Day 65: The Knight of Jaffa

Dennis Spooner, the story editor, has brought two main things to the table with this adventure. The first is the addition of comedy, which he brings where it is needed. We have for instance, a comedy merchant, who trades in stolen goods, yet he finds himself against the Doctor for stealing some of his stolen goods, and he tries to get justice for this, without wanting to reveal where he got the goods from. It's a nice idea, and one that shows the influence of Spooner. He knows that historical drama sometimes needs a bit of humour added to the piece, to keep people entertained before it gets too mopey and serious. 

The other is the adventure/comedy divide, which has now been perfected from it's previous outings. Whereas before the plotlines in historical adventures tended to be more closely woven, so that the comedy moments that had been added in the script, such as the Doctor getting engaged in The Aztecs, would be somewhat juxtaposed later with the Doctor trying desperately to save Ian's life from drowning, now we can get two reasonably seperate plotlines, that whilst they may be connected in small ways, aren't so close as to ruin the moods of both. In The Romans, this was achieved through the characters never meeting eachother in Rome, so as to allow the story strands to remain separate. Here, a similar thing happens, with Ian being sent off to find Barbara, while the Doctor and Vicki remain with King Richard, so as to allow two plotlines of varying mood to co-exist, without as strong a juxtaposition in terms of the character's own personal stories.