The Edge of Destruction (TV story)

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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 Solar System. 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 swing him around and grab 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 creation of the Solar System; 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

Cultural references

Planets

  • The Doctor and Susan have visited the planet Quinnis in the fourth universe four or five journeys ago.
  • The TARDIS crew have just departed Skaro.

Races and species

TARDIS

Story notes

  • The first story featuring only the Doctor and his companions.
  • The only other televised stories to take place entirely inside the TARDIS were the Children in Need Special, Time Crash, and technically Amy's Choice.
  • This story is also known as Inside the Spaceship, The Brink of Disaster and Beyond the Sun.
  • All episodes exist in 16mm telerecordings.
  • Both episodes were recovered from the negative film prints discovered at BBC Enterprises in 1978.
  • An Arabic print is also held.
  • This story was written to make up the number of episodes and meet the shows commitment to the BBC. The show was initially commissioned for 13 episodes. An Unearthly Child (4), The Daleks (7) and therefore an additional 2 episodes were required in case the show should be cancelled at this point.
  • Some of the music from this story was released as Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Volume One - The Early Years, 1963 - 1969.
  • This was one of the stories selected to be shown as part of BSB's Doctor Who Weekend in September 1990. The episodes were shown in the wrong order, but were repeated in the correct sequence later that weekend.

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

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • In the first episode, the studio floor is visible in the "white void" outside the TARDIS.
  • Two floor assistants' shadows can be seen in episode 1, against the door leading into the bedroom and food machine area.
  • While The Doctor is describing the birth of a new solar system, a cough can be clearly heard.

Continuity

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

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
  • The Beginning Region 2 boxed set

    The Beginning Region 2 boxed set

  • The Edge of Destruction Region 2 cover

    The Edge of Destruction Region 2 cover

Video Release

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.

  • The Edge of Destruction VHS.jpg

    Cover for UK "The Edge of Destruction/The Pilot Episode" video set

YouTube release

Novelisation and its audiobook

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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