Day 33 — February 2nd 2021
The Lion and The Knight of Jaffa
The Lion (The Crusade — Episode One)
I started off today’s episode by watching William Russell’s in-character introduction to the story from the VHS release. There’s something oddly heartwarming about it, and they feel as much a part of The Crusade to me as any of the actual episodes — they’ve always been bundled with it as long as I’ve been a Who fan! Part of me really likes the idea that an Elderly Ian occasionally tells the tales of his adventures to carefully chosen people.
Anyway, the episode itself! Oh God it’s so good to be back on Earth, with real characters and real drama. In some ways, it feels like this episode is trying to make up for how boring the previous six have been, because it hits the ground running, with action pretty much from the off. I’m not sure we’ve ever had the TARDIS crew caught up in the adventure so quickly before! There’s no exploration, no stumbling into a mystery… they step out of the TARDIS and within a minute Barbara has been kidnapped and Ian’s involved in a sword fight!
The fight is pretty full-on, too. There’s a moment where a character picks up a sword, throws it, and we see it impale another character in the chest! I’m guessing that’s a moment that would have been cut by the Australian censors! Funnily enough, this episode turned up in New Zealand just over 20 years ago, but ironically it was never shown on television there because — supposedly — it hand’t managed to achieve the family-friendly ‘G’ rating that all their televised Who stories had. And you can see why!
I also want to take a moment to single out the arrival of the TARDIS here as one of the very best materialisations we’ve had to far. It was pre filmed which gave them greater control that usual, and it means we get a great shot where an extra walks through the woodland, and then the TARDIS appears behind him. That shot alone has more visual interest than the entirety of The Web Planet.
In many ways, this feels like a Season One story. We’re in a period of history I don’t know massively well, and history is being dealt with in a very reverent way — this is definitely not being played as a comedy like The Romans. I’m enjoying that, though. I like The Romans for what it was, but I wouldn’t want every story to be in that style. And I didn’t think we’d be seeing another story in the same vein as Marco Polo again.
Once of the nice things about being back in history is that all the characters feel so much more real, and their dialogue is beautiful. There’s no hand-wringing about Zarbi and the Animus here, and it carries more weight. Even more beautiful is the way that it’s written almost like Shakespeare. Take Richard’s speech from the end of the episode;
‘Once again, I am in your debt. But I’d give this for de Marun and the others. My friends cut down about my ears or stolen. My armies roust about the streets and clutter up the streets of Jaffa with the garbage of their vices. And now I learn my brother John thirsts after power, drinking great draughts of it though it’s not his to take. He’s planning to usurp my crown, and trade with my enemy, Philip of France. Trade! A tragedy of fortunes and I am too much beset by them. A curse on this! A thousand curses!’
How gorgeous is that? You could honestly believe that it’s been lifted from one of Shakespeare’s plays (and, indeed, another speech in this story will be). At school I was never much one for Shakespeare, but in the last few years I’ve found myself learning to enjoy, and even picking up some of his plays to read for my own pleasure, rather than because I have to. So it’s nice to find something in this story that I don’t think I would have appreciated before.
But the beautiful dialogue isn’t just confined to the historical characters. Barbara gets a lovely description of her adventures (I’ve melded three sections together here, to form the whole speech);
‘I’m a traveller. I came with three friends. We arrived in the wood in a box. I could say that I’m from another world, a world ruled by insects. And before that we were in Rome at the time of Nero. Before that we were in England, far, far into the future.’
I love that, and it feels so good to be enjoying the series again.
8/10
The Knight of Jaffa (The Crusade — Episode Two)
Something I really enjoyed about The Lion is that the print returned to the BBC is a bit damaged. Now I watched the episode as available on BritBox, and I can’t remember if the Lost in Time version is any more restored than this, but there’s something oddly appealing about it looking very old. We’re so lucky that Doctor Who has the attention lavished on it by the Restoration Team, and it’s a lot more than almost any other programme receives, but sometimes it’s nice to remember that these episodes are 55 years old.
I’m less keen on the condition of the soundtrack for today’s episode — I’m guessing it’s one for which there wasn’t a ‘perfect’ source, as it’s very echoey and hissy, and I know that will be after they’ve already done a lot of clean up and restoration to the sound. I know some better quality soundtracks turned up for a number of stories a couple of years ago, so wonder if The Crusade might have been among them? I’m just saying, BBC, that I’d happily buy another copy if a better quality version may be possible now.
It hasn’t really spoilt my enjoyment of the episode, though, and once again I’ve gone through the Doctor Who Magazine tele-snap special while listening along. It’s perhaps telling that the direction of the serial is so good that I’m looking at the tele-snaps and thinking just how brilliant the story looks — it’s no surprise to see that it’s directed by Douglas Camfield. He’s already cropped up for a sort of half-episode in this marathon, having directed the original fourth episode of Planet of Giants, but this is his first full story as director. There’s a dynamism to his shots which comes across even in the still images. So many close ups, and the use of shadows to mask the characters. I’m looking forward to having another full episode to watch tomorrow.
And we get more brilliant dialogue — I think today’s favourite must be Doctor Who’s ‘It is a king’s prerogative to make yesterday’s deafness today’s keen hearing,’ which is another line that could almost be Shakespeare.
7/10
