The crusade (1965)

Review
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More about this serial

Review

This was a four-part serial, first broadcast between 27th March - 17th April 1965. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: the Tardis crew find themselves in the Holy Land. Barbara is kidnapped by Saladin's Saracens while the Doctor, Ian and Vicki find themselves at the court of Richard Lionheart, who's trying to negotiate peace by marrying off his sister to Saladin's brother.

What I've seen:

Parts one and three of the serial. Parts two and four are missing, but the soundtracks still exist and are included on the 'Lost in time' boxed set.

The good bits:

it's a good story, and the pacing of the two surviving episodes is excellent
there are some fine performances, both from the regulars and the guest cast
the serial is well-directed
the story gives us remarkable nuance in its view on history, showing Saladin as a strong ruler - though also a ruthless one

The less good bits:

Vicki gets little to do in this story, apart from being cute and endearing
the Saracens are British actors in black-face, as was common practice at the time

A couple of notes on this particular version of the serial:

to someone who's trying to follow the story as a whole, the soundtracks of the second and fourth episode aren't very helpful. You hear music and dialogue, but you mostly don't have a clue who's addressing whom or what's going on on-screen. Even some basic on-screen notes taken from the script ("A Saracen jumps out from behind the bushes and overpowers Ian...") would be a great improvement
there are spoken introductions by William Russell (Ian Chesterton) for each episode, which give a brief summary of the story. Unfortunately these are a kind of Easter egg, and you can only view them by choosing the 'Play all' option on the DVD

My verdict:

Quite good, actually.

Even though this serial is incomplete, there's much to enjoy here.

More about Doctor Who

An introduction:
Doctor Who reviews: introduction

More "quite good, actually" Doctor Who:
Doctor Who reviews: quite good, actually

More from the William Hartnell years:
Doctor Who reviews: 1963 - 1966

Similar stories:
Doctor Who reviews: time travel

Original version of this review:
06/10/23

More about this serial

Episode guides:
BBC Cult

Serial reviews:
Outpost Gallifrey

DVD reviews (of the 'Lost in time' boxed set):
Outpost Gallifrey

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