Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction

Also called "Inside the Spaceship"

Alright! A two-parter! It'll be nice and short with no problems. Since I've never seen this episode, I decided to find out just a little bit about it so that I can say something other than the name of the episode and how I feel and hour later. This episode aired originally on February 8 and February 15, 1964. It was written by David Whitaker who I've never heard of, but it seems he wrote a number of Dalek episodes and other Doctor Who episodes so that should be interesting. I'll be seeing his name more then. This is what they call a "bottle episode". Everything is shot in a single set.

So, we could also call this episode "One Hour in the TARDIS". That sounds interesting. We never spend much time in there in the New Series...

Unless you count Neil Gaimen's episode which was the sixth series and didn't even last the whole episode. Besides, I call that episode, "Most of the Episode With the TARDIS"... It's a completely different thing.

Anyhow, on with the show!

One hour later...

Well, that was certainly interesting and different. This was Doctor Who's first experiment with psychological horror and while, it's not as creepy as Midnight from the new series, it's still fairly creepy at certain points and even a little disturbing. This is the first episode that reveals the the TARDIS may be more than just a time traveling space ship--it may be a conscious time travelling spaceship. The Doctor, of course, shows a bit more of his character and you learn more about him and Susan.

One line that I hope I learn more about in the series is when you first come in on the characters after they've passed out and Ian and Barbara are examining and unconscious, injured Doctor. He says, still delirious  "I'm sorry. I can't take you home, Susan."

We already know the Doctor can't or won't take Ian and Barbara home, but what does this mean about Susan? Did he kidnap her too? The characters don't address it other than to exclaim that the Doctor is delirious and talking nonsense.

So, of course, my mind zeroed in on it. Though in the first episode they did mention that Susan and the Doctor were exiles. Is he just remembering that?

The rest of the serial is a paranoia-inducing ride where strange things are happening on the TARDIS. Various characters who touch the console are passing out and losing their memories. The TARDIS doors keep opening on their own after a sequence of picture on the in-TARDIS screen. The food machine introduced in the last serial is saying that it's empty while still producing food and water. Everything just seems to be going wrong and everyone has their ideas about why.

Susan suspects there are aliens on board, probably within the crew.

Ian thinks the Doctor is up to something.

Barbara is divided between agreeing with Susan and not knowing what to think.

The Doctor thinks Ian and Barbara messed with the TARDIS console in an attempt to go home and have sabotaged his ship.

This all plays out for the first episode and ends with Barbara putting it all together and realizing that, for some reason, they're headed for disaster and the TARDIS is trying to warn them. The second episode is about trying to figure out how to avert disaster and save everyone.

In the end, the Doctor reveals he was trying to get Ian and Barbara home, and he pressed the "Fast Return" button to take them back to Earth and Ian and Barbara's time. However, the "Fast Return" button had a broken spring and never disengaged so they just kept moving backwards. Which would've led to them going to the beginning of time where the TARDIS would've exploded.

The Doctor fixes the button, the day is saved and then the Doctor has to do something awful. He has to apologize. I am getting a kick out of how this Doctor is wrong so much. There's technobabble in this episode, but watching him try to apologize to Ian and Barbara when he doesn't like to is just delicious! It's also incredibly cute in a Grandpa kind of way. I just want to give him a hug and offer him a jammy dodger with a cup of tea.

I liked this little two-part serial. It was dull, but it made up for it in the creepiness factor and the psychological bits of it. I mean, part of the story is you've got this old codger who doesn't trust you and won't listen to you. I understand that! I used to work in a nursing home! I wonder if the Doctor has ever had a nursing assistant as a companion? That would be pretty funny.

Oh yeah! One other thing! Ian listens to the Doctor's heart at one part and says it sounds normal. As I know that the Doctor is supposed to have two, I was a little confused. I looked it up and found out you don't hear about the binary cardiopulmonary system until the Third Doctor came along. Apparently, there's a tie-in novel out there that explains that the Doctor didn't get a second heart until he regenerated into the Second Doctor. I think this is silly. However, I just figured Ian had never listened to the Doctor's heart before and knew nothing about Time Lords and the shock did temporarily mess up the Doctor's heart which is why he was out for so long. He needed to recover or some such. That or Ian was just trying to reassure Barbara and the two hearts thing confused the hell out of him. You pick.

Doctor Who is all about personal canon. You pick what you like and everyone else is wrong.Though if they listen to his heart more throughout the season, I'll be inclined to follow the novel-related canon.

Up next is... Marco Polo! Unless I can't find it... then it's... The Keys of Marinus. If you don't know why I might not be able to find Marco Polo, tune in for the next segment!