The Edge of Destruction

“As we learn about each other, so we learn about ourselves”

C’est entre quatre murs d’un studio londonien fauché qu’on nous raconte un univers aussi impossible et merveilleux que foncièrement terrifiant et dangereux. 

Mais c’est ici aussi qu’un vieillard terrifié apprend enfin de son amie une leçon.  

The Edge of Destruction est en effet un épisode décisif. Il brise les certitudes de chaque personnage, et fait de leur seul foyer un des endroits les plus dangereux de l’univers. 

Néanmoins, c’est une expérience tellement atroce qu’ils découvrent enfin qu’ils ont besoin les uns des autres, et  que face à l’immensité, ils devront se serrer les coudes.

"The Edge of Destruction"

All but the Doctor wake, and they’re acting strangely with memory lapses and almost drunken behavior. The Doctor has a bad cut on his head, to which Susan and Barbara are tending. Right away there’s this unsettling atmosphere where one is not sure what is happening, which I think is successful. The TARDIS doors open on their own, which Susan says is impossible, they close when Ian tries to walk toward them. Susan also says the ship can’t have crashed, as that’s impossible. I guess the TARDIS hasn’t been shown in physical flight before, and based on what we’ve seen on screen so far, that adds up with its disappearing and reappearing behavior. I like the ointment bandage that they put on the Doctor’s head with the colors that go away when the wound is healed. It’s a small thing, but it’s cool to see some advanced technology in use. Susan tries the TARDIS controls, but stops, screams, and collapses. The Doctor wakes, complains of pain from being hit on the neck, Ian takes Susan to a room to lie down. Ian gets water, but when he returns he finds Susan, brandishing scissors. She proceeds to lunge at him, but instead starts stabbing the recliner she’s in and collapses again. Carole Ann Ford is chewing some major scenery in this episode, but in a way that works for the story, adding to the unsettling nature of it. Ian, Barbara, and the Doctor continue to discuss the situation, speculate if something got in the ship, or if there’s perhaps a mechanical fault. Ian and the Doctor check the fault locator. Barbara tends to Susan, who insists there’s nothing wrong with her, threatens Barbara with the scissors, and then suggests if something got in the ship that Ian and Barbara are trying to hide it from her, and perhaps it’s inside one of them. The paranoia and suspicion is building the tension nicely.

The Doctor speculates that the fault must be outside the ship, so he goes to turn on the scanner, which makes Susan shout that he must not do so. Apparently that was the control that made her go unconscious and have the same neck pain as the Doctor, something that doesn’t seem to have happened to Ian and Barbara, which the Doctor and Susan find suspicious. The Doctor gets the scanner working, and it shows a variety of images, like maybe England, and then the planet Quinnis, places the TARDIS has been before. However, that doesn’t match the bright light they see when the doors open. They really are getting the most they can out of this TARDIS control room set, using the doors, the console, and the scanner in so many unusual ways, which again adds to the feeling of the story. I’ve mentioned things like the feel and the atmosphere a lot in this review so far, but that’s the majority of what makes this episode work, rather hard to define well in words. The Doctor accuses Ian and Barbara of sabotage, saying they’re trying to hold him hostage unless he can take them back home. Barbara rips him a new one, saying how he would have died in the Cave of Skulls if it wasn’t for them, and everything with the Daleks because of the Doctor’s own trickery.

“Accuse us? You ought to go down on your hands and knees and thank us! But gratitude’s the last thing you’ll ever have, or any sort of common sense either!” This is absolutely one of Barbara’s best moments, the point where she decides she’s done taking the Doctor’s abuse, and lets out all the frustrations that have been boiling within her from the very beginning of the show. The Doctor completely has it coming which makes it so very satisfying. It’s a shame this moment is directly followed by Barbara screaming because of all the clocks in the room breaking, very unfortunate. The Doctor very quickly manages to return to the console room (not sure exactly when he left) with nightcaps for all of them, saying it’s to help everyone get some rest. It’s actually to allow him to go to the controls on his own without interruption, when a pair of hands reaches for his neck. Such a bizarre episode of Doctor Who, and I really enjoy it. I imagine it’s almost incomprehensible to the first time viewer, but it rather makes sense if you know what’s happening from having seen the second part, and it’s cool to see that the hints were there all along.

"The Brink of Disaster"

It’s pretty funny that the first and second episode are the same title run through a thesaurus. The hands belong to Ian, and the Doctor thinks he’s caught him, and by extension Barbara, red-handed. Ian didn’t do very much until he fainted, which means Barbara is unsure exactly how that incriminates Ian. She tries to make Susan see some reason, which makes the Doctor just believe she’s trying to turn Susan against him. There’s threats of throwing them off the ship, despite Ian saying he was just trying to get the Doctor away from the controls to protect him, and it’s not until the Doctor sees the fault locator is reading that everything is at fault, that he realizes this couldn’t be his Earth companions doing this. That was many sentences of summary, but all of those things bring the tension very high, you really think the Doctor is going to throw them off wherever they are, it’s actually a little frightening to see. The Doctor believes there’s some powerful force at work, and that they are on “the brink of destruction.” You were so close to saying the title. The next big part of the episode is them all trying to work together to figure out the situation, and Barbara starts to realize that the strange things the ship has been doing must have been hints and warnings. Breaking the clocks to make them aware of time, and then returning it later when it’s running out. Ian and the Doctor are having a tough time believing the ship can think for itself, but realize it must be just in a way that a machine would think.

The third story of Doctor Who, and we already have the reveal that the TARDIS is alive, at least in some way, an idea that has been done time and time again over the course of the series to varying degrees. Very cool that it has lasted this long. There’s a bit of “let’s not tell the ladies the danger we’re in or how little time there is” between the Doctor and Ian, which is some of that period sexism leaking into the story, but it’s relatively minor, and I think rather countered by Barbara, a woman, being the one who’s figuring out what’s happening. So they were made aware of time, their attention was turned to the scanner, which was showing the places the TARDIS had last been, now it’s showing the creation of a galaxy and an explosion, the big bang (a little of the classic sci-fi TV galaxy vs universe mixup I’ve seen a few times before), the fault locator telling them that everything will go boom if they don’t fix it, and all but one panel of the console is electrified, which has narrowed everything down for them. The Doctor figures out that the fast return switch, designed to take the TARDIS to its previous destination is stuck, as if his finger never left it, which is taking them back into the beginning of the universe, which will destroy them all. He fixes it, and it’s all good.

A little padded when he explains how a stuck switch works with a flashlight, but I think story-wise it all comes together very nicely. The one thing I’ve never understood with this story, is how this is making them all act the way they were, like Susan losing her mind with the scissors, or the memory loss, any of that. If it’s part of the TARDIS’s warning, that’s very counterproductive, making the occupants unable to think clearly. We end with a very touching moment where the Doctor apologizes for the way he’s treated Barbara, how he’s misjudged her and Ian. “As we learn about each other, so we learn about ourselves,” is a good line, and that moment is kind of the culmination of the first Doctor’s loose character arc up to this point of learning that he needs to trust and has learned to respect his human companions. They all go outside and see a huge humanoid footprint in some snow. This is a good story of Doctor Who. It’s always good when Doctor Who tries to be a bit weird and unusual, and this is probably the earliest example. Sure, it’s a bottle episode because they went over budget with the first two stories, but they made it work. It was compelling, interesting, and actually progressed the characters, especially the Doctor and Barbara. Again, a 3.5/5 Stars, I feel like I find something new to like about it each time I watch it.

I found this to be a thoroughly middling experience.  It's a neat couple of episodes absolutely worth watching for any Doctor Who fan, but that is because it does a lot to establish certain aspects of the TARDIS very early on in the franchise's history.  It's neat seeing such an early take on the Doctor's vessel and even just an early bottle episode.  All of this makes for a pretty fun experience overall, but when you get down to the actual execution, it is a bit underwhelming.  Ian tries to kill everyone and acts "weird" - which basically translates to a blank and wide eyed expression - and I kind of feel nothing.  If you aren't interested in the aspects of this show's own history, Edge of Destruction doesn't really offer a lot on its own.  Still, the cast is always entertaining and it does leave me feeling I could follow this TARDIS crew into just about any kind of adventure and have a decent time of it.

The Edge of Destruction is like the Platonic ideal of a one-off Doctor Who story. It's spooky, well paced, and tense. I enjoy how we get to see the characters in such an unfamiliar environment (because even an alien planet can be rationalised, but something in your mind onboard a time travelling spaceship is much harder to brush off). We also get to see the writers understand what will be the appeal of the TARDIS, it's not just a spaceship, she's a plot point and arguably character in her own right

The Edge of Destruction is a wonderful little story. Being just set in the TARDIS and just starring the main team members it could easily get stale but at just 2 parts it doesn't overstay it's welcome. This episode is sort of psychological horror given that there's no tangible villain, just the minds of the characters being messed with. And as a psychological horror it functions very well. As the characters are stuck in the TARDIS there is a sense of claustrophobia; the lighting and music are also used much more effectively to create a sense of atmosphere then you would expect to see in a lot of the Hartnell era.

Where this story shines though is on it's characterisation. The Hartnell era is great because you can watch the active process of the high Gallifreyan mindset get deprogrammed from the Doctor's head by the companions and you see him develop into a more heroic character. This is a great example of this. Barbara gets to tear the Doctor apart here, it's brilliant and Jacqueline Hill performs it so well. The Doctor's character up to this point has been quite sketchy, he tried to kill an innocent man in An Unearthly Child and deceived Ian and Barbara into going into the city in The Daleks. In this story he similarly has moments of deceptiveness and kinda just being a dick but he is called out and at the end of the story comes round and apologises to Barbara showing his growth as a character. It's very clear that this story is a turning point in strengthen the Doctor's relationship to his friends. Hartnell is on fire here. He gets moments of deceptiveness, brashness, whimsy, kindness and a beautifully written monologue, all of which he delivers fantastically. I feel like I a have a tendency to underrate Hartnell because my god... he's just perfect. Overall this is a story that functions as a cool psychological horror as well as a great character piece and turning point for the Doctor. 8/10 / 4 stars.

Claustrophobic, quick-paced, character driven, and magic. David Whitaker is one of the strongest people ever involved with the show, and he rarely gets the credit he deserves. This story, like the first part of An Unearthly Child knows exactly what the TARDIS is. This is something about these early episodes that fascinates me, as El Sandifer points out in her excellent books, it's like the show already knows that rickety old police box is magic, humming with power, iconic. And here, the show finally tells us that this magic box is also alive. An exhilarating episode, and the first example of the most successful context in which Who can be written: "We ran out of time and money and need something now." All our best stories are made like that.

Edge of Destruction: 8/10 - just finished edge of destruction, it felt like a nuwho story in many ways. The character work between the Tardis team was very compelling with Susan and Barbara being the standouts. The plot itself isn’t the best but the character work carries the story.

Nowadays we are so used to the 45 minute story format and whilst this story is two 25 minute episodes that together make this running time technically this is Doctor Who's first attempt to tell a narrative in such a short amount of time.

Is it successful?

Well, it partly is and it partly isn't.

The Edge of Destruction sees the TARDIS trying to warn the crew about some impending disaster through various oddities like melting clock hands and influencing the Doctor (William Hartnell), Susan (Carole Anne Ford), Ian (William Russell) and Barbara's (Jaqueline Hill) behaviour.

This is an enjoyable enough story to watch and one that's suitably simplistic for a classic series two-parter. It creates a sense of paranoia well and doesn't feel like filler. It's a shame then that the resolution is such a let down.

Spoilers follow.

Because you see, when it's revealed what the TARDIS was trying to warn the crew about...it turns out it was just that the fast return switch was stuck.

Seriously.

The entire events of the two-parter were all because of one switch.

And that's not the only weird decision because earlier Susan tries to threaten Ian and Barbara with the deadliest item she can find..a pair of scissors. It's a scene that's nothing short of daft and really should have been replaced with something else.

Having said that, there are plenty of good moments. The Doctor's monologue is great and it's nice to see a story set entirely on the TARDIS. The cast all give great performances too. It's just a shame that in conclusion the story is let down by poor decisions by the writer David Whitaker.

Considering the origin of this story - that they had to hastily put together a 2 episode serial to give the BBC a stopping point if they did cancel the show after 13 episodes rather than stopping in the middle of Marco Polo; and also had to be done with basically no budget - this is a remarkable good story. Its also interesting for there being no real villain - indeed the main problem is simply the Fast Return switch being broken and causing the TARDIS to malfunction, setting up jeopardy in many future expanded universe Doctor Who stories.

The main highlight of this story in my eyes is in developing the relationships of the characters: this feels like the ultimate end of the somewhat-antagonistic relationship between the Doctor and Ian+Barbara. While the obvious impacts of the TARDIS console malfunctioning is on Susan (who spends the first episode threatening Ian and Barbara with scissors; being clearly sceptical of their motives) and then the cliffhanger setup with Ian it impacts the Doctor longer than anyone else; and its only the fault locator providing additional information that helps the crew unite, stick together the various chains of information they have to learn the issue at hand.

I guess downsides might be around the pacing - although it moves quicker than the Daleks - and the fact that a TARDIS-bound two partner with no villain is unlikely to be quite as exciting; and the natural conclusion (the fault being a broken spring in a switch) is somewhat anti-climactic. Overall though I really enjoyed this story; and as an ending the 13 episode initial run until we get to the first lost episode it works well.

On to The Edge of Destruction the first bottle episode of Doctor who on tv and timeline code s1.3. This story is very interesting behind the scenes, with it being only made because Marco Polo ate up the budget.

Anyway into part one The Edge of Destruction. The episode starting where we left off, the Tardis seeming to crash and everyone being knocked out. Slowly the crew start to wake up and instantly the vibe is all off, everyone’s memories are fuzzy and OMG the music. This early hum being used though out the beginning. Soon Susan wakes up and goes to get a bandage for the Doctor who’s cut his head, Barbara being the one we follow for most of this story is then startled by Ian. William Russell plays Ian wonderfully here very unnerving. We get a moment where the Doctor rambles while he’s asleep about leaving with Susan. I love how through out this timeline marathon, this episode kind of gives me vindication as it references quite a bit of S0a n S0b. Anyway Susan comes back with the bandages and is terrified, the doors are open we learn the Tardis can’t crash too. Ian tries to get close to the open doors but they close suddenly, and as he walks away they open. Susan then suddenly faints and as that happens, Ian suddenly starts to act normally taking her to the infirmary. The food machine also starts to act weird, saying empty before dispensing water. When Ian comes back Susan is holding scissors unaware who Ian is, fun fact bout this scene it caused quite a ruckus in the 60s and people where worried kids would copy Susan with the scissors n stab things. With everyone up they start to discuss there predicament, Barbara suggesting something might have got into the ship. I adore Barbara in this story I’d say so far Ian and the Doctor have the Daleks to flesh out, Susan has An Unearthly Child, this is Barbara’s character piece. The story is heavily focused on character moments and trying to merge the team into one unity. Anyway the Doctor blows off Barbara’s theory, and the Doctor n Ian go to work on the console. As that happens Susan grabs the scissors again and walks back into the infirmary. Barbara goes to check on her, Carol Ann Ford really stretches her acting mussels in this scene. It leads to an argument between the two, Susan has a moment trying to stop herself suggesting to Barbara maybe the intruder is in one of them. It seems the way I interpret this is Susan has the Tardis using her body as a vessel to communicate. Anyway Susan hears Ian talk about the scanner and she runs into the control room, to stop the Doctor using it. Susan now being in control of her Brady the Doctor and her having a pain at the back of there neck. The Scanner turns on revealing earth and the doors open, having to close them suddenly. Then Quinnis is shown again another fun timeline marathon moment. The scanner then shows them a planet getting further away until a white flash. Anyway the Doctor starts to make a in his mind logical deduction, blaming Ian and Barbara for this, the two denying it. His reasoning being to blackmail him to take the two back to earth. Barbara snaps and gets an amazing snap in at the doctor, commenting on how he would have died if it wasn’t for them both in the caves and on Skaro. I love Barbara so much she’s such a good moral compass. She turns and screams seeing a clock, now this clock is an effect thag clearly isn’t clear, but having watched the making of I now know it’s melting the numbers n hands, to take away time for the group. The effect is bad but again Marco Polo ate the money so I’ll let it slide. The crew gather to see Barbara taking off her watch and throwing it in distress. The Doctor decides a cool off is in order and gives everyone a drink, to relax and sleep. Barbara still in distress walks out the room, Susan follows, leaving Ian to say he should apologise to Barbara. The Doctor says there is no time for manners, something I love about the Doctor in these early episodes. The Doctor says to Ian to sleep on it, Susan also apologises to Barbara for the Doctor an amazing moment for the pair. With the crew asleep the Doctor runs some checks on the Tardis but someone grabs his neck. Boom cliffhanger.

Part 1 is such a good atmospheric insight to all 4 characters head spaces at the moment in time. Barbara is given her moment to shine, I feel she is like a said a moral compass for the group, but also a very good audience surrogate for this episode.

On ti part 2 now Blink of Destruction, big reveal Ian is the person who grabbed the Doctor. This further pushes the Doctors narrative, he pushes Ian off him as Barbara walks in. Barbara and the Doctor argue as Susan walks in, saying she agrees with the Doctor, desperately Barbara tries to wake Ian up. Jacquline Hill plays Barbara amazingly in this scene, trying to get Susan to also remember what happened too. The Doctor thinking she’s trying to divide and conquer, this leads to the Doctor wanting to push the two off the ship. If you really think about it the Doctor is the villain in this story and it’s such a weird feeling seeing him in this light, but it works. Anyway Susan tries to convince the Doctor he’s wrong, but then a movie is heard, a warning from the fault locator warning that everything is wrong. Ian then grabs Barbara’s neck saying the controls are alive. The Doctor is now terrified as the ship is on the verge of disintegration. The Doctor now realising he was in the wrong sheepishly dances round Ian and Barbara till all 4 work together to work out what’s wrong with the ship. Barbara realised that time was taken away from them then given back because it’s running out, she is such a good character in this story I will keep praising her. Then the ship shakes, the Doctor mentioning the heart of the Tardis, as the colon moves showing some energy is escaping. The Doctor realised they have 10 minuets left to live, but Barbara the little Sherlock Holmes, she realised they have been given clues throughout the story to help with the issue, the food machines, the clock, she also is the first to realise the Tardis is alive. Can I just say I love how in a 1960s show a woman is shown to be more aware and quicker to the problem solving then the men it’s iconic. The crew discuss more, revealing the power escaping has been using the 4 as a defence mechanism. The Doctor sends Susan and Barbara to watch the doors and then tells Ian he doesn’t know what to do. The doors open and Susan realised there’s nothing there, the doctor starts to realises the scanner was also a clue telling them what happened. Then oh oh then we get the best William Hartnell moment so far this monologue is so good, especially since though out the story Hartnell does stubble on his lines a little so doing this monologue all in one take, brilliant honestly brilliant. The Doctor and Ian realise the fast return switch is stuck, honestly I love how this story is all because of a stuck button. They fix it and the Tardis becomes fully operational. Barbara still remembering that the Doctor was going to throw her and Ian out, especially since the cause was a stick spring when the Doctor goes up to her and says they owe her there lives, she walks away. The Doctor saying he’s underestimated her to Ian, this is what I call character development, and when the two meet up once they land the two have a heart to heart and I love this scene, it’s not the Doctor talking down to her it’s not the Doctor talking up to her it’s him seeing her as an equal, and honestly an underrated moment of the first Doctors era. Susan comes in and throws some snow on the crew, Ian and the doctor talk then Susan calls to the Doctor finding a massive footprint in the snow, an alright cliffhanger to leave this story on.

This story as a whole is bloody brilliant, honestly so underrated cause it’s a 2 parter in between two good 7 parters. I highly recommend this story as anyone’s first, first doctor story. I know some people don’t like the button being the cause, but I love it the fact it’s so mundane and small makes the doctors actions so much more hurtful. It makes you sympathise with Barbara more who is my fav character of the group after this story.

There is some interesting dialogue and character development in this, as well as the most coolest water dispenser I've ever seen (I wish they existed). However, nothing really happens story wise across the two episodes. They very much feel like 'spare' episodes when compared to The Daleks but its nice to see various different rooms in the TARDIS and see the seeds sown for the idea of the time machine being a 'living creature'.

The first one that’s on the weaker side. Something is messing up the Tardis and the team suffers from the consequences. Still, a lot of unexplained stuff happens in this story that I can’t really wrap my head around. Why do people randomly have pain in their necks? Was that just from the crash? What do the images on the Tardis screen mean? Why does Susan go mental and stab a chair? It is not very coherent. Which is a shame, cause testing how strong these characters truly are after 2 adventures could be way more interesting.

I do like the light this story shines on Barbara, finally giving her more definitive traits. She is smart, doesn’t like to be outdone, and can stand her ground when needed. The best scene in the story is at the end. The doctor, stubborn as he is, can’t admit he was wrong earlier, but he comes to apologize later on. This is important, as it is the first time our lead truly shows weakness. He has made mistakes, but we’ve never taken the time to sit down and make amends to the ones near him. It also strengthens the relationship between him and Barbara a lot. As she understands this takes a lot from him, and she gets the validation that she stood for what she believed in and was right.

Doctor Who: The Hartnell Years Season 01 Serial 03

A decent short bite story. I admit it was rather chaotic and difficult to follow. Perfectly skippable.

considering they had no money, this one turned out surprisingly well
the first episode is tense in a way i quite like, and the slow realisation in episode two is quite good too
this story also serves to bridge the gap in character dynamics between the daleks and marco polo, with ian and barbara distrusting the doctor in the former and them all working together in the latter, and i think it does that well
the last scene with the doctor and barbara is particularly good for it
and we end with the gong sound with which you'll be very familiar by the end of the next story

Man, I love this one. Objectively, it's not the greatest in terms of plot, and the resolution is a bit of a letdown, but the vibes are impeccable. A two-part bottle episode created to fill a gap in the episode count has no right being this good, but the entire cast put their absolute all into the performance, and the result is a fantastic psychological thriller and character development for the whole crew (with the possible exception of Susan, who just gets to go feral, but that is the right of all teenage girls).

🙏🏼61% = Okay! = Skippable!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! This time: a bottle episode, a creepy Susan, and a solution in felt-tip.

The first truly experimental story in Doctor Who is a bottle episode set completely within the TARDIS, with some strange and haunting concepts at play.

Narratively, the adventure is in shambles. Although The Edge of Destruction explores intriguing ideas on paper, its integration into a cohesive narrative is incredibly careless.

One of the biggest problems here is the plethora of ambitious sci-fi concepts and weird, unexplained phenomena that don't fully come alive with the resources put into the serial.

I don't find that all the dots connect very well here; it's almost as if writer David Whittaker had a conclusion ready and then just made up the road to get there while writing the scripts.

The sense of mystery putting these four individuals against each other is what fuels most of the early parts of this episode, before the characters understand that working together is the way to success.

The serial messes around with established characterization, and it is too early for that; we don't know the characters well enough for these character-breaking traits to have an effect.

I'd say this is where Carole Ann Ford's decline as a companion begins; she gets the least to do here and is mostly over-the-top annoying. She won't have another good story until The Sensorites.

Barbara and the Doctor going head-to-head against each other is the most satisfying aspect of this serial, as these scenes are well-performed by William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill.

I like Hartnell's little monologue at the end of Part Two; it's beautifully shot and an early defining moment for this Doctor.

The pacing is pretty good, as the story keeps shifting all the time, almost too rapidly at times, and throws in way too many ideas at the same time.

The solution to the problem is so laughably bad that it is easily the worst solution to the weirdest villain in the series' history.