The Crusades
Fresh from their adventures on Vortis, the TARDIS crew arrive in a forest filled with English knights and Saracens. It is the time of the crusades, and Barbara is taken captive by the nasty El Akir. The Doctor and Vicki are caught up in intregue between King Richard the Lionheart and his sister, Joanna, and Ian is knighted.
Another fun historical story, but this one is a bit different from others as it has some big names in the cast: Julian Glover and Jean Marsh. Now I'm not sure if any episodes previous to this had "guest stars" so to speak, but these two I recognize for not only their great performances in this story but from their future works as well both in Doctor Who and other programs; Glover played General Veers in The Empire Strikes Back, and Jean Marsh would be a regular on the program Upstairs, Downstairs. The interactions between the Doctor and these characters are played out perfectly, but when Joanna confronts her brother over his plans to use her to make peace with the Saracens the heat is really turned up like it has never been before on the show.
The Crusades is another victim of the BBC vault purge, and only episodes 1 and 3 exist. They were released on VHS along with the next adventure, The Space Museum, but the missing episodes were supplemented by having William Russell reprise his role as Ian Chesterton several years after leaving the TARDIS and give a recap of what happened during those moments. The VHS release was also accompanied by a CD with the audios for episodes 2 and 4, but a complete CD with narration by William Russell is due from the BBC Radio Collection sometime later this year. Last year the Lost in Time DVD box set was released with the two complete episodes and the audio tracks as well; episode 1, The Lion, was recovered in January 1999 but there was extensive damage to the print which was cleaned up significantly for the DVD.
And now back to VHS, for the story that made corridor running the official Olympic sport of Doctor Who...
NEXT EPISODE : THE SPACE MUSEUM
Another fun historical story, but this one is a bit different from others as it has some big names in the cast: Julian Glover and Jean Marsh. Now I'm not sure if any episodes previous to this had "guest stars" so to speak, but these two I recognize for not only their great performances in this story but from their future works as well both in Doctor Who and other programs; Glover played General Veers in The Empire Strikes Back, and Jean Marsh would be a regular on the program Upstairs, Downstairs. The interactions between the Doctor and these characters are played out perfectly, but when Joanna confronts her brother over his plans to use her to make peace with the Saracens the heat is really turned up like it has never been before on the show.
The Crusades is another victim of the BBC vault purge, and only episodes 1 and 3 exist. They were released on VHS along with the next adventure, The Space Museum, but the missing episodes were supplemented by having William Russell reprise his role as Ian Chesterton several years after leaving the TARDIS and give a recap of what happened during those moments. The VHS release was also accompanied by a CD with the audios for episodes 2 and 4, but a complete CD with narration by William Russell is due from the BBC Radio Collection sometime later this year. Last year the Lost in Time DVD box set was released with the two complete episodes and the audio tracks as well; episode 1, The Lion, was recovered in January 1999 but there was extensive damage to the print which was cleaned up significantly for the DVD.
And now back to VHS, for the story that made corridor running the official Olympic sport of Doctor Who...
NEXT EPISODE : THE SPACE MUSEUM
Labels: Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton, The 1st Doctor, Vicki
posted by Sean Hoover @ 9:32 PM
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