Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

In today’s instalment of our look into Season 2 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series via its Blu-ray box set, we come to what’s considered an oddity in the season. Not so much on the story, but the fact that it happens to be an incomplete story featured in the story. It’s time for the four-part story ‘The Crusade’ by David Whitaker, which has two of the four episodes still remaining. The first and third episodes are intact whilst the second and fourth episodes are filled in by telesnap reconstructions on ‘The Crusade’s Blu-ray disc. The story stars William Hartnell as the First Doctor, William Russell as Ian, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara and Maureen O’Brien as Vicki. There are also special guest stars Julian Glover as Richard the Lionheart and Jean Marsh as Joanna, King Richard’s sister.

Sadly, there isn’t a ‘Behind the Sofa’ item featuring Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves and Carole Ann Ford, Janet Fielding, Wendy Padbury and Sarah Sutton, and Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred to enjoy on ‘The Crusade’ Blu-ray disc. Thankfully, I’ve been able to enjoy revisiting ‘The Crusade’ on Blu-ray in its surviving and telesnap episodes, along with an introduction and links by William Russell as Ian. There’s also an introduction and links by Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor) on ‘The Crusade’ Blu-ray disc. I’ve also enjoyed the documentary ‘Looking for David’ with Toby Hadoke, which has him exploring the life and career of the story’s writer, David Whitaker, who also script-edited ‘Doctor Who’ first season. It was fascinating to learn more about David Whitaker as an unsung hero. There’s also a convention panel talk with Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara), Adrienne Hill (Katarina) and Michael Craze (Ben) to enjoy.

Please feel free to check out, read and comment on my updated review for ‘The Crusade’ by clicking on the link for it. This contains a review on the TV story.

You can purchase ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 2’ on Blu-ray either from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.

Enjoy!

Bye for now!

Tim. 🙂