014 The Lion

aka The Crusaders

Started 28-Jun-2018

Back to missing episodes. We watched the dvd copies of ep 1 and 3 and a telesnap recon of 2 and 4.

There are some horrible, dark, nasty elements to this. Thievery and its casual justification (the Doctor in the bazaar), murder (in every episode), suicide (Haroun,  Barbara, Safiya in ep3) , prisoner torture (Ibrahim and Ian ep4), medieval war crimes (it's called the "Crusa-ade" FFS)... and some male black-face performance (mainly Bernard Kay as Saladin, Roger Avon as Saphadin, Walter Randall as El Akir but lots more in minor roles.)
All these have undermined or dated the production horribly.

Strangely the female cast members are more genuine. Safiya, Maimuna, Sheyrah, Fatima and Hafsa (there's a uber level DW trivia question for you....) all looked like middle eastern ladies even though the actors' names seem very Anglo. Perhaps there was a bit of 'stage name' stuff going on there for some of these girls? Maybe not for Petra Markham... Maybe her sister Sonia is a make up genius? (Hint: she is.)

Buried in this production apparently is the seeds of the Dudley Simpson/Douglas Camfield rivalry. They worked together (according to the credits) But this is the last time. They spent the next 20 years hating each others' undies and refusing to work together. Curious result: the only episode of Blakes 7 (1978-1981) to be directed by Douglas and not scored by Dudley is "Duel". I'm don't know what the fight is about.

Julian "big balls" Glover as Richard Couer De Lion is a romantic, imagined portrayal that is likely far removed from the real life person but this is a fantasy so I can ride with it. The scene late in ep 4 where the Doctor lets slip about 'seeing Jerusalem', 'yes you will' is likely the reason why BBC Enterprises thought better of offering this serial for sale in Arabic countries. Does anyone realise what Richard and his crusaders did when they got there?

The two episodes that exist are studio bound and seem 'talky': long scenes with brief stagey action sequences.

The action in ep4 when Ian confronts El Akir is a blink and you'll miss it thing. I seem to remember that in the book it seemed to go on for about a chapter.

This has a great reputation but is actually uneven. Some studied and formal stagey drama scenes, weak action, a split plot featuring court intrigue versus basic kidnap and some dark, nasty themes.

Good but not the classic its reputation suggests.

ABM Rating 3.25/4.00
LJM Rating 3.25/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.00/10.00 

Peak Ranking No. 3 (out of 14)

Link to Cumulative Rankings

Link to Rankings Scoreboard