Part of Series
‘This is the Plain of Pamir, known to those who travel to Cathay as the Roof of the World.’ Marco Polo (1964) reflects a cultural change reshaping TV’s role as historian, placing the interpretation of history in the viewers’ hands by recruiting them as travellers in Polo’s caravan. Examining camera treatments and mobility, adaptive and remedial interventions, public and book history, cultural assumptions and memories, this book celebrates the work of collaborators, copyists, studio personnel and fans in reconstructing this most famous and earliest of missing Doctor Who stories.
Author
Dene October lectures at the University of the Arts London on subjects ranging from David Bowie studies to fan cultures, fashion and Doctor Who by Design. He studied fashion journalism at London College of Fashion and won the Graduate Journalism Award. His writing ranges from feature articles to academic books, poetry to novels. He is co-editor of Doctor Who and History and has contributed many book chapters on the British programme, and on pop icon David Bowie. His current book, Marco Polo, was 2018 Critters awards finalist in the Non Fiction category. The book explores the lost 1964 Doctor Who classic by entwining broadcast history with the stories of the famous Venetian, as well as his own childhood geographical and televisual travels, all while reflecting on the themes of media, mobility and memory. The result is an epic travelogue where the author tags along with Marco, Ping-Cho, Susan, Ian, Barbara and the Doctor whilst simultaneously examining a different theme in each chapter on such topics as camera story-telling, collaborative authorship, public history and transformative journeys.
