Doctor Who (1963)

4 mistakes in Marco Polo

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Starring: Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Colin Baker, Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison

Genres: Adventure, Drama, Sci-fi

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Marco Polo - S1-E4

Factual error: The story is set in 1289, when Marco Polo was anxious to leave China against Kublai Khan's wishes, so what's Polo doing on the Pamir Plateau?

Marco Polo - S1-E4

Other mistake: In episode seven, Kublai Khan refers to backgammon as a game of cards....obviously he's not an experienced backgammon player.

Marco Polo - S1-E4

Factual error: "Peking" is mentioned several times in this story, but this is an anachronism - this story is set in the year 1289 when Peking (now called Beijing) was known as "Khan-balik".

Marco Polo - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: The caption slide at the end of episode two reads: 'Next Episode: The Cave of Five Hundred Eyes'. While the title slide comes up at the start of episode 3, it simply says "Five Hundred Eyes".

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Suggested correction: The original episode survives only as audio, so this mistake, if correct, must apply to one of the reconstructed versions (either telesnaps or animation), which probably therefore needs specifying.

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Quotes

The Doctor: This is a situation that requires tact and finesse. Fortunately, I am blessed with both.

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Trivia

Planet of the Spiders - S11-E5

Trivia: The first thing the Third Doctor does on-screen is collapse out of the TARDIS, which is also the last thing he does in that incarnation.

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Questions

Show generally

Question: In which season and episode is Gallifrey destroyed, or is it just a shocking new plot development for the new series?

Answer: It was never destroyed on-screen; it was intact at the end of the TV movie, and destroyed by the start of the 2005 series. It was destroyed in the novel "The Ancestor Cell," but in a completely different manner to what happened in the series.

DaveJB

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