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Oor as this escapade is otherwise known, "Doctor Who In An Exciting Adventure With Some Shoe Polish". Sheesh. Granted it's 1965, but there were brown people then. They didn't suddenly spring spontaneously into existence at the beginning of the 1990s. And some of them were actors. Hiring white people and then painting them a funny colour with something gloopy does not constitute sensible casting. And what colour was Saladin anyway? I'm guessing not a suspiciously shiny shade of dark, wet something.
Casting aside, episode one of "The Crusade" is rather good. I love the early William Hartnell adventures, and often the historical ones are particularly well done - and this certainly holds it own against the others. The costumes are typically good, the performances excellent. Julian Glover makes a very fine King Richard. I generally approach this subject with caution, though. Partly this stems from an age-old suspicion of history books that speak of the glorious Lionheart fighting the dastardly Saracens. After all, collecting a blood-thirsty army together to rampage across the Middle East in an attempt to steal somebody else's city isn't exactly the definition of chivalry, at least as I understand it. Rather than being a glorious attempt to liberate Jerusalem, the Crusades were frequently more a question of the illiterate, brutal armies of the West butchering everybody they could see in an attempt to destroy the enlightened, highly educated armies of the East. Granted the Saracens could be just as blood-thirsty in return, and the truth is that nobody involved in the conflict was exactly innocent, but anything that presents the Saracens as uniformly brutal, and the Christians as the undisputed good guys, is fibbing ever such a little. And besides, Nasir was a Saracen. So Saracen-knocking is not to be tolerated.
Anyway, so far as episode one is concerned, Doctor Who seems to be avoiding that old trap, up to a point. King Richard appears to be something of a stuck-up jerk, and the Saracens are polite. There are an awful lot of stereotypes on display, though, and that shoe polish is dreadful. Best stick to sword-fighting, Ian. If you punch any of that lot, you'll wind up smudging them.
We start off in a grand stately home, with a lovely little intro by Ian. An older Ian, reminiscing. There's a lot missing from "The Crusade", so the Beeb had William Russell do some linky bits. It's a nice touch, though I'm left wondering how come Ian lives in a stately home full of suits of armour; and what he wants with a two hundred foot long dining table. He and Barbara must have really done well for themselves since going back to Earth. :D Doesn't ring true to me, so moving swiftly on... He talks about some of the things he saw with the Doctor, including the Salem witch trials, which is a nice nod to the PDAs. "The Witch Hunters" by Steve Lyons was one of the best of them. Ian settles down to tell the story of when he became a Knight of Jaffa, and episode one begins.
The adventure starts straight away, which is good. Some Saracens are spying on King Richard and his men, and the TARDIS lands nearby. Soon King Richard is on the run, his men are killed or wounded, and the TARDIS crew, with no idea when or where they are (I miss those days!) are caught up in the middle of it. Barbara is kidnapped, just for a change, and one of Richard's men, Sir William, pretends to be the king to aid the escape of the real one. He and Barbara are bundled off to a tent, where they have an audience with several people covered in shoe polish. There's much discussion over whether or not to kill Barbara. Not, if you don't mind. It would be sure to upset Ian, otherwise.
Back in the woods, the Doctor, Ian and Vicki find a badly injured knight, and Ian looks after him whilst the other two nip off into a nearby town to steal some clothes for them all to play dress up in. Suitably attired, they carry their wounded friend off to Richard's camp, to ask for help in getting Barbara back. Ian asks for an escort, so that he can go to Saladin's camp and open discussions about the return of both Barbara and Sir William (who Richard refers to as Sir Richard at one point. Whoops :D). Richard is being a jerk, though, and apparently quoting large sections of what would become Margaret Thatcher's foreign policy eight hundred years later. Change Sir William and Barbara for Keenan and McCarthy, and you're half way to at least one of the Conservative government's speeches in the late eighties. But I digress. Richard stalks off saying that Barbara can die for all he cares, and Ian bristles. Everybody freezes nicely for the cameras so that the credits can roll. Strike a pose, gang. And hold.
Ian! Ian! It's Ian! Look! It's Ian! Hello Ian!
The TARDIS arrives in a wood.
Richard and various soon-to-be dead friends discuss falconry.
The Doctor, Ian and Vicki realise that Barbara is missing.
The Doctor plots and plans. And screws up his dialogue.
Barbara and Sir William discuss their predicament.
The Shoe Polish Army.
The Doctor, Ian and Vicki give Richard back his soldier.
And talk about how best to retrieve Barbara from whoever's got her.
Ian tries to ask for assistance from King Sulky McSulk.
Only to be told that there'll be no talking, and that the hostages are on their own.
The gang pick a reaction, and stick with it as the credits roll.
More another time. Sadly episode two is audio only though. :( Bloody BBC...
Casting aside, episode one of "The Crusade" is rather good. I love the early William Hartnell adventures, and often the historical ones are particularly well done - and this certainly holds it own against the others. The costumes are typically good, the performances excellent. Julian Glover makes a very fine King Richard. I generally approach this subject with caution, though. Partly this stems from an age-old suspicion of history books that speak of the glorious Lionheart fighting the dastardly Saracens. After all, collecting a blood-thirsty army together to rampage across the Middle East in an attempt to steal somebody else's city isn't exactly the definition of chivalry, at least as I understand it. Rather than being a glorious attempt to liberate Jerusalem, the Crusades were frequently more a question of the illiterate, brutal armies of the West butchering everybody they could see in an attempt to destroy the enlightened, highly educated armies of the East. Granted the Saracens could be just as blood-thirsty in return, and the truth is that nobody involved in the conflict was exactly innocent, but anything that presents the Saracens as uniformly brutal, and the Christians as the undisputed good guys, is fibbing ever such a little. And besides, Nasir was a Saracen. So Saracen-knocking is not to be tolerated.
Anyway, so far as episode one is concerned, Doctor Who seems to be avoiding that old trap, up to a point. King Richard appears to be something of a stuck-up jerk, and the Saracens are polite. There are an awful lot of stereotypes on display, though, and that shoe polish is dreadful. Best stick to sword-fighting, Ian. If you punch any of that lot, you'll wind up smudging them.
We start off in a grand stately home, with a lovely little intro by Ian. An older Ian, reminiscing. There's a lot missing from "The Crusade", so the Beeb had William Russell do some linky bits. It's a nice touch, though I'm left wondering how come Ian lives in a stately home full of suits of armour; and what he wants with a two hundred foot long dining table. He and Barbara must have really done well for themselves since going back to Earth. :D Doesn't ring true to me, so moving swiftly on... He talks about some of the things he saw with the Doctor, including the Salem witch trials, which is a nice nod to the PDAs. "The Witch Hunters" by Steve Lyons was one of the best of them. Ian settles down to tell the story of when he became a Knight of Jaffa, and episode one begins.
The adventure starts straight away, which is good. Some Saracens are spying on King Richard and his men, and the TARDIS lands nearby. Soon King Richard is on the run, his men are killed or wounded, and the TARDIS crew, with no idea when or where they are (I miss those days!) are caught up in the middle of it. Barbara is kidnapped, just for a change, and one of Richard's men, Sir William, pretends to be the king to aid the escape of the real one. He and Barbara are bundled off to a tent, where they have an audience with several people covered in shoe polish. There's much discussion over whether or not to kill Barbara. Not, if you don't mind. It would be sure to upset Ian, otherwise.
Back in the woods, the Doctor, Ian and Vicki find a badly injured knight, and Ian looks after him whilst the other two nip off into a nearby town to steal some clothes for them all to play dress up in. Suitably attired, they carry their wounded friend off to Richard's camp, to ask for help in getting Barbara back. Ian asks for an escort, so that he can go to Saladin's camp and open discussions about the return of both Barbara and Sir William (who Richard refers to as Sir Richard at one point. Whoops :D). Richard is being a jerk, though, and apparently quoting large sections of what would become Margaret Thatcher's foreign policy eight hundred years later. Change Sir William and Barbara for Keenan and McCarthy, and you're half way to at least one of the Conservative government's speeches in the late eighties. But I digress. Richard stalks off saying that Barbara can die for all he cares, and Ian bristles. Everybody freezes nicely for the cameras so that the credits can roll. Strike a pose, gang. And hold.
Ian! Ian! It's Ian! Look! It's Ian! Hello Ian!
The TARDIS arrives in a wood.
Richard and various soon-to-be dead friends discuss falconry.
The Doctor, Ian and Vicki realise that Barbara is missing.
The Doctor plots and plans. And screws up his dialogue.
Barbara and Sir William discuss their predicament.
The Shoe Polish Army.
The Doctor, Ian and Vicki give Richard back his soldier.
And talk about how best to retrieve Barbara from whoever's got her.
Ian tries to ask for assistance from King Sulky McSulk.
Only to be told that there'll be no talking, and that the hostages are on their own.
The gang pick a reaction, and stick with it as the credits roll.
More another time. Sadly episode two is audio only though. :( Bloody BBC...
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