The Edge of Destruction (TV story)

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.

Summary
A mysterious blast renders the TARDIS crew unconscious. They awake disorientated and soon find that the TARDIS is strangely malfunctioning. As all of 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 Milky Way Galaxy. The Doctor corrects the problem and the travellers are able to escape.

The Edge of Destruction (1)
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 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. Becuase 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, during 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 grabs 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 accussed by the Doctor of sabotage.

As Barbara tries to reason with the Doctor, Susan enters the room and sides with her grandfather, but then finds herself believeing in her teachers'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, loacted 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 beginning of time; 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

 * Dr Who - William Hartnell
 * Ian Chesterton - William Russell
 * Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill
 * Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford

Crew

 * Writer - David Whitaker
 * Director - Richard Martin (episode 1), Frank Cox (episode 2)
 * Producer - Verity Lambert
 * Script Editor - David Whitaker
 * Designer - Raymond Cusick
 * Assistant Floor Manager - Jeremy Hare
 * Associate Producer - Mervyn Pinfield
 * Costumes - Daphne Dare
 * Make-Up - Ann Ferriggi
 * Production Assistant - Tony Lightley
 * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - Dennis Channon
 * Studio Sound - Jack Brummitt
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer

Individuals

 * Gilbert and Sullivan

Races and Species

 * Daleks

Planets

 * Quinnis
 * Skaro

Astronomical Objects

 * Fourth universe
 * Sun

Ratings

 * The Edge of Destruction - 10.4m viewers
 * The Brink of Disaster - 9.9m 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)

Location Filming

 * The story was filmed at Lime Grove Studio D

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Error

 * In episode 1 the studio floor is visible in the "white void" outside the TARDIS
 * Fast Return Switch is written in felt tip pen on the console
 * There are a couple of serious dialogue problems with William Hartnell. At one point he repeats the same line twice causing problems for the other actors.
 * William Hartnell completely omits the scripted explanation for the melted clock faces
 * While being central to the plot the idea that a device such as the TARDIS would use a spring seems a little strange

Continuity

 * From this point, the Doctor's personality becomes somewhat mellower and friendlier, but no less crotchety.
 * The TARDIS and its crew were placed into similar peril by the Master in "Castrovalva."
 * The TARDIS's abilities are further expanded upon in Boom Town and The Parting of the Ways.
 * The Fast Return Switch is again used in The Witch Hunters, Seasons of Fear and Neverland.
 * The TARDIS power source is beneath the central console. "Boom Town" suggests this is in fact the Heart of the TARDIS.
 * The only other episodes to feature only the Doctor and his companion(s) is the 2005 Children In Need Special.
 * The Doctor and Susan have visited the planet Quinnis in the fourth universe four of five journeys ago.
 * The coat the Doctors lends Ian was given to him by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Story 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.

DVD, 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:
 * Region 2 30th January 2006
 * PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1882


 * Region 4 2nd March 2006
 * PAL - Roadshow ????


 * Region 1 28th March 2006
 * NTSC - Warner Video E2489


 * 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:
 * UK Release: May 2000
 * PAL - BBC Video BBCV6877
 * US Release: October 2000
 * NTSC - Warner Video E1578 (2 tapes)

Notes: This video release includes the full takes of the The Pilot Episode. The US release also included the documentary The Missing Years and episode 3 of The Underwater Menace.