One fat geek's SUCCESSFUL attempt to regenerate into a not-so-fat geek by watching the entirety of Doctor Who while walking on a treadmill

One Hundred Miles! Also: Congratulations, Sir Ian Chesterton

Mar 27 2017
One Hundred Miles! Also: Congratulations, Sir Ian Chesterton

Oh, the ridiculous gyrations I had to go through this morning. I crossed 100 miles, which is awesome, but it took some real juggling to get there. Today I started in on The Crusade, which is the first time in this project I have needed to bounce between a DVD to watch an existing episode and then to my iPad to watch the Loose Canon Recon of a missing episode. And I had to do this, not in the privacy of my own home, but out in public on the YMCA, walking on a treadmill while balancing a cornucopia of electronics on the screen ledge. Oh, the things I do for you, my imaginary readers. But hey, today's story is another pure historical -- this one featuring none other than King Richard I in the midst of the holy war in Palestine. 

Let's talk about that.

The Lion / The Knight of Jaffa

The TARDIS materializes in a forest just outside of Jaffa in the 12th century, and right in the middle of a melee between King Richard the Lionhearted and his knights, and the Saracens. During the scuffle, Barbara is kidnapped by a group of Saracens while the rest of the group gets caught up with the English forces. Ultimately one of the other knights pretends to be King Richard and surrenders himself, in order to give his King a chance to flee.

From there it is a long chain of events in which the Doctor, Ian, and Vicki are aligned with King Richard, while Barbara is first a prisoner of Saladin (the leader of the Saracens) and then later a prisoner of El Akir, the Saracen who first abducted both Barbara and the false King Richard and who was subsequently and very publicly humiliated in front of Saladin. Along the way, Ian is knighted by King Richard, so I suppose I will be obligated to refer to him as Sir Ian Chesterton going forward. The end of the second episode is an extended dialog-free sequence in which Barbara manages to escape from El Akir and then spends several minutes evading guards and other prying eyes, before being surprised by a hand clamping over her face from behind. Roll credits!

Once again we have a pure historical that proves that Doctor Who does not require aliens or other monsters in order to tell an exciting story. The setting at least seems to be well researched (I don't really know much about the Crusades), the characters and settings are rich and interesting, and there is plenty of drama to be had just by placing our heroes into the mix. Even with tropes like having Barbara immediately captured, she is written as being very competent and self-sufficient, managing to orchestrate her own rescue without moping and waiting around for Sir Ian to arrive like, um, a knight in shining armor. It's good stuff, and I am looking forward to the second half tomorrow.

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Vicki, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
Episode(s): The Lion, The Knight of Jaffa
Steps Walked: 6,790 today, 225,066 total
Distance Walked: 3.22 miles today, 102.12 miles total
Weight: 296.84 lbs (five day moving average), net change -10.46 lbs


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