Marco Polo Discovery

Issue #341 of Doctor Who Magazine is out and features news on an important discovery (one we've been waiting for the issue's release to report on): a full set of telesnaps from six of seven episodes of the lost Doctor Who serialMarco Polo have been recovered. "Marco Polo" is the only story from the show's first season that is missing completely from the archives, other than extensive behind-the-scenes photographic evidence... but not visuals from the actual broadcast itself. Fan Derek Handley was instrumental in the recovery, having contacted serial director Waris Hussein recently and discovered that Hussein did indeed have telesnaps from the six episodes he was responsible for directing in his possession (Hussein did not direct episode 4, "The Wall of Lies," and therefore does not possess telesnaps from the story.) The prints themselves are beautiful, and include such lost treasures as the legendary moving map that Mark Eden (as Marco Polo) narrated over during the story. The telesnaps - originally shot by John Cura as photographic evidence for the story's director, in the days far before VCRs - were arranged to be returned to the BBC and Hussein negotiated directly with Doctor Who Magazine to be able to run them; DWM will run all six episodes' telesnaps in sequence, one per issue, starting with #342. Hussein also possessed old videotapes of other items he directed for the BBC (but none of them are Doctor Who.) Further details on the recovery of the Marco Polo telesnaps can be found in this month's issue of DWM.