Written by David Whitaker | Directed by Douglas Camfield | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 04/10/65
Perhaps it's because footage actually exists of this serial, but I find The Crusade to deliver on the intrigue that Marco Polo promised. That it's a four-parter helps due to the faster pace, but I find the characters here more interesting and the stakes more dangerous. I found (the character) Marco Polo's actions and decisions somewhat random and dumb, but Saphadin is a much more rounded character. His motivations are clear, and he doesn't necessarily seem evil - and getting a Muslim character who is intelligent and not outright evil (and played very well by the actor), especially in the 1960s, is something rare and good (even if said actor is a white guy).
The other side's leaders, Richard and Joanna, are well-played and written as well. Joanna absolutely freaks out at Richard at the end of this episode (understandably), because she doesn't want to be married off to Saladin to end a war. The Doctor sympathizes with Richard, though, and doesn't warn Joanna of his plan - she finds out, anyway, though, from someone else, and the Doctor is blamed for it. After seeing how angry the King was with Joanna, it looks like our hero is in some trouble for tomorrow's episode...
Before that, though, the Doctor gets into a wonderful argument with the Earl of Leicester about using diplomacy, but the Earl asserts that after everyone's had a good chinwag, the soldiers have to go give their lives anyway to sort it all out. It seems the Doctor's stance on this doesn't change much in 2000 years - he gives a very similar, if more impassioned and desperate, speech in "The Zygon Inversion" in his twelfth incarnation. I don't entirely agree with him - if you'd like to read a very well-argued counterpoint to the Doctor, Jack Graham wrote a wonderful essay about why the politics and the Doctor's arguments in that story don't work here - though the scenes in this episode and "Zygon Inversion" are different in some respects, I think it all fits.
Vicki is still used strangely here. Her actual gender is
revealed to everyone, and they all sort of shrug and say "okay" and
that's that. She is amazing in the next serial, though, and I'm looking forward to the production team giving her something interesting to do (I really do love Vicki, and she's not quite as poorly used as Susan, but the production team sure has a problem with this type of companion so far, don't they?).
Barbara has some pretty good scenes, trying to hide from El Akir. Haroun saves her from El Akir's guards, and hides her in his house. He goes out to see if he can find a route for her to escape, but leaves his knife with her, telling her if the guards find them, to kill his daughter and herself to avoid the terrible things El Akir will do to them. This after he explains how El Akir coveted Haroun's other daughter, badly enough that when he was out, El Akir killed his wife and son and took the daughter, so Haroun has sworn revenge. Barbara doesn't end up having to use the knife, but it's a pretty dark moment when she considers it in the little closet she and Haroun's daughter are hiding in.
Isn't this better than Tegana just being an obvious traitor to Kublai Khan? It's all a lot more interesting than learning about condensation, that's for sure...
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Warlords"
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