Doctor Who: Top 10 missing stories we want to see completed

2. Marco Polo

I mentioned with The Evil of the Daleks that something vital is lost with the lack of visuals. This is even more true of Marco Polo. The first ever true historical, Marco Polo is a seven-episode epic that sees the TARDIS crew reluctantly travelling with Marco Polo on his journey to meet Emperor Kublai Khan in Peking.

Based on the photos and the partial reconstruction I've seen of the story, there is no doubt that the loss of this serial is a great one. The BBC has always done such an excellent job of bringing history to life, and Marco Polo seems to be no exception.

However, if you're hoping the story will be brought to life via animation, that might not be an option. Animation producer/director Charles Norton, who worked on several animations for missing Doctor Who serials, advised that stories like Marco Polo and other historicals are far more difficult to adapt than many science-fiction stories, especially on a low budget.

"In the '60s, particularly the Hartnell era, they used to do historical epics and they were great because the BBC had the resources to do that... When you've actually got to draw it, particularly on a budget, and you've maybe only got a year to do it, it does get a little bit tricky!"

- Charles Norton

This makes a lot of sense. As I mentioned, the BBC were generally really great at making historicals. But it's still a shame to think that we'll most likely never get to see Marco Polo in the way that it deserves to be seen.