11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but flawed, William Hartnell story, July 9, 2002
This review is from: Doctor Who - The Crusade & The Space Museum [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I really like these two stories of William Hartnell, flawed as they are by missing episodes.
The stories were originally transmitted between March 27 and May 15 1965. This release, despite the missing episodes, is a welcome addition to the Doctor Who library and is a must.
While the only flaw is the missing episodes, the BBC have finally delivered the goods by including the complete audio soundtrack on CD. Readers may be interested to know that in Britain the BBC has been releasing CD versions of missing stories, mainly from the Troughton era. Hopefully they will release them stateside soon.
What makes this release so good is the fact that side by side are the two facets of Doctor Who stories contained in one cassette. On the one hand you find the historical drama with the Doctor introducing the wider, younger, viewing public to the story of the Crusades, bringing history to life as it were and helping to invigorate dry history textbooks. Often with a Shakespearian slant, these stories also served a dual purpose in bringing drama to the same group.
The Space Museum is also notable for the innovative ideas which Doctor Who brought to television and to science fiction. No bug-eyed monsters here but a clever concept of moving ahead of yourself in time and seeing the outcome, with a plausible solution to what appears to be an intractable proble. Despite the cheap and flimsy sets the stories manage to hold our attention and keep us transfixed from episode to episode.
William Hartnell and the gang are excellent throughout as are the other actors. To my mind these are some of the best stories of the Hartnell years.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crusade/Space Museum, January 25, 2000
In a word, vintage! Classic Dr. Who at its best. While only samples of "The Crusade," "The Lion" and "Wheel of Fortune" give us a taste of the richness of the early Dr. Who stories. There is almost a Shakespearian quality to it. Educational as well as entertaining. And the Space Museum is a trippy "time gets messed up" story. It's a lot of fun seeing our heros getting themselves out of this mess. Even Vicki isn't as annoying as she usually is! If you liked anything about early Dr. Who, you've got to have this one!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"You wouldn't appreciate the technical difficulties...", January 19, 2000
For a fan that had never seen "The Crusade", I only wish all of it was there. "The Crusade" is a wonderful dramatic story. It's pretty hard core for the Hartnell era. The dialogue is absolutely beautiful. And William Russell reprising his role as Ian is a nice touch, although I do miss the telesnap idea the Restoration Team did for "The Ice Warriors", but better than "The Invasion". Nice to see Jean Marsh in her first Who role. "The Space Museum" starts off very interesting. The idead that the TARDIS jumped a groove on the album of Time, but then it turns into a rebels vs humanoid invaders story, that moves very slowly and has some horrible guests who are doing their best immitation of acting. But "The Space Museum" does have some enjoyable moments: Episode 1, the Doctor feeding goofy images into "the thought machine(?)", and Vicki stands out very well in episode 3. There is a great stupid line in this one: "Have any arms fallen into Xeron hands?", and many more. A highly enjoyable release that almost any Who fan can enjoy.
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