Story Three
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Story Code
C
Title
The
Edge Of Destruction
There is no entirely
satisfactory title for this story. The
one I have used is quite clearly the title of the first episode alone, while
the allegedly more accurate Inside The Spaceship is just crap and sounds like a documentary.
“Friends” Title
The
One Inside The Spaceship
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Episode Titles
The
Edge Of Destruction
The
Brink Of Disaster
Current availability
Both
episodes exist.
Source
UK
Gold omnibus repeat transmission.
The UK Gold template for
these repeats tends to be a complete omnibus edition, with the only omissions
being those necessary for the format - the closing and opening titles between
episodes, and often the reprises.
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Date
This
takes place entirely inside the TARDIS, which is not really in any time at all.
Genre
Psychological
Thriller
Plot synopsis
1. The crew recover one by one from the
explosion with temporary lapses of memory.
Odd things start to happen - the TARDIS doors open by themselves, the
food machine claims to be out of water but isn’t, Susan is electrocuted by the
console and faints. The Doctor rebuffs
speculation that something may be inside the TARDIS with them, maybe even
inside one of them, as “absurd theories.”
Everyone seems to be acting oddly, however - Susan attacks Ian with a
pair of scissors. The Fault Locator
claims nothing is wrong, and the scanner shows a sequence of images while the
doors open and close. The Doctor throws
suspicion on Ian and Barbara, but the confrontation is brought to a halt by the
clocks in the Ship suddenly all melting.
The Doctor changes his tune and hands out drinks: thanks to a “mild sleeping draught” they are
all soon asleep in bed. The Doctor
approaches the console, but is attacked from behind.
2. Ian is apparently trying to strangle
the Doctor, but faints. The Doctor
determines to throw the humans off the Ship, despite Barbara’s protestations
that something is affecting everyone.
The Doctor is forced to admit to misjudging them when a loud alarm
sounds - this is the “danger signal”.
The Fault Locator now registers failure on every single instrument, and
the Doctor announces they have ten minutes to live, though admits to Ian it is
really only five: the Ship is on the
verge of disintegration. They manage to
piece the clues together - the images on the scanner represent their journey,
halted by the TARDIS defence mechanism to protect the Ship from an enormous
explosion. The Doctor realises they are
on course for the birth of a new solar system.
The Fast Return switch is stuck down - the Doctor fixes it and the Ship
returns to normal. After apologies have
been exchanged, the TARDIS lands on a planet where the air is good but it is
very cold.
Pitch
Like
The Haunting in space, without being
crap. More like Event Horizon, really, but with a less OTT ending.
The Money Shot
Susan
stabs her bed over and over again - a surprisingly brutal and effective scene,
bringing to mind scenes from two classic horror movies (namely Psycho and The Exorcist.) (Episode 1)
The Doctor and his kind
•
Ian notes that the Doctor’s “heart seems all right, and his breathing’s quite
regular.” This suggests that the
physiology of the Doctor and Susan’s race is similar to that of Humanity.
•
The Doctor’s ambiguous moral stance is underlined when Ian asks him if he is
working for good or evil, and gets no direct answer.
The TARDIS log
•
The TARDIS has a built-in defence mechanism.
•
It can withstand tremendous forces - even, for a certain period of time, those
present at the creation of a solar system.
•
Susan claims it is impossible for the Ship to crash.
•
The “heart” of the Ship - its source of power - is directly beneath the central
column. If the column were to come out,
the power would be free to escape.
•
The TARDIS has a memory bank which records their journeys.
•
When an instrument in the Ship goes wrong, a valve lights up in the Fault
Locator to indicate the problem. If the
whole thing were to light up, it would mean the Ship was on the point of
disintegration.
•
The Food Machine has an entire section set aside on its panel for water, which
is dispensed in plastic bags.
•
The TARDIS’ inhabitants are expected to sleep on odd couch/beds that come out
from the wall.
•
The TARDIS isn’t much for privacy: you
can stroll right through the bedrooms, which are directly adjacent to the
console room.
•
Barbara suggests that the Ship can think for itself. The Doctor refutes this.
•
The Fast Return Switch (which is positioned near the scanner switch) will send
the TARDIS back through time until released.
It is unclear whether there is also a Fast Forward switch.
Past Journies
•
A few journeys back, the Doctor and Susan nearly lost the TARDIS on the planet
Quinias.
Alien Worlds
•
The planet Quinias (which appears on the scanner) is a dangerous jungle planet
that is apparently in “the fourth Universe.”
You mean there’s more than one of them?
Script Heaven
•
Barbara “How dare you? Don’t you
realise, you stupid old man, that you’d have died in the Cave of Skulls if Ian
hadn’t made fire for you? And what about
what we went through against the Daleks, not just for us, but for you and Susan
too, and all because you tricked us into going down to the city. Accuse us!
You ought to go down on your knees and thank us! Gratitude’s the last thing you’ll ever
have...or any sort of common sense either!”
•
Ian “I wish I could understand you, Doctor.
One moment you’re abusing us, and the next you’re playing the perfect
butler.”
•
The Doctor “One man’s law is another man’s crime.”
•
This is a good line, but marred by William Hartnell’s uncharacteristic fit of
ham-acting. The director clearly wants
it to be good, as well: note the
lighting.
“I
know. I know. I said it would take the force of a total
solar system to attract the power away from my Ship. We are at the very beginning. The new start of a solar system. Outside, the atoms are rushing towards each
other, fusing, coagulating, until minute little collections of matter are
created. And so the process goes on and
on until dust is formed. Dust then
becomes solid entity: a new birth of a
sun and its planets!”
•
The Doctor “You know, my dear child, I think your old grandfather is going a
tiny little bit around the bend.”
Script Hell
•
The Doctor [to Susan] “Well, I think you were very brave, and I was proud of
you.” She hasn’t been to the dentist!
•
The Doctor “Susan has left you some wearing apparel for outside.” You mean clothes?
•
This seems an unrepresentative sample, but in fact the dialogue in this story
is nowhere near as bad as it seems to be - it is the off-day performances from
the regulars that lower its tone.
Name-dropping
•
The Doctor claims to have met Gilbert and Sullivan, and obtained Ian’s
startling item of winter protection from them.
Body Count
Zero.
Screams / Twists Ankle
•
Susan shows a knack for eavesdropping in this story (although, to be fair, it’s
not as if anyone is acting like themselves.)
Hypnotised left, right and
centre (and friends)
•
Susan and Ian’s behaviour under TARDIS influence counts as the first time the
series uses some form of hypnotism.
•
Hypnotism: 1 instance.
The TARDIS wardrobe
•
The Doctor mentions that the Ship has an extensive wardrobe. The examples of this pulled out here include
some winter woollies, an enormous all-encompassing poncho thing Ian wears and
several natty sets of pyjamas, dressing-gowns and flip-flop slippers.
Dudley!
•
The scene where Susan attacks the bed with the knife is accompanied by screeching
music reminiscent of the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, released four years earlier. (The composer is uncredited)
Notes
•
There is some truly horrendous acting throughout this story, notably from
Carole Ann Ford.
•
Ian’s opening words to Barbara (“You’re working late tonight, Miss Wright.”)
recall his opening words to her in An
Unearthly Child (“Not gone yet?”)
•
Dialogue in this story suggests that controls on the console are in specific
places, and not variable as previously suggested in this Guide. If we are to continue being charitable,
perhaps it is only certain items such as the Fast Return and Scanner switches
that are fixed. Certainly it is still
possible that the Doctor needs to activate the Ship a different way each time
to take off - the Fast Return Switch itself is an example of a control that
would not be needed every time.
•
During the Doctor’s semi-conscious ramblings, he says “I can’t take you back,
Susan.” Is this a conversation he has
had with Susan? Does he mean to 1963, or
to their home planet? If the latter,
does this suggest he spirited her away from home much as he did from London?
•
The Doctor spends the whole story with a bandage wrapped around his head. There is ointment in its coloured
segment: when the colour has gone, the
wound is healed.
•
Note how the TARDIS booms every time they guess correctly.
•
Why does the Doctor have to give such an over-simplified explanation to
Susan? She’s not stupid.
•
Gilbert and Sullivan clearly didn’t teach the Doctor anything about
acting: with his “Yes, we must solve
this problem, you know, we must” he again proves his inability in this field.
•
Why doesn’t the Doctor wrap up like everyone else on the cold planet? Surely he’d feel the cold more than most.
•
The Doctor’s discomfort when called upon to apologise is beautiful.
•
The Doctor has come to believe he has underestimated Barbara in the past (or,
at least, that’s what he says.)
•
Following up what is clearly a running joke from the previous story, the Doctor
refers to Ian Chesterton as “Charterhouse.”
•
The experience seems to bring the TARDIS crew closer together.
•
The sequence repeated by the TARDIS is as follows: a picture of England - doors open; a picture of Quinias - doors close; pictures of a planet drawing back to see the
entire solar system; an enormous
explosion.
Queries
•
It seems believable that the Ship’s defence mechanism can use the instruments
to warn the crew of danger, but how does it manage to melt the clocks and Ian
and Barbara’s wrist watches? And how
does it affect the passengers’ behaviour?
•
What exactly is all this business about making them aware of time? It all seems a somewhat obscure way to go
about getting the message across.
•
Is the Ship alive?
•
Exactly how many Universes are there?
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On-screen Credits
Taken from The Television Companion.
CAST
Dr.
Who - William Hartnell, Ian Chesterton - William Russell, Barbara Wright -
Jacqueline Hill, Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford.
CREW
By
David Whitaker. Title Music by Ron
Grainer, BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Designer - Raymond Cusick.
Associate Producer - Mervyn Pinfield.
Producer - Verity Lambert.
Directed by Frank Cox.
Review
For
all its failings, this is an atmospheric story.
It’s hardly noticeable that the cast and settings are reduced to the
bare minimum, and the action certainly doesn’t get boring, possibly thanks to
the unusually short running length.
Granted, it doesn’t always make sense - the melting clocks, for starters
- but the revelation of what has been going on all this time is a supreme
moment of bathos. Whereas The Daleks was possibly traditional SF
story-telling (discovery of threat, lengthy expedition to neutralise it, big
battle at end), this story warns the viewer not to expect the obvious, and at
times to expect the downright obscure.
The relations between the crew are antagonistic and deliberately
confusing for the audience, so it’s a shame that all the performances are
unforgivably stilted, with Jacqueline Hill perhaps coming in for least
criticism. It’s a nice diversion from
our expectations, and makes an effective coda to what has, in some ways, been a
thirteen-part introductory story. It’s
tantalising to think, though, how much better it might have been with a little
more time and money.
7 / 10
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