The Edge of Destruction

003 - The Edge of Destruction / Inside the Spaceship
Cast
Doctor William Hartnell (First Doctor)
Companion Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
Production
Directed by	Richard Martin (episode 1) Frank Cox (episode 2)
Written by	David Whitaker
Script editor	David Whitaker
Produced by	Verity Lambert Mervyn Pinfield (associate producer)
Executive producer(s)	None
Production code	C
Running time	2 episodes, 25 mins each
First broadcast	February 8–February 15, 1964
Chronology
← Preceded by The Daleks Followed by → Marco Polo

The Edge of Destruction (also known as Inside the Spaceship, among other titles, see below) is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 2 weekly parts on February 8 and February 15, 1964.

Synopsis

After the First Doctor's failed efforts to regain control of the TARDIS's faulty control system result in an explosion causing everyone to black out, the Doctor and his companions find themselves trapped in the craft. Strange occurrences cause them to suspect the TARDIS has been infiltrated or worse — that one of the crew members has sabotaged the TARDIS.

Plot

File:The Edge of Destruction.jpg

Barbara, Ian, the Doctor and Susan observe the broken clock inside the TARDIS.

The First 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. After they awake, Ian and Susan appear to have slight cases of amnesia and everyone begins to act strangely. Unexpected events are happening on the TARDIS, the travellers are becoming suspicious of each other's motives, and the Doctor even accuses Ian and Barbara of sabotage. Fearing that they have been taken over by some alien force — or that they have intentionally sabotaged the TARDIS in order to force the Doctor to return them to 1963 — he drugs them and attempts to explore the problem without interference.

Gradually it becomes clear that the strange events are an attempt by the TARDIS itself to warn the crew that something is wrong. Thanks to Barbara's clue-gathering, 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. Although the day is saved, Barbara is still affected by the Doctor's harsh words earlier. The Doctor is forced to do what he least enjoys — apologise, and admit that he was wrong about Barbara and Ian.

The story closes with the TARDIS materialising 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

Continuity

• This serial introduces the ideas that the TARDIS console and time column directly harness the energies which drive the ship, and that the TARDIS is "alive" and somewhat self-aware. These ideas would come up again on occasion as the original series progressed, but would become major plot points during the 2005 series, in particular in the episodes "Boom Town" and "The Parting of the Ways".

• When Ian examines the injured Doctor, he remarks that "his heart seems fine." However, the Third Doctor serial Spearhead from Space reveals that the Doctor has two hearts. The tie-in novel The Man in the Velvet Mask states (incorporating an explanation for the discrepancy from fan lore) that the Doctor did not grow his second heart until his regeneration into the Second Doctor. An alternative explanation can be found in "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Shakespeare Code", in which the Doctor's second heart stops due to severe trauma.

• This story explicitly states that the Doctor and Susan had visited other worlds before 1963 Earth. Susan mentions that four or five journeys back they had visited the planet Quinnis where the TARDIS had almost been lost – a foreshadowing of the next story Marco Polo.

• The Doctor's extensive wardrobe is first mentioned at the end of the story, with Ian showing off an ulster that the Doctor had received from Gilbert and Sullivan.

• The "Chesterfield" running-gag started in the last story, The Daleks, is used in this episode to signify that everything has returned to normal after the climax. Here the Doctor calls Ian "Charterhouse".

• This is the first time the TARDIS ever went to the beginning of time and show it's problem to the Doctor and his companions. This also happens in the second half and first half of episodes 1 and 2 in Castrovalva only instead of the TARDIS let everyone of its members to go weird and crazy, it shows the problem by heating up and deliberately letting the members know that the Master did this.

Production

This story was written by story editor David Whitaker within two days. It was created as a hasty "filler" story so that the series would fit a thirteen episode run, which was all that had been granted at that stage. Budgetary restrictions meant that only the four regular actors and the TARDIS sets could be used for the filming. Perhaps as a result of this, this is the least expensive Doctor Who serial ever, and the second episode ("The Brink of Disaster") is the cheapest episode ever. (Today, this type of production using existing sets and no additional cast is common practice among television productions and is called a "bottle show"). In fact it was the cheapness of this serial that producer Verity Lambert used to calm the fears of her BBC superiors that Doctor Who would be too expensive a commitment for the corporation. (The most expensive episode to date is, according to SFX #152, the 2007 Tenth Doctor episode, The Shakespeare Code.)

The "fast return" switch label on the TARDIS console appears to be written in felt-tip pen. Exactly why this was done is uncertain; on the DVD, documentary designer Raymond Cusick guesses that it was written during rehearsals as a guide, and producer Verity Lambert surmises that it may have been written so that Hartnell could find the switch. Both agree, however, that the label was probably never intended to be seen. Carole Ann Ford states the she and William Hartnell labeled controls on the TARDIS control panel during rehearsal, and assumed they would be blotted out before production.

Alternative titles

The two episodes of the serial had individual titles. They were, respectively, "The Edge of Destruction" and "The Brink of Disaster." As was the case with other early Doctor Who serials, there are differences of opinion as to the appropriate umbrella title for this serial.

Various titles used over the years include:

• Inside the Spaceship — the only title known to have been used on 1960s production documents, also used by writer David Whitaker in all correspondence throughout his life.
• Beyond the Sun — used on the first edition of the 1974 BBC Enterprises sales catalogue A Quick Guide to Dr. Who, although the second edition declines to give any title for the story. It was actually a working title for the first Dalek story and has also at times been attributed to an unmade story by Malcolm Hulke called The Hidden Planet.
• The Brink of Disaster — the title of the second episode, arbitrarily adopted for a fan list in the seeming absence of anything else.
• The Edge of Destruction — the title of the first episode, arbitrarily adopted for the 1976 second edition of The Making of Doctor Who in the absence of any other known title, and subsequently used on the novelisation, VHS and DVD releases of the stories.

See: Doctor Who story title controversy

In print

File:The Edge of Destruction book cover.jpg

The Target novelisation by Nigel Robinson

A novelisation of this serial, written by Nigel Robinson, was published by Target Books on 20 October 1988 under the title The Edge of Destruction. It was the 132nd Doctor Who novelisation by Target Books. The cover was made by Alister Pearson.

Broadcast, VHS and DVD release

• This story was released on VHS in 2000.
• In 2006, The Edge of Destruction was included on The Beginning, a DVD box set of the first three Hartnell stories.

External links

• The Edge of Destruction at BBC Online
• Template:Brief
• Template:Doctor Who RG
• Template:OG
• The Edge of Destruction on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki

Reviews

• Template:DWRG
• Template:OG review

Target novelisation

• Template:OG review
• On Target — The Edge of Destruction