Doctor Who/The Crusade

The Crusade
014
Airdate	March 27, 1965
Production Number	P
Written by	David Whitaker
Directed by	Douglas Camfield
← 013 The Web Planet	015 → The Space Museum
Doctor Who — Season Two

The Crusade is the sixth serial of the second season of Doctor Who, and the fourteenth serial overall.

Guest Stars: Derek Ware (Saracen Warrior), Julian Glover (Richard the Lionheart), Walter Randall (El Akir), Reg Pritchard (Ben Daheer), Bernard Kay (Saladin), Roger Avon (Saphadin), Jean Marsh (Joanna), Gabor Bareker (Luigi Ferrigo), John Bay (Earl of Leicester), George Little (Haroun), Petra Markham (Safiya), Sandra Hampton (Maimuma), Tutte Lemkow (Ibrahim), Tony Caunter (Thatcher)

Plot Overview

The Lion

The TARDIS appears in the middle of a densely wooded area in 12th-century Palestine. A battle rages nearby. King Richard's men have been waylaid by a group of Saladin's men. Barbara is taken prisoner as is Sir William, who poses as King Richard so that the king can escape. At Sir William's suggestion Barbara poses as King Richard's sister, Joanna. But when they arrive at Saladin's palace, he sees through the pretense. Despite the ruse, Saladin insists that the prisoners be treated fairly.

To defend himself and the others, Ian picks up a sword and fights one of Saladin's men, defeating him. Ian, Vicki and the Doctor go to the neaby city of Jaffa, where they stay at the palace of King Richard. Ian asks the king for help finding Barbara. He refuses, but does eventually designate Ian as his emmisary on an errand to Saladin.

The Knight of Jaffa

King Richard takes the Doctor's advice and composes a letter to Saladin. In the letter he proposes the marriage of his sister Joanna. Before he allows Ian to leave on his errand though, he knights him "Sir Ian of Jaffa".

Luigi, a disreputable merchant, kidnaps Barbara and brings her to El Akir. Later Luigi is summoned before Saladin and caught in a lie. He confesses to kidnapping Barbara. When Ian arrives, he hears the news from Sir William that Barbara has been kidnapped and is being held in El Akir's palace in Lydda. Meanwhile, unknown to either of them, Barbara has been able to escape and now wanders the dark streets of Lydda alone.

The Wheel of Fortune

Barbara is caught by two guards, but a stanger, Haroun, kills the guards and helps her escape. He hides her at his house in the bad section of town. He has sworn to kill El Akir for taking his eldest daughter for his harem and killing his wife and other daughter. He leaves Barbara with his surviving daughter, Safiya, while he goes out.

While he is out, he is knocked out by a guard. El Akir recognises him and shifts his search for Barbara to the part of the city where Haroun lives. When searchers reach the house, Barbara and Safiya hide in a secret room. Barbara gives herself up only after overhearing the guard's plans to burn down the house in order to smoke them out. Safiya is left hiding, alone in the secret room.

Joanna discovers that Vicki, who has been posing as a boy, is actually a girl. She sends for fine cloth to have dresses made. Vicki is dressed as a woman at court should be.

Joanna is livid when she hears of the King's plans to marry her to Saladin. She confronts her brother, the King, vowing never to marry the man. She also points out that the Pope would not sanction her marriage outside of the church. Believing that it was the Doctor and Vicki who told Joanna of his secret plans, he orders them to leave.

The Warlords

While sleeping, Ian is robbed and knocked unconscious. He awakens to find that he has been staked to the ground by a thief with a devious plan. The thief, Ibrahim, has poured honey water on Ian and left a trail from a nearby ant hill in an attempt to get Ian to tell him where he has hidden his gold.

When the ants reach Ian's hand, he tells Ibrahim that the gold is hidden is his boot. The thief cuts loose his right boot, but finds nothing. Ian elaborates: the gold is in his left boot. When Ibrahim cuts the other boot free, Ian is able to kick him away and free his hands. He then overpowers the thief and forces him to take him into the city.

Having been brought back before El Akir, Barbara swats at a bag of gold that had been intended as payment for the men who brought her back. Coins fly everywhere, and the greedy thugs stoop to scoop up as much as they can. She uses the distraction to flee into the harem room, where the other women hide her.

Just as Barbara and the other women are about to escape, they find that Fatima (a harem girl) has betrayed them, and brought El Akir to the harem room. Just as El Akir is about to take vengeance on Barbara, Haroun bursts in and kills him.

Having made an enemy of the Earl of Leicester, the Doctor and the others must sneak past English soldiers under his command to get to the TARDIS.

Trivia

The Show

• The Doctor and Vicki steal clothes from a merchant.

Allusions and References

• While a prisoner of El Akir, Barbara makes references to Hans Christian Andersen and Shakespeare. These references also appeared in story 012 - The Romans.

Quotes

After Ian saves the Doctor from the Earl of Leicester and they are safely back aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor says to Ian, "I must say, I think you've earned a good knight's sleep."

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