Gallifrey to Trenzalore #21: The Edge of Destruction by David Whitaker

Serial "C" - The Edge of Destruction
Written by David Whitaker
Directed by Richard Martin
Broadcast: 8th to 15th February 1964
Watched: 2nd February 2016

Episode 1: "The Edge of Destruction"

Having taken off from the planet Skaro, the TARDIS is racked by a terrible explosion which causes all of its occupants to fall to the floor of the console room unconscious. What is the latest tragedy to befall the Doctor and his associates? Have the Daleks set one last devastating trap? Is the ship on the blink? Was Barbara simply trying to plug in her hair dryer causing a power fluctuation?

The answer will disappointingly be revealed in the next episode, but we have a rather tense thrilling episode with lots of shouting, screaming, hysterics and not just from Susan for a change. Although she certainly is the most frightening thing in this episode, but more on that later.

Before we get to the nitty-gritty of discussing "The Edge of Destruction", I believe it is vitally important that we look back over the last eleven episodes as doing so will give us a greater understanding of the underlying themes in The Edge of Destruction as a whole. At the beginning of "An Unearthly Child", the Doctor and Susan, exiled from Gallifrey, have settled into hiding in 1963 London. Although the two Gallifreyans seem rather contented with their lives on Earth, they are naturally wary of humanity and what these "primitives" would do if they ever discovered the TARDIS.

Enter Ian and Barbara. Two of Susan's schoolteachers from Coal Hill School who are concerned about the teenager and her schoolwork and decide to follow her home one night in the hopes of confronting her mysterious grandfather. Confront him they certainly do and are quickly thrown completely out of their depth as their conceptions of what is possible is shattered by entering the TARDIS. Out of fear, the Doctor rashly sets the TARDIS controls and they end up back in caveman times.

Forced to work together to overcome the Tribe of Gum, the travellers still don't get time to work through things as they immediately land on the planet Skaro. During this adventure, the Doctor lies to his companions in order so that he can explore the city, leading to their capture by the Daleks, near death by radiation poisoning. On top of that, Ian and Barbara are forced to endure a treacherous crossing of the Lake of Mutations and travelling through a mountain, losing several people along the way.

In short, the Doctor is still slightly mistrustful of his new charges and perhaps experiencing some degree of guilt for his actions on Skaro. Ian and Barbara, similarly have been thrown into a situation far beyond their experience, are equally mistrustful of the Doctor and wondering if they'll ever get home again. To say that a lot has to be said and worked through for the emotional well-being of all four travellers at the start of this adventure is somewhat of an understatement. This is what The Edge of Destruction is all about. After being distracted by marauding cavemen, revolting Thals and evil Daleks, the four travellers are trapped in the TARDIS with only themselves to talk to. No exit. When you add a sprinkling of amnesia and honest to goodness fear to the mix then just watch the sparks fly.

Susan threatens Ian with a pair of scissors.

With the TARDIS seemingly becalmed and with the Doctor and Susan reporting that they both received a nasty shock to the back of the neck, the Time Lord suspects that Ian and Barbara are responsible in an attempt to force him to return them home, however, he initially refuses that idea by going to check the fault locator. Indeed, it is Susan who seems to be acting the most bizarrely and in this opening episode seems to be the villain of the piece. She becomes cold and suspicious, threatening Ian and then Barbara with the pair of scissors and at one terrifying point stabs at a chair before descending into tears.

Fear and suspicion in the TARDIS.

After determining with Ian's help that the TARDIS should be fully functioning, the Doctor levels that accusation at the two schoolteachers, despite the perfectly sensible theory put forward by Barbara that some form of consciousness could be at work in the TARDIS. The Doctor will have none of it. In response, Barbara rightly unleashes her fury at all that has happened since entering Totter's Yard. The poor woman is emotionally shattered from the encounter, but is forced into despair even further when the strange events take a bizarre turn as the face of the beautiful clock in the console room begins to dissolve, along with the numbers on Ian's watch.

Just when the episode is at it's most tense, the Doctor decides to make a nice hot drink for everybody. It's a very bizarre and, a very uncharacteristic thing for the First Doctor to do. More surprising is the fact that they all decide to turn in for the night in the middle of a baffling crisis. However, that could have something to do with the fact that the Doctor has added a dash of sleeping potion to everybody's drinks. It's the Doctor's turn to look slightly villainous as he checks on his companions to make sure they're sleeping before creeping over to the TARDIS console. Imagine my surprise when a pair of hands encircles his neck as the episode draws to a close.

In summing up, this episode is a rather tense thriller where we are left just as much in the dark as the TARDIS crew. Having Ian and Barbara as the identification figures since "An Unearthly Child" means that it's the Doctor and Susan who are painted in the slightly more villainous roles. I'm intrigued to see where this goes in the next episode.

Episode 2: "The Brink of Disaster"

I'll be completely honest here and say that this review has been one of the hardest ones to write yet. It should have been posted last evening with "The Edge of Destruction" and I've procrastinated in writing it for the whole of today, which in turn has held back from starting with Marco Polo. No more. The show must go on.

The reason behind my difficulty could be the result of my uncertainty for the entry for "The Edge of Destruction". I built up a defence for the serial, examining and outlining everything the characters were thinking and feeling. Then I watched "The Brink of Disaster" and found that maybe The Edge of Destruction in its entirety is indefensible.

I stand by everything I wrote in the previous entry because those very thoughts were going through my mind as I was watching it. Indeed, the whole atmosphere of the episode seems to confirm my thoughts. Yet it didn't really hold up into the second episode, or at least it wasn't as well played in this episode. A glance at the production credits for the two episodes noting that Richard Martin directed one and Frank Cox the other, suggests that the direction could be the very reason for this.

A magical moment.

That isn't to say that there weren't some wonderful moments in this story, especially for the Doctor and Barbara. Barbara really takes charge in this episode, facing down the Time Lord once again and ultimately having a great hand in extracting them all from this little situation. Hartnell also is on great form, from menacing the two schoolteachers one minute and threatening to throw them off the ship, to almost euphoric in that wonderful scene where he talks about the birth of a solar system. Absolutely magical. The final scene between the two puts the perfect cap on The Beginning as they come to understand each other and move on to the next chapter.

Unfortunately, Ian and Susan don't fair so well in this particular episode. Susan reduced to watching the light on the fault locator and becoming hysterical. For the first part of the episode, Ian has a bit of a fit and falls unconscious while periodically trying to strangle Barbara. Still, at least he returns to his usual self once the crisis really gets going.

The source of the problem.

Ultimately, however, the crisis all comes down to a faulty spring in the TARDIS' fast return switch. A disappointing resolution, but hearkening back to my little character study in the last entry, perhaps it doesn't matter. What was needed was a quick two-part story to fill the initial thirteen episode allocation, but in the context of the characters and the story, they needed to have a blowout and put all of the bad feelings and pent up emotion out of the way so that the next chapter of the series could start. In that regard, it succeeded.

6/10

Next Story

Marco Polo

Continuity Corner:

• A picture of the planet Quinnis appears on the TARDIS scanner screen. Susan refers to it, saying they visited "four or five journeys back" (Quinnis).
• During his early travels with Susan, the Doctor acquired a large coat from Gilbert and Sullivan, though it was much too big for him to wear.