu is where they all eventually meet Kublai Khan before going en masse to Peking.

Unfortunately for the Doctor and his companions, Marco decides that the TARDIS will make a wonderful gift to the Khan. Marco hopes that such an interesting gift will convince the Khan to let him return home to Venice.

Answer: False

Both Ping-Cho and Susan are about the same age, and they are immediately drawn to each other in friendship. They spend much time together, telling each other of their lives, and especially about their hopes and dreams. Susan finds it difficult that Ping-Cho would willingly go to marry such an old man, and while Ping-Cho says that she would prefer not to, she will fulfill her duty.

Ping-Cho was played by Zienia Merton.

Answer: Susan and Ping-Cho

Susan and Ping-Cho decide to go for a walk in the evening and experience the sounds of the desert (hence the title "The Singing Sands"). While out, they see Tegana and, on instinct, Susan decides to follow him. Before they get too far, though, the sandstorm kicks up and they become lost.

Before beginning the desert crossing, Tegana was seen planning to poison the caravan's water supply, after which he (and his co-conspirators) would claim the magic caravan for themselves (the TARDIS). With the sandstorm, however, Tegana is unable to execute his plan with the poison, so instead he simply cuts open the water gourds.

The next day the slit gourds are blamed on bandits, and Tegana volunteers to go ahead to scout out the location of an oasis. He leaves, thinking that he has triumphed.

To make it to the oasis, the Doctor collects water from condensation off the walls inside the TARDIS.

Answer: Barbara

Barbara sees Tegana leave the way-station, and follows him. She doesn't actually catch Tegana in the act of conspiring with bandits, but she DOES get captured by those bandits. Tegana makes it back to the way-station to act surprised when Barbara's absence is discovered.

A little deductive reasoning leads the Doctor to believe that Barbara may have gone to see the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes, since Ping-Cho had told a story about it the previous evening. He, along with Ping-Cho and Susan, go there to look for her.

Marco, Ian and Tegana arrive in time to save Barbara's life (at the beginning of episode 4).

Answer: He enters the TARDIS

Marco had taken the TARDIS key away from the Doctor, following advice from Tegana, who (rightly) believed that the visitors would take the first opportunity to leave, if they could. Because of the restrictions placed on him, the Doctor has not had the requisite time needed to complete repairs to the TARDIS.

What the Doctor didn't reveal was that he actually had a second TARDIS key, so even though Marco thought him restricted, the Doctor was sneaking into the TARDIS whenever he could.

Tegana spots the Doctor entering the TARDIS, and arranges for Marco to be there when the Doctor emerges. The unfortunate result is the confiscation of the second key, AND the confinement of the four travelers.

Answer: True

Suspecting a plot by Tegana, the four travelers give up their plan of escape and go to Marco to tell him of their suspicions. Marco 'wakes' Tegana, who immediately realizes that his element of surprise is lost. The bandits attack, even though they never receive Tegana's signal to attack. With the tide turned against the bandits, Tegana kills the bandit leader before he himself is implicated in the plan.

In spite of their efforts to convince Marco of Tegana's duplicity, these events just confirm to Marco that Tegana is to be fully trusted (especially compared to these strange newcomers).

Answer: Kuiju

Kuiju was an unsavory-looking character with an eyepatch and a monkey on his shoulder, yet even so he was able to convince the manager at Cheng-Ting to release the TARDIS to him.

Malik and Acomat were Tegana's cohorts in the Cave of Five Hundred Eyes - the ones that nearly killed Barbara. Malik was killed at the cave, and Acomat was killed in the bandit attack on the caravan. Chenchu was the manager at the way-station at Tun-Huang.

Kuiju was played by Tutte Lemkow, Malik was played by Charles Wade, Philip Voss took on the role of Acomat, and Jimmy Gardner was Chenchu.

Answer: Ian and Tegana

Ping-Cho ran away for two reasons. One - she didn't want to marry; two - she was afraid that Marco would find out that she had tried to help the travelers escape (this happened just before they left the TARDIS behind at Cheng-Ting).

Marco allows Ian to return along their route to find her and bring her back, but not long afterwards, Marco send Tegana after him to make sure that Ian isn't up to anything sneaky.

Ian catches up to Ping-Cho at Cheng-Ting, but they find the TARDIS missing. Correctly surmising that Tegana arranged to have it stolen, they head towards Karakorum, and soon find Kuiju and the TARDIS. Tegana also catches them, and there is a confrontation between them.

At the last minute, Ling-Tau (the messenger from Shang-Tu) shows up with soldiers (who kill Kuiju), and Tegana (once again) talks himself out of trouble. They are all brought to Peking to sort things out with the Khan.

Ling-Tau was played by Paul Carson.

Answer: Tegana commits suicide

After his defeat at the hands of Marco, Tegana chooses to end his own life, rather than submit to the Khan. He grabs a spear and rams it through his own stomach.

In gratitude for what the Doctor and his companions did, Marco returns the TARDIS keys to the Doctor and tells him to leave quickly, before the Khan keeps them there forever.

(The Doctor had actually played backgammon with Kublai Khan to the point of winning incredible riches, then lost it all trying to win back the TARDIS in a 'winner takes all' game.)