Against everyone’s advice, not counting some divorce lawyers who contacted us last week, our adventure continues with a reconstruction.

If you read the last installment, you’ll already know that we have decided to ease ourselves into the recons with a condensed version of Marco Polo, available as an extra on the In the Beginning box set.

Sue is initially perplexed by the experience.

Sue: It looks like a normal episode to me. This isn’t so bad. I don’t know what all the fuss is about.

Me: This is the recap from the last episode.

Five minutes into the reconstruction proper and I feel compelled to ask Sue how she’s coping. She’s been very quiet.

Sue: Shhhhh! They’re talking about caravans.

We used to live in a caravan (for three and a half years – it’s a long story) and she is completely engrossed in this aspect of the narrative.

Sue: I’m actually enjoying this much more than the others we’ve seen. It’s a lot faster.

Me: To be fair, the original version would be a lot slower than this.

Sue: Can’t we watch all of them like this? It would save us a lot of time.

A 30-minute version of The Sensorites sounds appealing, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Sue: Isn’t that Tony Hadley?

Me: No, it isn’t. It’s Mark Eden.

The Final Score

It seems unfair to ask Sue to grade this story based on a heavily condensed edit, but at least it provided her with an excellent flavour for both the story and the recons as a whole.

Sue: I really enjoyed that. For the very first time, I could get into the story. I think it helps that these are real, historical people, instead of cavemen or silly aliens. The plot was bit gentle, and I didn’t really understand what happened at the end (did the Doctor win the backgammon game or not?), but I really liked the overall tone of this story.

She also praised the sets, the costumes and the acting (“When you just listen to them, you realise how good they are”), and she is convinced that the lack of moving pictures actually helped her enjoyment, mainly because she wasn’t distracted by “Poor camera work and flimsy sets”.

Sue: The Doctor was nicer, too. I liked the flashes of sarcasm and I can actually see (or hear) a connection to the character that I’m familiar with on television today. Yes, I enjoyed it. It’s a shame this one’s missing. I’ll give it -

6/10

Me: So, how do you feel about us watching more recons?

Sue: Not a problem. Bring ‘em on.

The experiment continues…