The Edge of Destruction (TV story)

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"We are on the brink, of total disintergration!"


The Edge of Destruction was the third story of Season 1 of Doctor Who. The story is unique for the original series in that it is set entirely inside the TARDIS and features only the regular cast members.

Synopsis

A mysterious blast renders the TARDIS crew unconscious. They awake disorientated and soon find that the TARDIS is strangely malfunctioning. As all the systems breakdown, the behaviour of the crew becomes more erratic. Soon the Doctor comes to believe that the school teachers are behind the malfunctions in an attempt to blackmail him into taking them home.

Gradually it becomes clear that the problems are a warning from the TARDIS. It seems that a spring has broken on the Fast Return Switch causing the TARDIS to travel back through time towards the creation of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Doctor corrects the problem and the travellers are able to escape.

Plot

The Edge of Destruction (1)

File:EdgeofDestruction1.jpg
The situation takes its toll on the TARDIS crew

The Doctor, while attempting to correct the TARDIS's faulty navigation circuits, causes a small explosion. The Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Susan are all temporarily rendered unconscious. Barbara is the first to recover and awakens Ian and Susan, who appear to have slight cases of amnesia. The Doctor is lying on the floor with a gash on his head. Susan recovers her senses enough to retrieve a special healing bandage from the ship's first aid kit, and water from the food machine for her injured grandfather. Suddenly, Susan becomes convinced that an alien presence is on board and has seized control of the ship.

The TARDIS doors begin intermittently opening and closing of their own accord, and when Susan attempts to operate the door switch on the console, she receives an electrical shock. As the Doctor begins to revive, Barbara tends to him while Ian carries Susan to her room. There she stabs at him with a pair of scissors, rips her bed to shreds, then collapses.

Later, the Doctor, Barbara, and Ian discuss the situation, with all three alternating between clarity of mind and paranoid sniping. The Doctor checks the system controls with Ian's assistance, while Barbara checks on Susan, who has retrieved the scissors and again attempts to attack one of her teachers with them, but stops herself from doing any real harm.

When the Doctor attempts to determine their location with the view scanner, he finds only images which he recognizes as records of the TARDIS's previous journeys. The last image, an explosion, puzzles him. Susan by now is convinced that not only has an alien intelligence entered the ship, but that it has taken over one or more persons on board. When the Doctor opens the TARDIS doors, they quickly close themselves again. Because Ian happened to be standing near the switch, he is suspected of having closed them. Soon, the Doctor and Susan begin to distrust their human companions. Barbara angrily refutes the Doctor's suspicions with a recap of their recent adventure on Skaro, where she and Ian risked their lives to save the Doctor and Susan from the Daleks. Her tirade is abruptly ended when she sees the cathedral clock the Doctor keeps in the console room has melted, a sight which horrifies her.

The Doctor excuses himself from the room and returns with a tray full of drinks, a "nightcap" which he offers as a peace offering to his companions. Barbara, Susan, and Ian retire to their quarters and drink the nightcaps, not knowing that the Doctor has drugged them. With his companions knocked out, the Doctor hopes to tackle the problem of his disabled ship without interference.

Looking on his companions to confirm they are asleep, the Doctor proceeds to examine the console when a pair of hands grabs his throat...

The Brink of Disaster (2)

The Doctor's attacker is none other than Ian. A strange force has overridden the effects of the drug and compelled Ian to stop the Doctor from operating the TARDIS controls. Once Ian recognizes the Doctor, he collapses. Barbara enters and finds herself and Ian openly accused by the Doctor of sabotage.

File:EdgeofDestruction2.jpg
The Doctor solves the mystery

As Barbara tries to reason with the Doctor, Susan enters the room and sides with her grandfather, but then finds herself believing in her teacher's innocence. The Doctor is threatening to put the humans off his ship when an alarm sounds. The fault locator lights up, showing faults in every system. An explosion rocks the ship. The Doctor realizes that the TARDIS's power source, located beneath the console, is trying to force its way out and they are only minutes from destruction.

Faced with a common peril, the travellers forget their differences and begin to work together. Barbara deduces that the strange events are an attempt by the TARDIS itself to warn the crew that something is wrong. The Doctor traces the problem to a broken spring in the Fast Return Switch. The malfunction is causing the TARDIS to head back to the beginning of time; the strange events were just the TARDIS's attempts to warn its passengers before the ship is destroyed. Fixing the switch brings all back to normal. The Doctor is forced to do what he least enjoys - apologise, and admit that he was wrong about Barbara and Ian.

The TARDIS materializes on a snowy landscape, where Susan spots a giant footprint in the snow...

Cast

Crew

References

  • The Doctor realises for the first time that the TARDIS is at least partly sentient, a fact that seems to surprise him.
  • The TARDIS has an inbuilt memory of all the locations it has previously visited.
  • Despite the size of the TARDIS Susan and Barbara share a sleeping area.
  • Susan and the Doctor share a telepathic link with each other and the TARDIS.
  • From this point, the Doctor's personality becomes somewhat mellower and friendlier, but no less crotchety.

Astronomical Objects

Individuals / Cultural References

Planets

  • Susan mentions Quinnis
  • The TARDIS crew have just departed Skaro

Races and Species

Story Notes

Ratings

  • The Edge of Destruction - 10.4 million viewers
  • The Brink of Disaster - 9.9 million viewers

Myths

  • This story had the working title Beyond the Sun. (This was a working title used for The Daleks) (See Also: Disputed story titles).
  • This story was written at short notice because the set for Marco Polo was not complete (See notes for real reason).

Filming Locations

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • In episode 1 the studio floor is visible in the "white void" outside the TARDIS.
  • There are a couple of serious dialogue problems with William Hartnell. At one point he repeats the same line twice causing problems for the other actors.
  • William Hartnell completely omits the scripted explanation for the melted clock faces.
  • Two floor assistants' shadows can be seen in episode 1, against the door leading into the bedroom and food machine area.
  • Discontinuity in retrospect: given the cirumstances, the TARDIS' cloister bell (see Logopolis) should have activated. Perhaps it was disabled by the malfunction, or had not yet been installed.
  • This episode contradicts The Enemy of the World as in that episode, when the TARDIS door opened, Salamander had been sucked out. However, when the doors were opened in this earlier episode, no one seems to be sucked out or holding onto anything. In that episode the Tardis was in motion - in this instance, and other examples, they had landed somewhere.
  • Also, the Fast Return Switch should have sent them back to 100,000 BC as that was the last place it visited prior to Skaro and not 1963 London. Perhaps the Doctor adjusted the settings at some point.

Continuity

DVD, Video and Other Releases

TheBeginning DVD.jpg
Edgeofdestructiondvd.jpg
  • DVD Release

This story was released (Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction) together with An Unearthly Child and The Daleks on The Beginning DVD box set.

Released:

PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1882
PAL - Roadshow ????
NTSC - Warner Video E2489
  • Video Release
Cover for "The Edge of Destruction/The Pilot Episode" video set.

Released as Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction and Dr Who: The Pilot Episode as a compilation video. The BBC originally intended to release this story in a box set with An Unearthly Child and The Daleks, but they changed their plans and decided to release each story individually.

Released:

PAL - BBC Video BBCV6877
NTSC - Warner Video E1578 (2 tapes)

Notes: This video release includes the full takes of The Pilot Episode. The US release also included the documentary The Missing Years and episode 3 of The Underwater Menace.

Novelisation

Cover for the Target novelisation
Main article: The Edge of Destruction (novelisation)

This story was first published by Target Books as Doctor Who - The Edge of Destruction, by Nigel Robinson (ISBN 0-426-20327-5) on 20th October 1988. It was number 132 in Target Books Doctor Who Library and featured cover art by Alister Pearson. It was priced £1.99 with a print run of 23,000 copies.

See also

to be added

External Links

Template:Season 1

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