A bit of fun trivia about this particular story; in the original script there were apparently some quite…shall we say intimate undertones to the relationship between Richard and his sister (which I think might have been someone going after what passed for historical accuracy in the mid-Sixties) and Battlin’ Bill Hartnell put a stop to it.
I’m still plucking away at the novel, I’m going to try and finish it tonight. and then maybe see about watching it through with the surviving episodes + recons. Does anyone have the Season 2 Blu-ray? What form are the recons?
EDIT - further into the novel now, and I’ve been presented with one thing we must be very sad is not commemorated on screen; William Russell shirtless, tied to a pole in the desert heat. Hearts across the nation fluttered that particular week, I’m sure.
On the other hand, so very far away, I’m hoping that the episodes we’ve lost happen to be the ones where Ian says “…little N**** child” (cw: old-timey racial language)****
On top of the aforementioned blackface, this is not giving a tremendous account of how other races were presented on television. I will say that this is ameliorated by the novelization; without pictures, you can just happily imagine all the characters being the races that they are, and once you can do that, you realize that that this interpretation of Saladin, much like the Great Khan in Marco Polo is one that is more interested in thoughtful dialog than showy Hollywood history. The moment between him and Ian where they discussion the essential differences and similarities in their religious beliefs, comparing “the will of Allah” to “the hand of God” (many years before Diego Maradona would recodify what that phrase meant to a generation of football fans) is one that fast makes you forget you’re reading a book ostensibly for children. No surprise that this came from the pen of notorious navel-gazer and modern thinker, David Whitaker.
This happens in the televised story, though William Russell isn’t shirtless.
This, however, doesn’t appear anywhere. The soundtracks of the missing episodes exist in full and no one says anything of this sort in the story.
Edit: the recons are telesnaps coupled with the existing audio tracks and additional subtitles to explain what’s going on during moments with no dialogue.
I just finished the book, and by just I mean in the last half an hour. It definitely left an impression and from your reply I feel like Whitaker intentionally went a little darker with it because he had the freedom of text instead of television. The description of the sound of Barbara being lashed is grim. The whole El-Akir plotline is, actually. To countermand my own point about Saladin being depicted rather respectfully in the novel, perhaps even more so than Richard who is last seen trying to marry off his sister before accusing The Doctor of treachery, we have characters like El-Akir, who the novel goes to great pains to describe as irretrievably evil (although it is the 1970s adapting a television episode from 1960whenever, so I don’t necessarily begrudge them their unambiguous villain, but did you have to make him quite so rapey, Dave?) and Ibrahim, who despite getting sort of redeemed by his role in saving the gang + harem in the final act, is still about the defining archetype of “Shifty Arabian Thief”. The whole thing does, unfortunately, have a rather colonist’s eye on The Crusades, as pretty much all British recollection of its own history does.
Even with Saladin, it’s almost that his difference from those around him, these things that set him apart to Richard and make him such a confusing ally, are so confusing because he is leading an army of “savages”. Even Lyddah, the den of thieves. There are so many rather unsavory portrayals of the Middle East and its peoples in here, but also Richard and his men are mostly described as glory-hungry and foolish, or obsessed with their own squabbling, so maybe there’s a broad brush being painted over all of history. Meanwhile in the small conversations between characters, there’s some real beauty. David Whitaker’s prose is artful, almost painterly in the way he’ll use adjectives, and he gives his characters some great philosophical discourses befitting the period. The passages describing Barbara’s stoicism and bravery while she is, admittedly, Periled Around for the sake of the plot and the accompanying moments where Ian is bloody knighted on his quest to save her were some of the high moments for me. The lower moments were probably reserved for Vicki, who exists almost entirely in the background on this one, with the indignity of being the Peril Fuel and not even much of the consolation of narrative POV like Barbara gets. The Doctor is also a backseat presence this time around; is this another episode where William Hartnell goes to Cromer for a week in the middle of shooting?
The tension is high. This is a classic Classic “survive the place we got out of the TARDIS” story, and even though I knew they would, multiple passages had me gritting teeth and hoping for the best. Problematic historical descriptions aside, it’s a tight novelization that perhaps expands and extends on the original, while also giving a great hero showcase for Ian and Barbara. I liked it a lot, gave it 4/5.
A cool historical! I really wish there weren’t two episodes missing, I feel like it’d rank higher for people otherwise. I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve watched a historical, even though it probably hasn’t been that long at all. I liked Barbara’s subplot, and Ian as a knight, the characterisation is really good. The doctor and Vicki have some sweet moments too, but their plot is less interesting to me. And the guest actors are very good too!
I have difficulty figuring out how I feel about this story. I watched the copy of it on the Lost in Time DVD, which was interesting. The DVD contained non-narrated audio for the missing episodes, which I found hard to follow. I think if I watched it again, I would opt for recons of the missing episodes instead. However, when I did understand what was going on, I think I enjoyed it, at least a little. I thought it was interesting that the serial opted to place our characters in peril right away, which gave it a starting speed to rival modern Who. It was also interesting in how it explored how women during this time were the pawns of men, as Barbara and Richard the Lionheart’s sister’s plots reflect each other. It could be argued that Vicki’s disguise also provides commentary on this point. I think I would like to rewatch this story some other time and see if it would make more sense on a second viewing.
Just finished watching the Crusade. Quite enjoyed it, rather more then the Romans, actually.
The Doctor was on form, and I quite enjoyed his performance. I regret how much of Julian Glover’s performance as Richard had the video missing, and Jean Marsh was great.
Main quibbles would be that Barbara was manhandled a bit much, and, honestly, I could have done without most of the whole scene with Ibrahim. Seemed rather too stereotyped.
Nice having a gap filled in, too, since I’ve seen both the serial before and after this one…
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention that I did with this one was I pulled up the transcript of the episode, and had it right on the other screen while I was watching. Worked out well for me. (And I did watch the Ian clips as well.)
(Also probably worth mentioning that two of the quotes on this serial in the guide should be combined, as one is entirely within the other aside from two lines…)
First viewing for me, I don’t really have time for stories with tele-snaps. I watched the version with the William Russell recaps. I found what remains rather dull, apart from the antagonistic scenes between Jean Marsh & Julian Glover.
Love this one. Kinda a shame back then we didn’t get this animated, because really with two episodes missing, it would have been lovely if we got an animation back then, when they did a few around 2013/2014.
Back to the story, it’s writing is stellar. The Acting both from our Guest stars such as Marsh and Glover is superb, the same could be said about our regulars, Hartnell and O’Briens Dynamic is just superb. Many already talked and describe some of its aspects incredibly well (such as the big elephant with this Story, which I won’t get much into, since I doubt I could say it better than somebody such as @CrashedOnDido or @realdoctor
Overall I am impressed what they were able to pull off with this one, dare I say this might be the second darkest pure historical on TV (only beaten by the atmosphere of the Massacre, but that’s a story for a another time)
This is another story which I was very familiar with as a child from the Target novelisation. In some ways it was very faithful to the actual episodes, but there were also a few surprises - Barbara never actually got the chance to tell any stories, and the whipping scene wasn’t there - also Richard seemed much less pleasant a character than I had expected, and Joanna was far more aggressive and less ladylike than I had pictured her.
But on the whole, unlike the Web planet, it held up and did the book justice.
(Funny how my experience of “book first, episodes later” seems unique on here - must be my age growing up in the Seventies, when we only had a handful of novelisations and these were treasured & reread over & over again, even the ones from eras long before I started watching midway through the 3 & Jo stories)
If I’d actually had money when I was younger and found a bookstore that had an entire aisle dedicated to Doctor Who novels, things could have gone much differently on that front!
The thrill of finding a Target novelisation I didn’t own in some tiny bookshop is something I don’t think I’ll ever experience again. I can actually pinpoint specific places I bought certain ones.
Having just finished listening today to William Russell reading the Target novelisation of The Crusade, I am pleased to have added this story to my collection.
I think I watched one of the still-existing tv episodes on iPlayer, but didn’t bother with the other as there was one missing in between them. It’s a good story overall, albeit perhaps not totally suitable for children all the way through. The description of Barbara’s cries of pain is a grim listen. However, I’m a bit disappointed to learn that honeyed Ian didn’t make it to tv. My heart would certainly have fluttered!!
I really like this story. It has so many great moments. I love how well Vicki and the Doctor act together, it feels like they are having the time of their life on set. It is a fantastic moment when they get caught in the lie that she is a boy. Barbara and Ian also have good stories in this. It is sad that the second episode is missing, I would have loved to see Ian get knighted.
Finally got around to rewatching this one. I decided to watch the telesnap reconstruction as I actually quite like those. I remember finding this one boring or unmemorable in the past, but now on rewatch I have bumped my rating up because I did enjoy it more. However, I think like @deltaandthebannermen, this is just a stroy that - despite being good, it just not for me. The acting is wonderful, Ian the knight is fun, Vicki gets some great moments, but overall it’s just like. Yeah cool! A story!
The thing I like most about it - and indeed all the historicals from this era is the ambition and breadth of them. We’ve had Aztecs, Marco Polo, the Crusades, and there is more to come too. I love how unafraid this era was to explore periods of history and parts of the world beyond Western Europe. I think that is something that the modern era could learn from, and indeed one of the things I admire about Chibnall Who too.
That said, historicals just generally don’t do a whole lot for me. By and large, I find them okay, and this one is a good 'un. But it’s not one I’m going to choose to rewatch for funsies, and I think the same would be true even if we had it in completion
