Doctor Who Rewind - The Crusade

For a person who advocates avoiding getting caught up in historic events, the first Doctor isn't doing too well.

In this partly missing four part story (the first and third episodes have been released on the excellent Lost In Time DVD set and the second and final episodes are missing but have been reconstructed with telesnaps, and can be found on youtube) the TARDIS lands in the time of the third crusade, in 12th century Palestine.

The Third Crusade (1189–1192), also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin. It was largely successful, capturing Acre, Jaffa, and reversing most of Saladin's conquests, but failed to capture Jerusalem, which was the emotional and spiritual fixation of the Crusade.

Emerging from the TARDIS the crew find themselves in the middle of an ambush staged by the Saracen. Poor Barbara is manhandled away by a Saracen, while the rest of the crew stop the attack and rescue an associate of King Richard, William De Tornebu, who they take back to the King.

And so begins another historical story, this time it's the crusades and thanks to a dynamic start we get to see the action from both the Christian and Muslim side of the story.

I have to say that if your into beards, you'll love this story. There are plenty of well groomed chins and cheeks on display here to satisfy any pogonophile.


I could have done without the need of watching the reconstructed lost episodes that I found on youtube for, as I found they just made the flow of the story break up, but they did serve a purpose of filling the gaps quite well.

If you thought William Hartnell wasn't an action Doctor, think again because in episode one he and William Russell get to have some pretty hairy sword fights in order to escape the Saracen men.

Ian and Barbara seem to get more screen time than the Doctor in this story. After Ian gets knighted and becomes Sir Ian of Jaffa (in order for him to be an official emissary of the King) he goes off to try and secure Barbara's release from Saladin.

Barbara is having a rough old time of it. After being taken by El Akir and presented to Saladin's brother and then Saladin himself, who is intrigued by her stories of meeting emperor Nero. She is later kidnapped by El Akir and taken off to his gaff where he intends to give her more than a bit of a slap and tickle. She then escapes from his advances and is taken in by Haroun ed-Din, who wants revenge on El Akir for taking his wife and daughter. When Haroun leaves to find Alkir he is knocked out by soldiers who find Barbara and take her back to Akir, who taunts her with death. Much to her credit feisty Barbara escapes and takes up with the Emir's harem, where she is hidden by one of the girls.

Meanwhile Ian isn't having a good time either, on route to save Barbara, is captured by bandits, one of which ties him down on the scorching sand and pours honey over him, so that the ants can have a little nibble. Fortunately before the said ants can reach his gonads he overpowers the bandit and escapes.

As you can gather the plot of this story certainly doesn't stop for air. Blink and you'll miss something substantial. Also, Hartnell seems a bit superfluous here, he just seems to bumble around a bit and not really do much. It's Barbara and Ian who really have the thing by the reign and carry it thing to the end.

It's only at the final scenes end that the Doctor has something to do, when making a break for the TARDIS he is seen by the Earl of Leicester who thinks he's a spy for Saladin, and sentences him to death. Just in time though, Ian saves the day by turning up as "Sir Ian" and tells the Earl what for, and that the Doctor is his prisoner, whom he then takes safely back to the TARDIS.

The story ends with the crew laughing at their cunningness at escaping death yet again.

When I was watching the last episode as a reconstruction off youtube late one night in the week, I was surprised at how sudden the story is brought to a conclusion. In fact I thought I'd fell asleep and missed something. It just seems that suddenly in the middle of things, the crew are whisked back to the TARDIS and are getting ready for their next brush with the unknown.

But maybe, that's just the nature of time travel?

Next time on Doctor Who Rewind the crew bump into their future selves on planet Xeros, as exhibits in a museum!