The Crusade by David Whitaker
27 March - 17 April 1965
I have to say, going The Romans-The Web Planet-The Crusade poses an interesting case of whiplash. Historical-Vortis-historical is the sort of seat-of-your-pants transition that you just don’t get every day, even if this simplification does disguise the fact that this story and The Romans are very different sorts of historical. The Romans relished in the tropes and trappings of TV drama about its period of choice for humorous effect, where The Crusade attempts instead to fashion a semi-serious, cod-Shakespeare drama using its own armoire of set pieces and stereotypes. Many of the things which The Crusade does are hard to fault, particularly its coup casting of Julian Glover, who probably isn’t a splinter of Scaroth, and is in fact an actor of some repute as I understand it. There’s something a little funny about an acclaimed Shakespearean player turning up to this ropey science fiction serial and putting in such a damned good effort. At least today, we know that Doctor Who is a cultural institution, which is liable to draw actors of this caliber in through its shear force of gravity, though in 1965 I believe the concrete on that particular foundation hasn’t hardened just yet.
Talking of Glover, his scenes here, particularly those with Jean Marsh (on whom more next season), are the highlights of the serial. No matter the material he’s given (which, to be fair, is mostly very good), he elevates it by far, playing it with seriousness and dignity that forces one to take it all more seriously, too. Not that the regulars slouch their way through this one, naturally. As usual, they’re all pretty brilliant. The Doctor relishes the chance to be a tourist in history, and Hartnell seems to be delighted to be in the same shot as Glover every time it comes around. Our dearest Chatterton becoming “Sir Ian of Jaffa” is a wonderful beat of the sort that you’d expect given the sort of television show that the TARDIS crew has landed in this week. His voyage across Palestine to find Barbara keeps the middle portions of this serial trundling onward at a nice pace. He even gets another contemporary man for a sidekick this time, and um… oh dear. Ibrahim isn’t exactly the most tasteful of characters, his taste for honey notwithstanding (and what IS it with ants this season?) There’s a lot to say about how this serial measures up in terms of actually involving actors of color while caricatures like this one still find their way in. But frankly, it’s been done to death, and I spot better opportunities for this particular grindstone to turn on the horizon, so I’d rather talk about something else. Namely Vicki.
I actually intended to give a good word to Vicki in the last serial, particularly where her chat with Barbara in the TARDIS in the first episode of The Web Planet was concerned. I noticed a rather interesting pattern developing in the way Vicki is being employed in Season Two. Although she has had a few good scenes with Barbara and Ian since she joined the team, she’s far and away spent most of her time at the Doctor’s side. It’s easy to imagine this as a consequence of her replacement of Susan, who, after all, was a character with an indelible link to the Doctor, but I think this idea disguises the fact that bar a handful of serials - An Unearthly Child, The Sensorites, Planet of Giants, and The Dalek Invasion of Earth - Susan usually isn’t paired up with the Doctor to the exclusion of Barbara, Ian, or the guest cast. Conspicuously, though, these last three serials have had Vicki spend all or most of her time alongside the Doctor. What’s the deal here? Is it as simple as the fact that Maureen O’Brien and William Hartnell have fantastic onscreen chemistry? Well… yes, that’s probably it. But I have a more interesting theory.
Because no matter the indelible link between the Doctor and Susan, Susan always seems a little more comfortable alongside Ian and Barbara. When she’s on-screen with her grandfather, it’s typically either to generate tension between her desire to live as she will and the Doctor’s paternalistic concern for her, or to act as a mediator between him and the schoolteachers on board. Vicki, though, has a fundamental disconnect toward Barbara and Ian, and a certain affinity toward the Doctor that isn’t just assumed by nature of relation. Barbara and Ian were Susan’s teachers, and even if she was mysterious to them before the start of the show, her six months on Earth still gave her some sort of tie to them. This tie made Susan feel, fundamentally, like a 60s English teenager. Whereas Vicki is just, well… more unearthly.
To expand further, I think Vicki isn’t quite just tailing after the Doctor like Susan would. To my eye, it seems like Vicki is learning from the Doctor, assisting him like Susan would, yes, but crucially expanding her knowledge of the universe as she goes, becoming a little more of a transgressive and active force of change, like the Doctor is. Here I see the prototype for Ace and Clara and Bill, a companion who isn’t just there to ask questions, but to grow through asking those questions and become a greater force of narrative change in the process. A magician’s apprentice, if you will. Her tabard and cap that she dons upon arriving in the king’s court are illustrative toward this too, I think. After all, a page is a knight in training.
But enough of the hogwash. What says my co-marathoner?
Sera’s Say:
The overall verdict was “pretty good”, so sorry to spoil the suspense. Vicki still has yet to really move Sera, who confesses that she still probably prefers Susan at this point to the plucky page of this outfit. Regardless, she still thought The Crusade was good enough, even though the poor quality of the reconstructions dragged it down a little for her, which is fair since it did the same for me. She was particularly unimpressed by the character of Ibrahim, but was chuffed to pieces about the shouting match with Joanna and Richard. I made sure to tease her about keeping an eye out for Joanna’s actress in the future, and since she has at least seen City of Death, I was able to annoy her with cracks about Scaroth throughout.
Assuming my stupid jokes don’t drive her off first, Sera will join me in appraising The Space Museum next. What could possibly go wrong?
Memorable Dialogue:
“There's something new in you, yet something older than the sky itself.”
“The only pleasure left for you is death. And death is very far away.”
Miserable Dialogue:
Oh dear, all this section’s content seems to have been stolen by the next story...
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 16 August 2018.)
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