Essential Info
Ian, Barbara and the Doctor endure the heat of the desert.
In the opening episodes of this vast adventure - which ranked 84th (of 241) in Doctor Who Magazine’s ‘First 50 Years’ poll of 2014 - the First Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara ran into the Venetian explorer Marco Polo, who transported them and their temporarily kaput TARDIS down from the freezing Pamir mountains. Marco, whose cross-Cathay caravan carries the Mongol warlord Tegana to a peace conference with Kublai Khan, means to present the Doctor’s TARDIS as a gift to the Khan, so he may leave his service. He’s con. scated the TARDIS key… but the crafty Doctor has made another.