Excellent, but flawed, William Hartnell story

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.

It's all about the Crusade

This tape consists of the two remaining episodes of The Crusade and the complete version of The Space Museum. The Space Museum's first episode is fantastic, but the remaining three are a complete let-down. Don't let this keep you from buying this tape. The Crusade more than makes up for it; the plot and characterization are fantastic. It's only a shame it isn't complete. The missing episode's audio tracks do exist and are included on CD.

A Historical Drama and a Time/Space Thriller in one video!

This tape gives some classic examples of Doctor Who's early years. First a historical story full of political intrigue (coupled with the tragedy of the missing episodes), followed by a way out adventure in Time and Space. It was great to see William Russell reprising his role as Ian Chesterton for the linking narration in the introduction of the first episode and for the missing second and forth episodes of "The Crusade"(I haven't listened to the CD with the audio from episodes 2 and 4 yet). I only got to see the black and white episodes once when I was growing up but I remember enjoying "The Space Museum" and it was a real treat to see it again. The collectible postcards with scenes from The Crusade were also a nice touch. Well worth adding to your collection.