User Reviews

Review for all 4 parts:

The Crusade is a four part pure historical adventure starting with The Lion. It is set in 12th Century Palestine, involving King Richard I ('The Lionheart) on crusade and would stand alongside any top BBC period drama. It is pure class with a super cast including Julian Glover (later of Bond villain and Game of Thrones fame) and Jean Marsh that would grace any Shakespearean stage production. The writer David Whitaker is one of Doctor Who's very best and here the script is beautifully written, intelligent and poetic. The director Douglas Camfield is also one of the series best and he is on top form here as are the regular cast.

The story reaches a peak at Episode 3 which must be one of the finest episodes of the first Doctor's era. The other episodes are also top drawer historical drama with exceptional scripts. Perhaps the second and fourth episodes (which you can hear but now only see reconstructions with still photographs as the videos were stupidly wiped) are not quite as strong plot-wise but maintain top standards in every other respect. One or both of those may be a touch below the undoubted full 10/10 level of episodes 1 and 3 but are still 9.5/10 minimum in my ratings.

Sheer class and an unmissable story.

Barbara is now in the hands of El Akir, and is in serious danger, the only help possible must come from The Doctor, Ian and Vicki.

It's been a very fine watch, such a shame that half of it is missing, although at the time of writing this, there was a terrific reconstruction on a well known site.

I would suggest this is the best of the four episodes, it is so rich in content, it is so well written, there's a great scene where The Doctor, using his future knowledge, tells Vicky of what's in store for the Army.

I have been so impressed by the acting on this serial, the show never suffered from poor acting during this time, but some shows of the time weren't quite so professional, Glover is incredible here.

There's a really nasty scene where Ibrahim smears Ian with honey, right by an ants nest, that's pretty bleak.

As I mentioned on Part 2, it seems very unlikely that this will be animated, if it will be, I'm sure it will be very low down the list.

This really was excellent, 9/10.

Next up, pure science fiction in The Space Museum.