Assassin at Peking

Dear Diary,

The Khan and I had a delightful time playing backgammon. At one point, I had won 35 elephants with ceremonial trappings, 4,000 white stallions, 25 tigers and the sacred tooth of Buddha! I wagered them all against the TARDIS, however, and lost. Still, he gave me a most interesting cane I think I shall keep.

Chesterton and Ping-Cho finally arrived, in Tegana’s custody. The two-faced villain accused them of trying to steal the TARDIS. As it turned out, he was working with the Khan’s enemy Noghai all along, and had been responsible for many of our delays in transit.

Once Chesterton explained all this to me, I helped him break out of his cell to warn Marco that Tegana was planning to assassinate the Khan. We reached the throne room just in time to scuttle the attack. Rather than surrender to Polo, Tegana impaled himself on one of the guards’ swords. Polo slipped us the keys to the TARDIS and ushered us out quickly.

Looking back, I wonder why we rushed away so. Given the old Khan’s backgammon habit, I’d have won the TARDIS back sooner or later.

Based upon the teleplay by John Lucarotti, first broadcast on BBC 4th April 1964