‘THE CRUSADE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Richard the Lionheart and El Akir with the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki

For William Russell

Here we are on what I consider to be an oddity in Season 2 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. Not just in terms of the story, but also in terms of its presentation in the Season 2 Blu-ray box set. And it’s a presentation that baffles me when a lot of effort could have been made to have it all complete.

You see, ‘The Crusade’ is a four-part story by David Whitaker, who previously penned ‘The Rescue’ in Season 2 of the classic TV series. Yet, it’s an incomplete ‘Doctor Who’ story. At the time of this review, the first and third episodes are intact whilst the second and fourth episodes are still missing.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but when it comes to including the story in the Season 2 Blu-ray box set as part of ‘The Collection’ range of classic ‘Doctor Who’ Blu-ray box sets, you’d expect the missing episodes to receive the animation treatment. The story would’ve been more complete then.

I was hoping that ‘The Crusade’ would get the animation treatment and we’d get to have the second and fourth episodes animated, much in the style of ‘The Invasion’, ‘The Reign of Terror’, ‘The Ice Warriors’, ‘The Moonbase’ and ‘The Tenth Planet’ animation episodes. This would have been ideal. 🙂

Thus, it’s sad when you find the Blu-ray makers didn’t put that into consideration when putting together the Season 2 Blu-ray box set. Instead of having animated episodes to fill the gaps of ‘The Crusade’, they decided to have the gaps filled in by telesnap episodes with narration and subtitles. 😦

This…really baffles me, as I don’t get why we couldn’t have had animation episodes in place of telesnap episodes. I don’t deny the hard work put into the telesnap episodes to make the story complete, but I’m not so keen on telesnaps. Telesnaps are really static. They don’t hold my interest.

Animation works better for me as I’d like to see the pictures moving. Mind you, ‘Doctor Who’ animations for missing stories have varied in terms of quality over the years and very often do not match to what’s in the available surviving footage. But at least they’re better than telesnap versions.

I’ve heard it argued that the missing episodes of ‘The Crusade’ might be difficult to animate due to there being many characters featured in one shot, but I don’t see how that could be the case. Recent ‘Doctor Who’ animations have proved they can do well with animating many characters in one shot.

I’m not sure if there might be a political correctness thing going on as to why the episodes weren’t animated, especially considering this story takes place in 12th century Palestine and the casting of the Saracens featured in the story is frowned upon nowadays, but that’s all speculation on my part. 😐

There may come a point where ‘The Crusade’ will get the animation treatment someday, but it’ll take a long while following its release in the Season 2 Blu-ray box set. The only other story I know that was released on home media with telesnap episodes to fill gaps was ‘The Underwater Menace’.

That was released in 2015. Since then, it’s had the animation treatment and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2023 as a 2-disc set. Some recent 1960s stories with animations are 3-disc sets, and they have a black-and-white animation version, a colour animation version and a telesnap version. 😐

This approach could be applied to ‘The Crusade’ and it might have its own 2 or 3-disc set on DVD and Blu-ray in a similar manner. Maybe that’s why they didn’t do animation episodes for ‘The Crusade’ in the Season 2 Blu-ray box set, as it would have meant more than 9 discs in the box set to be included.

If it’s the case that ‘The Crusade’ animation episodes will happen after the Season 2 Blu-ray box set, then it’s sad in one sense, as it would somewhat make ‘The Crusade’ Blu-ray disc in the Season 2 Blu-ray box set redundant. But then, it’d be something to look forward to in a future ‘Crusade’ release. 🙂

Anyway, let’s talk about ‘The Crusade’ itself. When I originally reviewed this ‘Doctor Who’ story back in 2016, there were two approaches in checking it out. You could check out the story on the ‘Lost in Time’ 3-disc DVD set, which was released in 2004, and it contained a selection of missing episodes. 🙂

You could see the first and third surviving episodes themselves and there were soundtracks for the second and fourth episodes. Believe it or not, the soundtrack versions contained for the second and fourth episodes on the ‘Lost in Time’ DVD are way less impressive than the Blu-ray telesnap versions.

I mean, when you play the second and fourth episodes themselves, it’s just one static image with the TV soundtrack playing over it for each of them. Whilst I’m not keen on the telesnap episodes on ‘The Crusade’ Blu-ray disc, I’m pleased they have a variety of images to tell the story to us through them.

And you at least have the option to switch on the episode narrations for the second and fourth episodes being provided by William Russell from the TV soundtrack audiobook (more in a bit) as well as descriptive subtitles to match with the narration. It makes the viewing experiences a lot better. 🙂

The second approach in checking out ‘The Crusade’ before the Season 2 Blu-ray box set came along was to enjoy the story via its aforementioned TV soundtrack audiobook. This was also available in ‘The Lost TV Episodes: Collection One’, which has been released on CD and download via Audible. 🙂

The TV soundtrack audiobook had all four episodes of the story with linking narration provided by William Russell and was released in 2005. Hearing the story on audio with William Russell narrating helps in allowing you to picture what the two missing episodes could be like if both survived today. 🙂

Now that the story is available on Blu-ray, I can enjoy the missing second and fourth episodes with William Russell’s narration from the TV soundtrack audiobook and the descriptive subtitles to help me along. It prevents me from missing what’s going on in the action when it’s all just static imagery.

When you select the ‘PLAY ALL’ option on ‘The Crusade’ Blu-ray disc, there are three options to choose from. There’s the ‘Play Existing Episodes Only’ option, the ‘Play Episodes with William Russell Links’ option (more on that in a bit) and the ‘Play Episodes with Telesnaps Reconstructions’ option. 🙂

One of the delights in checking out ‘The Crusade’ on the ‘Lost in Time’ 3-disc DVD set was when you selected the ‘PLAY ALL’ option on Disc 1. You get to see introductions and linking material by William Russell as Ian, who narrates the story to you and is set long after his travels with the Doctor are over.

It’s really nice to see that presented to us with William Russell in-character as Ian compared to say Nicholas Courtney as himself when he did the VHS introductions and linking material for ‘The Invasion’s missing episodes in 1993. Not that it’s bad, it’s just so nice to have it in-character instead.

Incidentally, apparently the introduction and linking material for ‘The Crusade’ starring William Russell as Ian were filmed in the living room of Ian Levine, who has made several contributions to ‘Doctor Who’ over the years, including directing the reconstruction episodes for ‘Planet of Giants’. 🙂

That was interesting to find out on my part, since I wasn’t sure whether that was filmed in William Russell’s house or not. Either way, it’s the kind of house interior I would expect Ian to have, particularly if he’s a school teacher. I assume he had married Barbara by the time he got the house. 🙂

An annoyance on my part when checking out ‘The Crusade’ Blu-ray disc is you don’t get to play the existing episodes with the William Russell links with the telesnap reconstructions. You must stop the ‘PLAY ALL’ option for the existing episodes with the William Russell links to get to the reconstructions. 😐

I know that doesn’t sound like a major thing to worry about, but I would have liked an option where I can play the surviving episodes and the reconstructions for the second and fourth episodes with the William Russell links all in one go. A pity the Blu-ray makers didn’t take into consideration either.

Anyway, as you might have gathered, ‘The Crusade’ is another historical story featuring the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki. Unlike ‘The Romans’ by Dennis Spooner where it’s very comedic, ‘The Crusade’ by David Whitaker is more on the serious side of things when it deals with history and such.

This, I’m fine with. If the story is strong enough and able to keep my interest concerning how characters are developed, I don’t mind if the story isn’t as comedic as ‘The Romans’. After all, I don’t think we’d want every ‘Doctor Who’ story to have many comedic overtones. There has to be variety.

In the story, the TARDIS lands in a woodland area somewhere in 12th century Palestine. Barbara is immediately captured by Saracens. Poor Barbara. She’s not long out of the TARDIS and she’s instantly captured. She doesn’t even get to meet Richard the Lionheart in this tale, which is a shame.

And yes, the Doctor, Ian and Vicki get to meet King Richard and his friends when they’re fighting the Saracens in the Holy Land. They ask for help to rescue Barbara and gradually they get it with Ian going off to rescue her. Can our four heroes avoid getting involved in history as the crusades persist?

It’s nice David Whitaker returned to write this ‘Doctor Who’ story, as he was the first script editor on the TV series before Dennis Spooner took over. I’ve found David Whitaker’s career fascinating after checking out the ‘Looking for David’ documentary with Toby Hadoke on ‘The Crusade’ Blu-ray disc. 🙂

With David Whitaker writing this ‘Doctor Who’ story, he’s able to get into the characters of the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki instantly after having put so much effort and development into them. He also manages to handle the characterisations of some of the guest characters so well in this tale.

The director of ‘The Crusade’ happens to be Douglas Camfield and it’s his second contribution to the TV series. His first contribution was when he co-directed ‘Planet of Giants’ with Mervyn Pinfield. Albeit he did the original fourth episode till the third and fourth episodes were compressed into one.

This is where Douglas Camfield gets to show his potential and prove his worth in being a ‘Doctor Who’ director. Although ‘The Crusade’ isn’t as action-packed compared to later stories like ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, ‘The Invasion’ and ‘The Seeds of Doom’, it’s a really good starting point for him.

I should also mention that apparently, he helped Waris Hussein with directing the film sequences for ‘An Unearthly Child’, the opening story of the classic TV series, but I don’t know if that’s something to get excited about. Maybe he was recognised for his directing capabilities doing that, I don’t know.

As well as this ‘Doctor Who’ story starring William Hartnell as the First Doctor, William Russell as Ian, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara and Maureen O’Brien as Vicki, there are special guest stars like Julian Glover as King Richard and Jean Marsh as Joanna. They’d provide more contributions to the series later on.

Whilst it’s sad that ‘The Crusade’ is an incomplete ‘Doctor Who’ story and only two episodes exist in the BBC Archives, I have found the story compelling and intriguing as an historical ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. Whether it’s regarded highly by most fans is another matter, but I still find it rather good.

I can appreciate and enjoy ‘The Crusade’ for what it was and what it’s trying to achieve in telling us a story about Richard the Lionheart and his crusades in the Holy Land in the 12th century. The historical stories from the 1960s were very popular, especially as they provide the educational value.

It’s something I don’t think is appreciated a lot nowadays when doing historical ‘Doctor Who’ stories. Very often, the historical adventures have to have an alien influence in them, making them pseudo-historicals instead of pure historicals. I do wish a pure historical story can be made now and again. 🙂

Heck, I should give myself a challenge someday and write a ‘Doctor Who’ story where it’s set on Earth in the past and there aren’t any aliens involved apart from the Doctor and the TARDIS. Even if the story was set in the 1980s or 1990s, I should try and write a pure historical ‘Doctor Who’ story. 😐

What is often missed about the pure historical ‘Doctor Who’ stories is that they provide educational value in letting you know who certain people are in history. It was the original aim of the TV series to have that blend of educational historical stories and the slightly educational futuristic sci-fi stories. 🙂

Whilst sometimes the latest seasons in the new TV series can go for that in certain stories, it’s not with the same intensity as it was done in the original William Hartnell era. I think it’s a good idea to let audiences know who certain people are in Earth’s history and the achievements they’ve made. 🙂

Say what you will about the Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnall era of ‘Doctor Who’, at least they had stories that featured historical characters that you probably didn’t know about beforehand like Rosa Parks, Ada Lovelace, Noor Inayat Khan and Nikola Tesla. It’s been very eye-opening and enlightening.

‘The Crusade’ is a ‘Doctor Who’ story that gets to showcase a little of who Richard the Lionheart is. Whether it’s an accurate depiction of Richard the Lionheart is another matter, but at least the story gives you details on what he did in 12th century Palestine as well as his eventual historical outcome.

In some respects, this is one of the reasons why I wish this ‘Doctor Who’ story is complete with animation episodes to fill in the gaps rather than having to rely on the telesnap episodes, since the telesnap episodes can be distracting and jarring. They’re not as effective as the existing episodes are.

I really hope that someday the two missing episodes of ‘The Crusade’ will be found and recovered, as it would be great to see the story in its entirety to appreciate the historical educational value it’s trying to give. I know it’s been a while since the ‘Lost in Time’ DVD set got released, but I still hope. 🙂

Going back to Richard the Lionheart and his crusades in the Holy Land, it’s not a period of history that I’m very familiar with. I didn’t study it in school a lot. I may have heard it mentioned once or twice, but I didn’t get to study it in detail when I was in primary school as well as secondary school. 😦

I found it interesting when watching and hearing the story in finding out how Richard the Lionheart fared in his campaigns, and it’s gripping how the TARDIS regulars became involved. It’s not a ‘good triumphs over evil’ story here, but then history does not always turn out situations like that, does it?

We don’t see Richard the Lionheart overthrowing the Saracens. There’s not a big battle between the English and the Palestinians in the climax. The tale is focused on King Richard’s dilemma to cease the violence and bloodshed and not succeeding, and it focuses on our friends trying to rescue Barbara. 😐

‘The Crusade’ doesn’t provide the overall picture of Richard the Lionheart. That’s something you would probably need to check out in a book or on the Internet if you want a summary of King Richard or an in-depth analysis. ‘The Crusade’ sort-of provides a snapshot of Richard the Lionheart. 🙂

There are details given about King Richard’s endeavours in other stories like say ‘The Time Warrior’, ‘The King’s Demons’ and the Big Finish audio story ‘Castle of Fear’. There are references to Richard the Lionheart’s crusades in the 1973 Disney film ‘Robin Hood’, featuring anthropomorphic animals. 😀

William Hartnell is at his best as the First Doctor in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. I enjoyed the balance that Hartnell delivers in his performance as the Doctor, since he does the comedy and drama aspects of the character very well. It’s probably his most Doctorish that we’ve ever seen in the series so far.

The scene where the Doctor steals clothes from Reg Pritchard as Ben Daheer, a shopkeeper in Jaffa, is very funny to watch in the story’s first episode. It’s also funny when the Doctor managed to confuse Ben Daheer and the Chamberlain about who had stolen what in the story’s second episode.

I enjoyed how the Doctor interacted with King Richard in the story, especially when he knows what his future will be. Of course, the Doctor doesn’t reveal many details, as he tells King Richard that he will see Jerusalem, but later informs Vicki he would only see it from afar and be unable to capture it.

The Doctor becomes the king’s confidante when he hears of his plans to marry off his sister Joanna to Saphadin, the brother of Saladin, who is the leader of the Saracens. I enjoyed the Doctor’s scenes with Vicki and I liked it when he defied the Earl of Leicester on his war-making tactics in the crusade.

William Russell is equally very good as Ian in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. As ever, he gets to be the action hero, especially in the story’s first episode. I liked it when Ian fought a Saracen warrior in the woodland area where the TARDIS had landed. The music by Dudley Simpson adds to the excitement.

I also liked it when he asked King Richard to have him sent as an escort on his behalf in order to rescue Barbara as well as John Flint as William des Preaux. It became tense when King Richard initially refused Ian’s request in the first episode, but thankfully, he’s allowed to go and find Barbara.

He also gets to be knighted by Richard the Lionheart. Ian is knighted Sir Ian of Jaffa, which, at this point, is a great moment for his character and it gets to demonstrate his heroism. I wish we could see that scene if the second episode ever gets recovered, since I’m sure it would be worth-watching.

Unfortunately for Ian, he finds himself out in the desert and is attacked by bandits who want to steal his ‘gold’. They’re tense scenes, especially when checking out the story on Blu-ray in the telesnap version of the fourth episode. Thankfully, Ian braves on so he can save Barbara from the Saracens. 🙂

Jacqueline Hill is equally very good as Barbara Wright in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. Like I said, unfortunately, Barbara has a bad time in this adventure. She’s immediately captured and in the custody of the Saracens, and soon meets William des Preaux, who passes himself off as King Richard.

She helps out with his pretence by playing the part of Joanna, King Richard’s sister. Their pretence manages to fool Walter Randall as the evil El Akir. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the same effect on Saladin and Saphadin, the leaders of the Saracens, which causes Barbara to earn the wrath of El Akir.

In the story’s second episode, Barbara is kidnapped again when tricked by Gábor Baraker as Luigi Ferrigo, a merchant who has El Akir’s favour. She’s in the custody of El Akir and his men, but she soon escapes and is on the run in the streets of the city of Lydda, which leads into the third episode.

Barbara is soon helped by those who hate El Akir, including George Little as Haroun ed-Din and his daughter. I enjoyed it in the story’s fourth episode when Barbara defied El Akir in his palace, since she has contempt and disgust for him. It goes to show how strong-willed and determined Barbara is.

Maureen O’Brien is pretty good as Vicki in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. She’s quite annoyed when she has to be a page boy and act as the Doctor’s ward when she’s with him and Ian in King Richard’s palace. She calls herself ‘Victor’ instead of ‘Vicki’ when having to play the part of a boy. 😀

I liked that moment when Vicki scoffs the Doctor when he declares his ‘almost’ wish to be knighted and she says “That’ll be the day.” This is after Ian’s been knighted by King Richard himself. Oh, Vicki. Little do you know that the Doctor would soon be knighted as the Tenth Doctor in ‘Tooth and Claw’.

Although, to be fair, when Queen Victoria knighted the Tenth Doctor and Rose at the end of ‘Tooth and Claw’, she very soon banished them, leading to the introduction of the Torchwood Institute. It’s still quite ironic that Vicki would say “That’ll be the day” before the Doctor’s knighthood did happen.

Vicki’s pretence as a page boy is soon discovered when Princess Joanna enters and overhears the Doctor and Vicki’s conversation about it in the story’s third episode. I liked it when Vicki begged Joanna not to be angry with him and the Doctor for deceiving everyone about her being a page boy.

I also liked it in the story’s fourth episode where Vicki defied the Earl of Leicester when he interrogated about the deception, following Joanna finding out about King Richard’s plan to marry her to Saphadin. Vicki is also quick to accuse the Earl of Leicester for revealing the plans to Joanna. 🙂

Speaking of knighthoods, whilst it’s nice that Ian got knighted by King Richard in the story, it’s only because he needed a title in order to win favour with Saladin and Saphadin when acquiring Barbara from them. This is before Ian found out that Barbara has been tricked and was captured by El Akir. 🙂

Incidentally, William Russell isn’t in the story’s third episode much, as he was in a pre-recorded segment. At the time of recording the story’s third episode, he was away on holiday. He only took one week’s holiday for this story compared to two weeks’ holiday whilst doing ‘The Reign of Terror’.

Julian Glover guest stars as Richard the Lionheart in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. This is Julian’s first contribution to the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, as he would go on and be well-known for playing Count Scarlioni/Scaroth in ‘City of Death’ with Tom Baker. I’m amazed to find him in this ‘Doctor Who’ story.

It’s also nice to find him playing a good guy compared to playing a bad guy in ‘City of Death’. Julian Glover has also appeared in many films over the years, including the ‘Star Wars’ film ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, the James Bond-007 film ‘For Your Eyes Only’ and ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’.

I enjoyed Julian Glover’s performance as King Richard in ‘The Crusade’. For me, he delivers a very convincing performance of a man torn to cease the bloodshed in his crusades in the Holy War in 12th century Palestine. I don’t know if it’s an historically accurate depiction, but Julian sells it for me.

It’s no surprise that Julian Glover went on to play Richard the Lionheart again in the 1982 TV film called ‘Ivanhoe’, which would be directed by Douglas Camfield – the same director for ‘The Crusade’. Clearly, Douglas Camfield regarded Julian Glover highly when playing King Richard in ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂

Jean Marsh guest stars as Joanna, King Richard’s sister in ‘The Crusade’. Like Julian Glover, this is Jean Marsh’s first contribution to ‘Doctor Who’, as one year later, she would later play the one-off companion Sara Kingdom in the 12-part epic story ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ with William Hartnell. 🙂

Whether Joanna and Sara Kingdom are related at all is a matter for debate, I’m sure. 😀 Jean Marsh would also play Morgaine in the 1989 story ‘Battlefield’ with Sylvester McCoy. Big Finish have also had Jean Marsh reprise Sara Kingdom in the Big Finish audio stories of ‘Doctor Who’, which is terrific.

I enjoyed Jean’s performance as Joanna and seeing how she interacted with her brother King Richard as well as with the Doctor and Vicki. Sadly, Joanna appears only in the second and third episodes of this ‘Doctor Who’ TV story. As it turns out, Joanna has caught the eye of Saphadin, Saladin’s brother.

When Joanna hears of King Richard’s plans to have married off to Saphadin, she’s understandably furious and refuses to go through with it. I like how it’s played between Jean Marsh and Julian Glover, especially when Joanna points out to Richard why he ‘cannot’ command her to do this thing.

The story’s guest cast also includes Bernard Kay as Saladin and Roger Avon as Saphadin, Saladin’s brother. And this is probably why ‘The Crusade’ would be frowned on nowadays, since the casting of the Palestinians is debatable. I’m not putting anyone to blame here. It’s just awkward in hindsight. 😐

You see, Bernard Kay and Roger Avon are white actors playing Palestinians. Bernard Kay previously played Tyler in ‘The Daleks Invasion of Earth’, who was clearly white, and Roger Avon would go on to play Daxtar in ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ and Wells in the 1966 film ‘Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.’.

It’s clear that actors like Bernard Kay and Roger Avon who are playing 12th century Palestinians are made up to look like them with their skin darkened and such. I don’t think that would be acceptable nowadays, especially as we have Palestinian actors playing Palestinian characters on TV and on film.

With that said, I’m glad that ‘The Crusade’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ story doesn’t depict Saladin and Saphadin as all-out bad guys, as some might expect Saracens to be. Saladin and Saphadin are well-rounded characters and reasonable, especially in their treatment of Barbara and William des Preaux.

Walter Randall as El Akir on the other hand is completely villainous throughout this ‘Doctor Who’ story, especially when he has Barbara captured and re-captured. This isn’t Walter Randall’s first time in ‘Doctor Who’ either, since he played Tonila in ‘The Aztecs’, shown in the TV show’s first season. 🙂

And if El Akir’s scarred left-eye isn’t enough to convince you that he’s a villain in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, I don’t know what else will. 😐 I’m not exactly sure why El Akir is totally villainous in this story, especially when his hatred of Barbara, due to her embarrassing him in front of Saladin, seems petty. 😦

Maybe it’s explored in David Whitaker’s novelization of the story called ‘Doctor Who and the Crusaders’? Now, I’m not saying all of this to discredit Walter Randall playing a villain in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. On the contrary, he’s very good and I like how he torments Barbara quite viciously here.

But somehow, I wonder whether it would have been good to showcase more of El Akir’s villainy once we go to his place in Lydda, especially since he happens to have many wives and maybe concubines in his abode. Then again, this is a family-friendly TV show, so perhaps it isn’t appropriate.

John Bay as the Earl of Leicester is another character I’m not really entirely satisfied by, despite the actor giving a good performance. I mean, he’s only in the third and fourth episodes of this story, and he quickly becomes unlikeable when he objects to the King’s agenda to marry Joanna to Saphadin. 😐

I wish more was explored in terms of his war-hungry motivations and why he decided to tell Joanna about the King’s plan whilst the Doctor was told about the plan in the strictest confidence. It’s also a shame that the Doctor and Vicki are at loggerheads with the Earl once having their scenes with him.

It’s also not helped when by the story’s end, the Earl of Leicester has the Doctor and Vicki followed back to the TARDIS and he attempts to capture the Doctor before Ian steps in and helps the time traveller to escape. I mean, the Earl is quite a one-dimensional character in that regard seeing this. 😐

Again, I’m not saying these things to discredit the story’s writing and how the actors play their characters. It’s just, even for a four-part pure historical story by David Whitaker and it featuring good performances by the actors as their characters, we don’t get to explore a lot with certain characters.

The rest of the story’s guest cast are very good. There’s David Anderson as Reynier de Marun, Bruce Wightman as William de Tornebu, Tony Caunter as Thatcher, Robert Lankesheer as the Chamberlain, There’s Petra Markham as Safiya, Sandra Hampton as Maimuna and there’s Viviane Sorrél as Fatima.

There’s also Zohra Segal as Sheyrah, Diana McKenzie as Hafsa and Tutte Lemkow as Ibrahim. Some of these characters appear in only one episode of the story. Some of them aren’t even in the live-action episodes, which is a shame since you don’t get to appreciate them in the telesnap episodes. 😦

The story concludes with the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki managing to escape in the TARDIS having fled from the Earl of Leicester and his men in the woodland area. They’ve barely travelled long once a power failure occurs in the TARDIS and our four heroes soon freeze with the console still oscillating… 😮

The original DVD special features were as follows. On Disc 1 of the ‘Lost in Time’ 3-disc DVD set, there were the introductions and linking material for ‘The Crusade’s missing episodes provided by William Russell as Ian, which you could see via the ‘PLAY ALL’ option on the DVD’s main menu. There was an Easter Egg to look out for on Disc 1 of the ‘Lost in Time’ 3-disc DVD set for ‘The Crusade’, which was a studio clock for the story’s third episode. There was a dual mono sound audio mix option of the story’s surviving first and third episodes to enjoy and an audio commentary on the story’s third episode with Julian Glover, moderated by Gary Russell.

On the original TV soundtrack audiobook of ‘The Crusade’, there was am audio interview with William Russell, conducted by Michael Stevens, who relives his memories of making the ‘Doctor Who’ story. I enjoyed the interview with William Russell, especially when he talked about working on the classic TV series itself as well as on ‘The Crusade’.

On Disc 6 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 2’ Blu-ray, the William Russell as Ian introductions and linking material for ‘The Crusade’s missing episodes, the studio clock for the story’s third episode and the DVD audio commentary on the story’s third episode can be found on there. The dual mono sound audio mix option has been updated on the story’s surviving first and third episodes and the telesnap reconstruction versions of the story’s second and fourth episodes for 2022 on the Blu-ray.

The new special features on Blu-ray include the telesnap reconstruction versions of the story’s second and fourth episodes, an introduction on the story’s third episode by Sylvester McCoy from ‘The Hartnell Years’ VHS release, the ‘Looking For David’ documentary about writer/script editor David Whitaker with Toby Hadoke, ‘The Panopticon Archive’ panel interview with Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara), Adrienne Hill (Katarina) and Michael Craze (Ben) from 1985, a photo gallery of the story, a telesnaps gallery for the story’s second and fourth episodes and a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Space Museum’ and ‘The Chase’, starring William Hartnell as the First Doctor, William Russell as Ian, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara and Maureen O’Brien as Vicki (taken from ‘The Masque of Mandragora’ DVD). There’s also a brand-new Blu-ray audio commentary for the story’s first episode with fans Paul Scoones, Neil Lambess, Bruce Grenville and Steve Roberts, moderated by Toby Hadoke. There’s the episode narration option from the original TV soundtrack audiobook of ‘The Crusade’ by William Russell, provided on the story’s second and fourth episodes. There’s an info-text commentary option to enjoy and a descriptive subtitles option on the story’s second and fourth episodes. Sadly, there isn’t a ‘Behind the Sofa’ item included for ‘The Crusade’ on Blu-ray, which is a shame, as I would have liked to have seen and enjoyed the reactions of Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves and Carole Ann Ford; Janet Fielding, Wendy Padbury and Sarah Sutton; and Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred to this story.

On the PDF front, there are production documents, four camera scripts, photographer John Cura’s telesnaps and a ‘Radio Times Listings’ of ‘The Crusade’. You need a special Blu-ray computer drive for that.

‘The Crusade’ is an enjoyable and fascinating pure historical ‘Doctor Who’ adventure with the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki. I enjoyed the performances of all of the cast in the episodes (both surviving and telesnaps) and Julian Glover and Jean Marsh are great guest stars featured in this story.

Despite the misgivings I have about ‘The Crusade’ being presented in the Season 2 Blu-ray box set, it was nice to check out, and I look forward to the day when perhaps animation versions of the missing episodes are provided. I also hope the actual missing episodes of this story will be found someday. 🙂

‘The Crusade’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the First Doctor was ‘Prisoners of Time’ (Comic) For Ian was ‘White Man’s Burden’ (ST) ‘Distance’ (ST) For Barbara was ‘White Man’s Burden’ (ST) For Vicki was ‘Prisoners of Time’ (Comic)	The next story For the First Doctor is ‘The Space Museum’ (TV) For Ian is ‘The Space Museum’ (TV) ‘Transit of Venus’ (Audio) For Barbara is ‘The Space Museum’ (TV) For Vicki is ‘The Space Museum’ (TV)
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