Why the BBC should animate … Marco Polo

In my second of three proposals for Doctor Who missing episodes the BBC ought to animate, I am completely changing tack to my previous proposal – which as you may recall involved taking a simple four-part story with the capacity to reuse the characters in other stories.

As with The Smugglers, I suggest that we should animate an entirely missing story from scratch – but instead of the careful investment proposed for that serial, I am proposing that the BBC could make a grand gesture, really push the boat out, and release not simply an animation, but a recreation – a re-animation if you will! And for that, there can be no better opportunity than that most eagerly desired and sought after of stories, Marco Polo.

Since I started drafting this post, another similar idea has cropped up on the web – which I think demonstrates that there is enthusiasm not simply to use animation to plug the missing episodes gaps, but to breathe new life into the Classic Series range. I think Marco Polo would be an excellent launchpad to demonstrate that this could be done really well, and to a fantastically high standard.

What then would the animation look like? Well, if The Smugglers is meant to be relatively cheap and cheerful, I propose exactly the opposite for Marco Polo. One of the biggest trends in video game production is the use of actors to map expressions on video game characters – which has especially come to my attention through Kiefer Sutherland playing Snake in the latest installment of the Metal Gear Solid series. Marco Polo would be a continuation of that theme – employing a Hartnell-esque lookalike to provide reference points for the animators.

Naturally this is a much bigger budget than anything done until this point – but in this scenario we are purposefully choosing to ignore the issue of cost, and instead embracing two ideas:

1. As the episodes are completely missing anyway, and need to be replaced, there is absolutely no harm in producing a high-quality reimagination that might appeal outside the ‘core’ audience.
2. If successful, the format would potentially serve as the prelude to animate other stories that (until now) have been non-canon – not least Big FInish productions such as Colin Baker’s originally intended Season 23.

The technology definitely exists – and I am pretty confident that the demand exists as well. And as technology becomes faster and more powerful, the capacity to take on such a massive project is quickly becoming more and more feasible. As I said for The Smugglers – the only good reason not to animate Marco Polo is if there’s a reasonable chance we might get the real thing …