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Season 02 / Story 014 / Production code P
The Crusade
The Doctors?: William Hartnell
The Companions: Barbara Wright | Ian Chesterton | Vicki Pallister
Other Main Characters:
David Whitaker: Writer
Douglas Camfield: Director
Verity Lambert: Producer
The TARDIS arrives in 12th-century Palestine, currently in the grip of a Holy War between King Richard the Lionheart and the Saracen ruler Saladin.
Having got caught up in a Saracen ambush, during which Barbara is abducted by the attackers, the Doctor, Ian and Vicki are welcomed at King Richard's palace in the nearby city of Jaffa. Ian is granted permission to ride off in search of Barbara as an official emissary - the King knighting him Sir Ian of Jaffa to fit him for the role - while the Doctor and Vicki stay behind and try to avoid getting involved in court intrigue.
King Richard secretly plans to arrange a marriage between his sister, Joanna, and Saladin's brother, Saphadin, in the hope of ending the war; when Joanna finds out about it, though, she refuses point blank. The Doctor and his young ward flee the palace after making an enemy of the King's advisor, the Earl of Leicester. Eventually they reach the wood where the TARDIS materialised. Ian is already waiting there with Barbara, having rescued her from the savage clutches of the Saracen Emir El Akir; however, the travellers' escape is almost thwarted when the Doctor is seized by a party of English soldiers led by the Earl. Fortunately, they manage to regain the safety of the ship by means of a ruse, the soldiers believing that the brave Sir Ian has been spirited away by sorcerers!
4 episodes:
- The Lion - 27 March 1965
- The Knight of Jaffa - 03 April 1965
- The Wheel of Fortune - 10 April 1965
- The Warlords - 17 April 1965
Script available in print from Titan Books.
