The Crusade (1965) Review

The Crusade is a bitter story in many ways. 

The TARDIS ends up outside of Jaffa during the Third Crusade. The TARDIS crew get separated as usual and end up getting involved with King Richard the Lionheart's issues. And then they just decide to screw it mid-story and get out of there.
 
The first episode is terribly disappointing and weakly acted. They couldn't even make arrows fly? The only ones who seem to care are William Hartnell, Julian Glover and Douglas Camfield(who directed some really wonderful camera shots).

Hartnell's enthusiasm is understandable, since he normally used historicals as a way to have fun with his role(no complicated technobabble to remember). This is really what he's best at. Inside this bleak storyline, he mainly functions as comic relief. Yes, you read that right. THE DOCTOR is comic relief in his own show. 

Julian Glover is magnificient as King Richard the Lionheart, taking it absolutely seriously(I've never seen Game Of Thrones, but this is probably what it'd be like) to the point where his anguish over the war that he is presiding over would likely bring some people to tears. There's something wonderfully regal about the actor and it inspires loyalty. Best actor in Doctor Who thus far IMO.

William Russell seems drunk during his first episode, no joke. He comes out of the bushes(still wearing that awful jacket from The Web Planet) with his hair in tangles and his eyes rolling around. His acting is also insanely flat. I mean, look at the scene where the Doctor gives him King Richard's belt. He just takes it, goes "oh yeah" and puts it on his shoulder. 
Fortunately in later episodes, Sir Ian quickly regains his composure and has some really funny scenes with a thief called Ibrahim and later threatening to execute the Doctor if he doesn't stop the puns.

Barbara gets kidnapped by whoever the villain was in Marco Polo. Really, there's hardly any distinction between them. There's a subplot where she escapes and gets captured, escapes and gets captured again and again until poor Sir Ian finally shows up with his sword(a shame it was in a recon).

Vicki continues to not have a single scene without the Doctor(it's really creepy at certain points since she's only known him for a few months really), thus having less personality than Susan did. Her child voice is really grating too. At least Susan had the unearthly thing about her.

And of course in Episode 4, the characters just leave Richard to his troubles and make their way back to the TARDIS. The end. 

The story is bleak(forced marriages, stand-offs, torture etc.), the resolution is uncertain and the characters are gritty and realistic. Not for tea-time.