Thursday 27 January 2011

066 The Crusade Part 3: The Wheel of Fortune

EPISODE: The Crusade Part 3: The Wheel of Fortune
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 066
STORY NUMBER: 014
TRANSMITTED: 10 April 1965
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Dennis Spooner
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Lost In Time

We're back on DVD in the Lost In Time set for part three.

Barbara has been found by Haroun ed-Din who takes her to safety from the searching guards. The Doctor has disguised Vicki as a boy in the court of the King, but Joanna finds them out and befriends them. Haroun introduces Barbara to his daughter Safiya. Haroun despises El Akir who took his eldest daughter and killed his wife & son. Haroun is knocked out by guards in the street. Knowing where he lives, they go there to search for Barbara. King Richard is confident that Joanna will marry the sultan's Saphadin to bring peace. Saladin & Saphadin agree to the marriage, but are cautious. Barbara and Safiya hide from searching guards who decide to set fire to the house to smoke them out. Barbara looks for a way out but is discovered & captured. . Joanna learns she is to be married to Saphadin and objects strongly refusing to marry him. The Doctor is blamed by Richard for giving away the plan and is told he is no longer welcome. Barbara is brought to El Akir who taunts her....

I refer you to my reaction to the previous episodes. Sorry, this is doing nothing for me.

Wheel of Fortune was one of the few Hartnell episodes to be found in the BBC archive during Ian Levene's initial visit. Of all the orphaned Doctor Who episodes, The Wheel of Fortune has the longest release history. It first turned up in The Hartnell Years VHS with the pilot & Celestial Toymaker 4: The Final Test. It then gets released on VHS *again* after the recovery of The Crusade 1: The Lion when they're paired with the following story The Space Museum. Finally it appears with it's orphaned brother and un-narrated the soundtracks for the two missing episodes in the Doctor Who - Lost In Time DVD set.

Absent from proceedings this week is William Russell as Ian who only appears in a brief pre filmed insert.

We've an actor with some notable relatives show up in this episode. Safiya is played by Petra Markham, whose sister Sonia was a make up artist on many 1960s Doctor Whos including this story. Their father is David Markham, script editor of the Prisoner, who can be seen in each episode as the man that The Prisoner hands his resignation into during the title sequence.

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