An ongoing exploration of Doctor Who one episode at a time, now we head into the second part of Tardis based story The Edge of Destruction and the last episode of the first series.
Previously on Doctor Who…
An old traveller named The Doctor, his granddaughter Susan and two of her school teachers named Ian and Barbara are traversing space and Time, so far they’ve visited Earth’s stone age and a distant alien world inhabited by machine creatures called Daleks. Recently the foursome awoke inside the Tardis, their time machine, with great gaps in their memories and mounting paranoia.
At the end of the last episode The Doctor was skulking about while everyone else was asleep, seemingly up to something, when suddenly someone comes from behind and grabs him about the neck.
…and now: The Brink of Disaster.
It appears the mystery assailant is a wild-eyed Ian, who promptly passes out much like Susan did in the previous episode, Barbara seeing the whole thing tries to get The Doctor to help Ian, but The Doctor refuses, convinced Ian and Barbara are working together to take control of the Tardis.
The Doctor insists Ian and Barbara must leave the ship immediately, or at least as soon as he can get the doors to work again. Susan tries her best to talk him around.
Suddenly an alarm sounds, coming from the fault locator, every indicator alight “but everything can’t be…everything can’t be wrong” cries Susan. The Doctor realises that no one person is to blame, but that the Tardis itself is on the brink of disintegration.
The Doctor estimates they have maybe ten minutes to survive (the approximate remaining run-time of the episode). When The Doctor says “If only I had a clue” Barbara comes to realise they may have been given clues all along. The Doctor had previously stated that Tardis had it’s own defense mechanism, Barbara rationalises that it is not the Tardis that is at fault but the machine has been trying to tell the travellers that the fault lies with them.
After a quick monologue...
“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're 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 and Ian come to realise that the switch The Doctor had pressed to take them
back in time has stuck, and send them back to the very beginning of existence. Reattaching a loose spring the problem is resolved, power is restored, all is right with the universe once again.
After a brief Heart to Heart between The Doctor and Barbara, where The Doctor tells Barbara he has underestimated her value, the four travellers venture out of the Tardis and into the snow of their latest location…and Susan discovers a giant footprint.
ROLL CREDITS
It’s not made abundantly clear what was going on in this story, especially since the strange goings on happen over two weeks. To summarise: The Tardis was trying to warn the travellers they were going back to far, believing they were still pushing the return switch. But in actual fact the switch was stuck.
Clearly the viewing public had also found the story somewhat confusing, as half a million less people tuned into the concluding half. But with the last three episodes drawing in 10.4 million views and an average of 7.4 million across the series Doctor Who would be hanging around for a while yet.
There are a number of times during this episode you’re made aware of the fact it was recorded live, on several occasionsWilliam Hartell trips over his lines, most notably during the dramatic moment The Doctor exclaims they’re on the brink of disaster, but he has trouble saying brink.
Next Episode: The Roof of the World