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Doctor Who: The Crusade [1965] Episodes One and Three survive entire, but the Second and Fourth parts exist as audio only; Episode One is in bad shape, but Three looks sharp. Another of the ambitious attempts at doing epic history common in early Doctor Who, this has fine guest playing from Julian Glover [Richard the Lionheart], Jean Marsh [his sister Joanna] and a blacked-up Bernard Kay [Saladin] which encourages David Whitaker to plenty of cod-Shakespeareana ['Good Leicester, this question time has reached its full conclusion']. The plot fits intrigues around the King's attempts to set up a marriage between his sister and Saladin's brother, but is mostly concerned with melodrama as the Doctor and Vicki are suspected of being thieves and spies in the King's court in Jaffa while Ian and Barbara skirmish with bandits [Ian is tortured with honey and ants] and thugs on the other side of the crusade. The regulars enjoy new costumes, and Hartnell unbends a bit to toady to the Royals while holding back from revealing what will happen [‘history must take its course']. Another of the odd bits of adult matter that popped up occasionally
in the 1960s comes when a father gives Barbara a knife and tells her
to kill his daughter [Petra Markham] and herself if the minions of El
Akir are about to capture them [we later see the women quivering as
the house is searched, but there's no further suggestion of rape]. The
finale is at once clever – Ian volunteering to execute the traitorous
Doctor as a Saracen spy and then 'abducted' by the magical device –
and abrupt; the rest of history is left to get on by itself. First published in this form here. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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