Serial P: The Crusade

This serial caused some friction between William Hartnell and David Whitaker, because elements of the script implied an incestuous relationship between King Richard and Joanna; appropriate changes were made. It was also at this time that both Verity Lambert and Dennis Spooner decided to leave, though I doubt this was to do with The Crusade!

You've heard my opinions of the episodes, but for once I still have quite a lot to say. First, though, my co-watcher:

Isaac's Corner
I thought this was a very well-written story (though it was a bit hard to follow because of the recons), and the acting was great! [insert smiley face here] I liked the scene where Joanna was angry with the king about him trying to marry her off for peace. The actress was really into playing a strong-minded character, and the actor playing Richard was just like I imagine a king to be in a stalemated war, while back in his own country someone else is vying for power. I also liked the way the Doctor and Vicki get into danger because a noble mistrusts them, and Barbara does because she makes one of Saladin's lords look a fool. I thought the scene with the older Ian on the DVD was a really nice little feature by the BBC, which made up a bit for the loss of two episodes. I really enjoyed this story, not only because of the writing but also because it was a pure historical - which us Doctor Who fans all like, don't we? I rate it 9.25/10.

A Pure Historical?
According to Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel), the plot was based on two real-life events: Richard attempting to arrange the marriage of his sister to Saphadin, and his being saved by William de Preux' deception. The two events - in real life a month or so apart - were merely conflated. Great! Sufficient historical accuracy to be educational, surely?

Except, it doesn't actually matter. Because this isn't a historical in the same way as Marco Polo or The Reign of Terror; like The Romans, this is a different sort of beast. Someone on Elizabeth Sandifer's blog recently observed that television is not the same as theatre, and that classic Doctor Who often fell into the trap of playing like theatre which just happens to be being recorded. Fair comment; but in this serial, of course, that's deliberate: we are talking Shakespeare here.

And that's the key. The Romans was a farce that happened to be set in history, like the later Up Pompeii! - and this is one of the Bard's history plays. But here, more than in the previous offering, the TARDIS crew are intruders. They have to learn that they are in a play, how the dialogue works and what actions are appropriate. The Doctor takes to it like the proverbial duck to water, but none of the others ever quite fit. And that clash of genre expectations is what raises this above a mere "filmed play".

(True confessions time: this genre clash is also a major thread of Dr. Sandifer's Eruditorum, and I have no doubt that - although I haven't read the specific entry on The Crusade in quite some time - I got the idea from there, and that it informed my viewing. Well, we all pick up stuff willy-nilly; hopefully I've added some thoughts of my own as well. Go read her blog anyway.)

There's a flip side to this business of playing with genre: you have to follow through for it to work. And the ending doesn't, really. It feels like a disjointed episode of Doctor Who rather than the final act of an invaded history play. And mainly for that reason - despite my loving the third episode (and really hoping for the second to be discovered) - the serial as a whole is, for me, below average.

Doctor Who and the Crusaders
The Crusade was the last story to be novelised before the Target era, and although I haven't read it a couple of points are worth mentioning.

First is David Whitaker's treatment of Barbara. At the time he was criticised for an allegedly salacious description of her getting whipped in El Akir's harem. This is something I can't judge, but I welcome comments from those who have read it.

Second is the prologue, which gets the name of Susan's husband wrong: she apparently married David Cameron! Samantha should be told. It also mentions the Talking Stones of Tyron. This inspired the comment in William Russell's linking sequence (filmed in Ian Levine's house, originally for the 1999 VHS release), which in turn inspired the fanfic that delayed these reviews.

DVD Release: Lost in Time
Finally, a little about the DVD. For budgetary reasons there are no production subtitles and only one commentary track - on The Wheel of Fortune - but it's quite a fun one. Oddly, I didn't expect Julian Glover to sound old; but since he was nearly eighty when it was recorded it's not really surprising! His memories were surprisingly clear given the distance from the serial, which helped a lot.

The first Who DVDs I watched were borrowed - some came from my brother-in-law, some from our next door neighbours. Once I started buying them, beginning with three I found in a charity shop for £2.50 each, it became a mutual trade. For some reason I initially focused quite heavily on the Hartnell era, whereas the neighbours had very few black and white releases. They found them quite hard going, and one also made it very clear that he couldn't understand why anybody would watch orphaned episodes. At the time I had just suggested Lost in Time to my family as a possible birthday present; they gave it to me, but unsurprisingly it was never lent next door.

I'm a completist. Of course I want every episode found; but failing that, I want to be able to listen to the soundtrack and have some idea of how the actors move, how the director frames the shots. So I want to see at least one episode of every story. If only ten more episodes were to be recovered, I would want one from each completely missing serial (though I wouldn't turn my nose up at something like the whole of The Power of the Daleks).

And who knows? We might discover more gems like The Wheel of Fortune...

Rating:
Mine: 4.5/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 70.06%, 100th.
2012 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 7.75, 63rd out of 234.

Next Time:
The Space Museum.