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The Doctor restrains Ian from
arguing with King Richard (Julian Glover).
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4 episodes: The Lion, The Knight of Jaffa, The Wheel of Fortune, The Warlords. Running Time: Approx. 97 minutes. Written by: David Whitaker. Directed by: Douglas Camfield. Produced by: Verity Lambert.
THE PLOT:
The TARDIS materialises in 12th century Palestine during the Third Crusade... And the crew emerge right in the middle of an ambush of King Richard the Lionheart (Julian Glover) by the Saracen El Akir (Walter Randall). The Doctor, Ian, and Vicki are able to rescue a knight and fend off the attackers - But Barbara is kidnapped and taken to the brother of the sultan, Saladin (Bernard Kay).
Barbara is in the company of a knight who posed as King Richard, and he chivalrously tells their captors that Barbara is the king's sister, Joanna. El Akir eagerly presents them, anticipating glory... Only to be shown up as a fool when Saladin and his brother recognize the deception. Saladin insists the prisoners be treated with respect and dismisses El AKir scornfully - leaving the villain plotting to kidnap Barbara to take his revenge on her.
King Richard is persuaded, not without difficulty, to allow Ian to serve an emissary to the sultan. But by the time he arrives, Barbara has been taken again - leaving Ian determined to press on into El Akir's own territory to rescue her!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: While Barbara and Ian are left to carry the action plot, the Doctor becomes involved in the intrigue of Richard's court. He navigates by quick thinking. He neatly transforms a clothes merchant's denunciations of him as a thief into a way to gain the man's confidence, much to Vicki's amusement. He is eager to protect Vicki, observing that the situation at court is potentially dangerous - And indeed, he makes an enemy of one knight when he denounces the man for arguing against even a chance of peace.
Barbara: Quick-witted in dealing with El Akir at Saladin's court, turning the villain's suggestions of torture against him by observing that it "sound like the punishment for a fool," leaving an amused Saladin to observe that El Akir has proved far more foolish than Barbara. Rescued by Haroun (George Little), whose family was destroyed by El Akir, she is entrusted with his remaining daughter and a knife - With a request to kill the girl if the villain's men find them. Barbara is horrified, insisting that "life is better than this." When it's clear she and the girl will be discovered, Barbara saves her by revealing herself. She remains defiant when dragged before El Akir. Pushed to her knees, she looks at him with loathing, refusing to show any sign of weakness - Then uses his own taunts about how his gold will buy her torment as an impetus for escape.
Ian: "Brave, brave Sir Ian, he bravely ran..." Well, it's Ian, so you know he doesn't run away... But he does get knighted! The Crusade is Ian's best showing in a while. Finding Barbara is pretty much his only thought from the moment she is kidnapped. When the Doctor, reading King Richard's mood, urges patience in enlisting aid, Ian ignores him and presses the king at the worst possible time, prompting an outburst. Discovering that El Akir abducted Barbara from Saladin's camp, he insists on pushing forward on his own, despite the danger. He predictably runs afoul of danger, but through quick wits he manages to turn even that to his advantage.
Vicki: Left largely to the background this time...Which is more than fair enough; after three stories in a row with Vicki front and center, it really was Ian and Barbara's turn. Continues to make a fun counterpart for the Doctor, with her reactions to his interplay with the various members of Richard's court regularly entertaining.
King Richard: Portrayed in this story as young and impetuous, driven by passion from one extreme to another. He insists on staying in the forest, against his knights' advice, all but inviting the initial attack. Later, when Ian begs for help to negotiate for Barbara's release, he angrily refuses to trade with those who killed his friends - But then, feeling weary of war, not only sends Ian to negotiate but drafts a peace offer that includes the hand of his sister, Joanna (Jean Marsh), in marriage to Saladin's brother. He does so without consulting her, and flies into yet another rage when she refuses.
Saladin: Bernard Kay's Saladin is Richard's opposite number. Where the young English king is all temper and passion, Saladin is pure calculation. "You must serve my purpose, or you have no purpose, he bluntly tells Barbara early on. He is not portrayed as a bad man - quite the reverse, he is painted throughout as honorable. He also acknowledges the sincerity of Richard's peace offer, even as he doubts peace can be achieved. He is older than Richard, quite frankly smarter than Richard, and is determined to be prepared for whatever may occur. As he says to his brother, "Hold one hand out in friendship, but keep the other on your sword."
El AKir: Richard isn't quite a hero; Saladin definitely isn't a villain; but in El Akir, we have a figure who is utterly twisted, evil, and depraved. He becomes obsessed with Barbara for no reason other than that she made him look foolish in front of the sultan - And for that, he risks kidnapping her from Saladin's camp, he raids homes in a village, he is quite happy for his men to set fire to houses - All so that he can take his revenge. You could argue that such a melodramatically evil baddie sticks out in a story otherwise populated by complex, multilayered individuals... But actor Walter Randall throws himself in with vigor and just the right amount of restraint, making El AKir genuinely menacing.
THOUGHTS
This is the first story with missing episodes I've watched via reconstruction since Marco Polo, and the difference in viewing experience shows just how far the series has come in terms of visual ambition. In Marco Polo's case, the story was so dialogue driven, the still reconstruction felt almost as good as watching the real thing. It was, to coin a phrase regarding much archive television, "radio with pictures." By contrast, the action scenes in the existing episodes of The Crusade play out predominately visually, with the action well-choreographed, well-shot, and highly effective.
Which creates a bit of a problem in the two missing episodes. Part Two ends with a sequence of Barbara escaping from, then evading, El Akir's men. It is dialogue-free... Which turns the reconstruction into a sequence of still photos of Barbara in an alley at this point, or the audio into a string of narration over music. Full credit to those involved in either effort - But this just can't convey the tension the filmed scene would have. Part Four suffers even more, as the story climaxes with an action set piece at El Akir's palace. This does weaken the available viewing experience for this story; but it also demonstrates that even in its second season, Doctor Who had already moved forward significantly in purely technical terms.
This was the first Who story fully directed by Douglas Camfield (he had previously directed Part Three of Planet of Giants), and the existing episodes show him already making his mark. In addition to strong action scenes, actors are positioned to create a strong sense of dimension and depth. Actors will be positioned in foreground, middle ground, and background, with reactions at all planes. At every turn, cameras are positioned to capture the actors in a visually interesting way... Which, however much I may love 1960's Who, isn't something that can generally be said of the series.
David Whitaker's script is a good one. After serving as the series' first script editor, it's hardly a surprise that he has the regulars down, and he balances them well. The dialogue is exceptional, and the guest cast seems to relish the words they've been given. Particularly noteworthy is the argument between Richard and Joanna in Episode Three, as she shouts down his attempt to marry her off for peace with absolute fury. As the king, he should ostensibly be the more powerful figure - But she seems dominant from the start, even before she invokes the Pope and the certainty that he would refuse to authorize such a union.
The final episode is the weakest of the set - Not just because it's missing, but because the story resolves a little too easily, with El Akir's palace proving remarkably easy for multiple parties to infiltrate. An epilogue in which the Doctor escapes a wrathful knight feels tacked-on and rushed. This isn't enough to make The Crusade less than an extremely good story, and even the missing episodes are engrossing and pass quickly... But the weakness of the ending does keep this out of my top tier.
Overall Rating: 8/10.
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