Next in the lineup comes a two-part
story, made as a budget saving measure at the last minute and featuring only
the four leads. The Edge of Destruction is an odd duck in several ways. Minimal
sets, primarily the TARDIS console room, four actors, barely any incidental
music – all add up to a strange and surreal piece of television. More than
that, the story marks the point where the inter-personal dynamic of the TARDIS
crew makes a dramatic shift.
Episode One
finds the crew with scrambled or lost memories after a blinding flash
(explosion??) in the TARDIS renders them all unconscious. That right there is
just about the only straightforward narrative in this story until well into
Episode Two. Characters wander the ship,
asking questions of each other and receiving no answers. It plays like
something out of the Theatre of the Absurd: Doctor Who meets Waiting for Godot.
Personalities are either wiped, leaving characters as ciphers, or in the case
of Susan, transformed into a scissor wielding attempted murderer. The scene
where Susan repeatedly stabs her bed is shocking and breaks up the quiet, lost
atmosphere that the rest of the episode holds. Carole Ann Ford takes my breath
away as “Crazy Susan,” she does so much with so little. Her blank vacant stare is just as chilling as
anything from “The Daleks”. This November, she is appearing at the Long Island
Who Convention and I would LOVE to see her do a live commentary on this story.
Once we get
into Episode Two, this is where the dynamics amongst the four regulars become
brought to the fore. The Doctor is accusatory, paranoid, even threatening to
eject Barbara and Ian from the TARDIS. Barbara is the voice of rationality,
Susan goes from being murderous to being an ally, and poor Ian is unconscious
for a fair amount of the episode. Once all of the plot-based problems are
solved and the TARDIS is safe once more, these conflicts are not simply
forgotten. Barbara is PISSED at the
Doctor and with good reason. Knowing
that it was she who helped save their lives, the Doctor is contrite, although
tellingly never offers a full outright apology.
It’s in
this story that the tensions that have been evident since Ian and Barbara
forced their way into the TARDIS are, if not resolved, then at the very least,
tempered. The Doctor is less condescending to his Earthling companions, even
showing them some begrudging respect. He is also less self-centered by the end –
it’s like his Time Lord heart (he seems to have only one here, remember), grew like
the Grinch’s inside that wire frame. The crew has gone from fellow travelers,
to acting more like “companions” of each other.
Not quite friends, but a lot closer than they have been up until now.
I was
surprised by Edge of Destruction. I expected it to be a little strange, but
just a bit of fluff. This was not the
case at all. David Whitaker’s last minute script is amazingly plotted and paced.
The limited use of sets and the focus entirely on the TARDIS and her crew make
this story a real turning point in the birth of the program. The Daleks may
have given the show its initial boost of popularity, but I believe that “Edge
of Destruction” made the characters into ones that an audience would gladly
follow, no matter where in space and time they ended up next.
NEXT EPISODE: Marco Polo
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