The Crusade

The Lion

Back in a historical adventure and everybody is very happy. Especially David Whitaker, you feel, as he finally gets a proper length non-gimmicky story to tell! The story begins with a big fight scene. Not necessarily a bad thing, get that out the way so we can have the story. Ian's section of the fight is quite good, though, and we have Dudley Simpson back and all over his second Doctor Who story. This time, though, it's good. I wasn't keen on his score for Planet of Giants, but this is recognisably (good) Dudley. In all the chaos, Barbara gets kidnapped. Poor old Babs. Ian searches the woods for over an hour for her, which is rather impressive.

Bernard Kay is always good, and here is possibly his best role. He's terrific here. "I cannot dispense life and death lightly," he says as he considers Barbara's fate. It's quite funny when Barbara tells Saladin of all her adventures (like the Sensorites, she lists all the stories, though not quite so blatantly here), and he thinks she's part of a group of actors.

This isn't a brilliant episode, it takes too long to start, but once it really gets going it's very watchable, and good fun. 7/10

The Knight of Jaffa

Who'd have thought the title of this referred to Ian? Sorry, Sir Ian, Knight of Jaffa. So far the only companion to be knighted. It's a lovely moment, though. I love how the Doctor quickly and easily calms Richard's temper with rather arse-licky comments like, "it's a King's preorogative to make yesterday's deafness today's keen hearing". He's a good manipulator, and all of his scenes with the Chamberlain and Ben Daheer are a delight, as are the scenes of Vicki pretending to be a boy called Victor. Richard says that the Doctor, Vicki and Ian have "courage, loyalty and wit", which is quite nice. 

 

Luigi Ferrigo's a git, isn't he? He kindaps Barbara for El Akir. It's quite good that the bit of fun Barbara had in the first episode, pretending to be Joanna, now means that El Akir is her enemy. El Akir is the only properly villainous character in this story (for now), and he makes for quite a good one, even if he is played by somebody called Walter! 

 

Once Richard's petulance is soothed, both he and Saladin are portrayed very well in this episode, from Richard's keeness to stop the fighting: "this bloodletting must stop," and Saladin's smartness in very quickly and easily working out that Luigi kidnapped Barbara. 

 

This is a good episode, certainly. Ian's quick to go off after Barbara, who herself is very resourceful, regularly escaping from El Akir's clutches throughout this story. The scenes with the Doctor and Vicki are great fun. 8/10.

The Wheel of Fortune

Luckily this Wheel of Fortune comes Nicky Campbell-free. It does have Dudley Simpson going strange again, though. The music where Haroun is telling his sob story of how El Akir has wrecked his life is atrocious. Never mind, though, because this episode is just as strong as the last. I'd love to see Vicki transformed into a veritable strutting peacock, but sadly that doesn't happen, as Joanna finds out that "Victor" is actually a girl. The bits with Ben Daheer are rather funny again, as is Vicki's, "who's your friend?" at the Doctor, once Daheer has left. There's quite a sweet moment as Vicki worries that the Doctor doesn't really want her, and he gives her a big hug and prods her nose. I love the clothes she's given, too. They're ridiculous, but she looks great. Leicester's a right bugger though, isn't he? 

 

The scenes with Barbara and Haroun are quite nice, and then later as Barbara sacrifices herself to save Safiya. It leads to the cliffhanger, which is good, but considering she's escaped him a couple of times already, we're not too bothered. As Ian gets himself in trouble, and the Doctor and Vicki face Richard's wrath, is there really time in the final part to finish everything off? 8/10

The War Lords

The War Lords, eh? Nope, I don't see any Philip Madoc. Sadly no James Bree, either. Sorry to harp on about Dudley Simpson, but he is superb again here, which is nice. Unfortunately, the story isn't so much. I find the stuff with Ian and Ibrahim rather tedious, to be honest. It goes on for ages when there is really a lot of wrapping up to do, and as a result the ending is quite rushed. The best part of their relationship is right at the end when Ibrahim says of Ian, "he has an honest face, he could have made a fortune!"

The girls at the harem are all rather sweet, protecting Barbara from El Akir, and, well, we don't know exactly what happened to Fatima, but they certainly made her pay for betraying Barbara. El Akir is killed very quickly and easily, though, but it is nice to see the Haroun family reunion. 

 

With El Akir's quick demise, the true villain of this story is Leicester. He is a total git, going after the Doctor and Vicki and wanting them killed. I love how Ian makes him look a right prat, going on about how he has a much greater claim to execute the Doctor, and Leicester agrees! I do love that bit. 

This is a clumsy episode. Joanna, Saladin and Saphadin all disappear, as does Richard fairly promptly. El Akir/Haroun and their story are dealt with at the speed of light, whilst we have long scenes of Ian and Ibrahim not doing much, and the Doctor and Vicki hiding in the woods. The jokes at the end at Ian's expense are quite amusing, but overall it's an unsatisfactory conclusion. 5/10.

Conclusion

Well well, this is my lowest rated historical so far. The Crusade has never been one of my absolute favourites, but I expected to like it more than that. It's great in the middle two parts, but starts slowly and ends poorly, which drags it down a bit, for me. The final episode in particular is quite poor. There's also a problem with Richard and Saladin. Though Glover and Kay play them extremely well, and both are well written, they both seem a bit detached from the story somehow. It's difficult to explain, but I didn't think their presence really helped the story much. Joanna, again well played, was a bit uninteresting, I found. She had a few moments of charm, but just seemed to be there to have a quick shout at Richard and then vanish. I'm probably being harsh, as this IS a good story, it just seemed to be lacking a certain something that the other historicals have.

Average rating: 7

Old Rating: 8

New rating: 7