I still haven’t watched the Netflix DVDs that I have out (incidentally, they are Labyrinth and Xanadu), and so decided to just move on to the next serials and to watch The Web Planet when I get to it.
I successfully watched the parts of The Crusade that were available on YouTube. This happens to be episodes 1 and 3, with 2 and 4 being available as photo montages and the original audio track plus a narrator to connect what was happening to the audio track (i.e. explain what’s in between the photos). It’s a palace intrigue serial, but a rather good one at that. It was rather hard to follow, since I wasn’t in the mood to watch the photo montage and thus missed vital parts of the serial. Basically, since our crew (Vicki, Barbara, Ian, and the Doctor) is still alive and well at the end of the last episode, all is well.
The Space Museum is continuing a trend from the episode that introduced us to Vicki (namely, “The Rescue“) — that is, a world with 60s-looking rocket ships. The whole theme of the Doctor visiting (being stuck in?) a museum of alien stuff, only to be surprised by a Dalek being kept in the exhibit, will be repeated in the episode “Dalek” in the New Series’ Season 1.
The show itself is built on a somewhat non-linear basis, taking advantage of the time-traveling aspect of the overall premise for once. At one point the Doctor gets frozen in a scene vividly similar to Han Solo being frozen in carbonite… The serial ends on a great cliff-hanger, a set up for the next show. Overall, it’s actually been a pretty interesting story!
