“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.”
The
Edge of Destruction is one of those Doctor Who stories that does not get much
recognition. It is a really great story
and one that is actually in a way pretty spooky. I say that because this story is the only
one, so far, that takes place entirely in the TARDIS and there is something wrong
with the ship as Doctor Number One would call it at the time. Plus the story and the situation you see
everyone pitted against one another and you get a great sense of paranoia from
the 4 members of the TARDIS crew. Maybe
that’s why I like it so much as it is very different and not like the stories
we have had so far or will ever.
For
those that have not seen The Edge of Destruction it is such an easy story to
follow along. It is basically about that
there is something wrong with the TARDIS and it is trying to tell the four
travelers that something is wrong by dropping hints and clues for them to try
and decipher. There are some good clues
like the melting clocks and the scanner showing The Doctor’s and Susan’s trips
in reverse order.
But
the problem is that at the beginning they are all disorientated from an
explosion which injures The Doctor’s head. Keep your eye out for the special bandage
that has medicine in it and you can tell its working as the lines of the
bandage keep disappearing. There is a lot of strange stuff going on also. The Doctor’s paranoia and what is up with
Susan as she is extremely paranoid and all of a sudden psychotic as she is
going around with scissors and using it as a weapon as the TARDIS beds found
out. It is probably the best performance
that Carole Ann Ford did during her time on Doctor Who.
What
I like about The Edge of Destruction is that the four members of the TARDIS
crew need to start trusting one another and figure out what is wrong with the
TARDIS and why all the strange stuff like the TARDIS doors opening by
themselves is happening. Since they are
still all trying to get to know each other, since this is their third adventure,
we get to see some character development especially with Barbara who turns out
is a woman who will stand up for herself.
At one instance she tells The Doctor off and puts him in his place.
The
Edge of Destruction is one of those hidden gems that great series
have. It gets overlooked a lot because
it is from the black and white era and quite frankly Dalekmania was off and
running and there were other stories from The First Doctor era that get noticed
more. It is a very clever story and one
where the main culprit is introduced for the first time. That’s right the fast return switch. You see it got stuck and the TARDIS kept
going back to the big bang. How clever
is that. It’s such a simple story that
it works. Sometimes it’s the story that
doesn’t have the special effects or the rubber suit monsters that are the
scariest like The Edge of Destruction which strikes you on so many emotion
levels. The Edge of Destruction is a
pure and classic science fiction story and should get more appreciation from
Doctor Who fans.
Picture source
©Doctor
Who 1963
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