If, as I, you have been teased and tormented by elderly Whovians with tales of missing stories and how they are gone forever, fear not, help is at hand. A few years ago my Uncle told me how he used to tape the soundtrack of Dr Who off the TV and send it to his penpal in Canada. It seems other people did the same and there are, in existence, soundtracks of pretty much all of the Doctor Who episodes. The good people at BBC Audio, lead by a fine fella called Mark Ayres, got hold of these, cleaned them up, added some linking narration by an old companion and released them on CD.
In the next few weeks I will be posting topics on each of these missing classic soundtracks and will welcome your comments and thoughts on them. I will try to do them in order, and of course please feel free to beat me to the punch and post your review first...
MARCO POLOThis is the first of the Classic Missing Stories and follows the Doctor and his companions as they journey with Marco Polo (played by the wonderfully protean Mark Eden) heading for the palace of Kublai Khan. Each episode is set in a different location along the journey, tangling with malevolent warlords and the threat of losing the TARDIS hanging over the Doctor. What we have in this story is a show really finding it's feet and the characters becoming comfortable with their dynamic. The script, written by John Lucarotti, is excellent and the story lasts remarkably well over 7 stories. The linking narration is provided by William Russell (who plays companion Ian Chesterton for those not familiar with the Classic Series) and the soundtrack is marked by a real atmosphere. For those looking to dip into Classic Who and want to know what the fuss was about Doctor No. 1 then this is an excellent entry point.