The Edge of Destruction
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DVD NTSC
Region 1
"The Beginning"
3-story box set
for North America
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DVD PAL
Region 2
"The Beginning"
3-story box set
for the U.K.
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VHS Video
NTSC
PAL
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(Doctor Who Story No. 3, starring William Hartnell)
- written by David Whitaker
- directed by Richard Martin (episode 1) and Frank Cox (episode 2)
- produced by Verity Lambert
- featuring library music tracks
- 2 episodes @ 25 minutes each
- The Edge of Destruction
- The Brink of Disaster
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Story: Attempting to return
to Earth's Solar System, the TARDIS crashes
to a dead stop in space, the controls
refusing to respond. Some of the crew
begin to act strange, and distrust one another.
Has one of them become a saboteur, as the Doctor
suspects? Or has an alien presence found its
way aboard the TARDIS?
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DVD Extras include:
- "Over the Edge" - a 30 minute making-of featurette
with interviews of the cast & crew
- Inside the Ship - featurette on the set & sound design of the TARDIS
- Origins - a 53 minute in-depth look at the creation of Doctor Who
with interviews of the late Sydney Newman
and new interviews of the cast & crew.
- Masters of Sound - featurette on the creation of the theme music
and sound effects for Doctor Who, with Delia Berbyshire,
Brian Hodgson, and Dick Mills.
- Episode 2 optional Arabic soundtrack
- Pop-up Production Note subtitles, providing behind-the-scenes info as you watch.
- Marco Polo - a 30 minute condensed version of this
lost 7-episode adventure, featuring telesnap stills
synchronized to the original tv audio.
- Photo Gallery for "The Edge of Destruction" and "Marco Polo".
In-Depth Analysis Review
by Martin Izsak
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WARNING: This review contains "SPOILERS", and is intended for
those who have already seen the program. To avoid the spoilers, read
the Buyers' Guide version instead.
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Doctor Who continues its success with a short "bottle story"
designed to focus on its central characters and their development
into a working team. While this story isn't quite as polished
or interesting as the previous two, it
remains unique and has a lot of good things to offer,
not least of which is the completion of "The Beginning" arc
for the four humanoid characters, and a rare exploration of the
character of the TARDIS vehicle itself.
Episode One - The Edge of Destruction - directed by Richard Martin
This story gets off to a very shaky start. The final
shot is reprised from the end of
"The Daleks" (the previous story),
and continues through to follow up on the cliffhanger ending
for that last story.
Next, the first crew members to regain consciousness are
unfortunately Barbara and Susan. David Whitaker's writing of
incoherent characters does not make good television
viewing. Susan begins to flop around making tired, exhasperating,
desperate sounds, for reasons not very apparant to us. In her
upcoming dialogue with Barbara, neither of them pays attention
to what the other has said, and it is very tedious to try to
follow their train of thought because it takes them a LONG
time to finish a coherent sentence.
Ian is next to wake up,
and he doesn't improve the situation much, coughing up much
of the same daftness as his two predecessors. Usually, when Ian
is given something intelligent to say or do, "William" Russell
turns in a great and riveting performance.
Here he is often meant to simply stand in one spot and react
emotionally, and unfortunately poor Russell sometimes
turns into a bland stick of wood in these situations.
There's plenty of such moments in this story,
except here the wood is also limp and
unable to stand properly in the first place. How director
Richard Martin allowed this silliness to go before his cameras
is a testimony to his not yet having acquired the ability to really
command quality television at this point in his career, and it takes
a real leap of faith on the audience's part to stay tuned in to see
if something worthwhile will come out of this story.
Finally, the Doctor wakes up, and William
Hartnell's screen presence quickly restores drama to the
proceedings. Now there is plot, intrigue, and realistic
emotional expression. Susan makes a comeback with some very
memorable moments in her performance, suddenly appearing in
Ian's vision to menace him with scissors (finally some nice
direction with moving camera angles here!!) although
this quickly decays into hamminess as she stabs the couch
with more floppy desperation, relying on the perfect music to
carry the scene further. Also, Barbara's suggestion that something
from outside has entered the TARDIS (either a mutant creature
from Skaro, or an interdimensional whatever from the whiteness
of the time vortex; take your pick), followed by Susan's
suggestion that such a thing might hide "in one of us", acted
with perfect creepiness as though the thing is inside her -
this is one of the story's best and most memorable moments.
Barbara also has the chance to give the Doctor the sharp
end of her tongue, a great dramatic moment that is enjoyable
to watch. However, it seems completely unrealistic to me,
(the way it was shot anyway) that she could storm away from
that confrontation in a fury of anger and even notice the
distorted clock-face, let alone scream with such silliness
and collapse into the sobbing blob of jelly that David Whitaker
seems to think is the natural state of the female psyche. It
seems more reasonable to me that Barbara was ready to take on
Daleks with her bare hands at that particular moment.
Cinematically, it is really poorly done also, because it is
not only unclear why she is reacting that way, but also what
exactly she is reacting to. I often find it very hard to see
that something is wrong with the clock, and of course, Mr. Whitaker
has put
Barbara in a state where she is unable to articulate herself and
explain what's unnerved her so.
This story is famous for being the first to really
explore the interior of the TARDIS, but it is interesting to
note that ALL of the deep interior scenes beyond the console
room appear in this first episode of the story, particularly
the rooms with the strange bucket-seat beds.
Episode Two - The Brink of Disaster - directed by Frank Cox
Someone once asked what the longest scene in Doctor Who was,
and the erroneous reply was the first scene in the TARDIS
interior in
"An Unearthly Child" (story no. 1).
Well, sorry, no, I disagree.
After the reprise from the previous episode,
what follows is most DEFINITELY the longest
scene ever in Doctor Who. Recording for "THE BRINK OF DISASTER"
begins in the console room and stays there for a full 18 and
a half minutes, right past the dramatic climax of the
story. This is almost the full 25-minute episode, so I dare
any fan to show me a longer uncut scene of
original Doctor Who!
(Yes, I know,
"Midnight" (story no. 201)
has recently set a new record in the 45-minute episode format,
but that episode still has much to learn from the achievement
here.)
I have to hand it to director Frank Cox, and the cast of
Doctor Who (William Hartnell in particular) for being able to
pull this off without it seeming to become long, or boring,
or claustrophobic, or anything other than good riveting drama
all the way through. There are only a few minor glitches
in the production - an unscheduled revealing of Ian's
underwear as he lies on the floor is not particulary inspiring,
and his habit of trying to grab at people's throats everytime
he gets in a panic to warn them of his fears doesn't make a lot
of credible sense.
This two-part story was supposedly meant to re-introduce
viewers who may have missed the pilot to the main characters
and the TARDIS and to expand and develop them, and dig deeper
into who they are. It was poised to do so perfectly, and managed
it somewhat - The TARDIS (a fifth character) comes out of this
story with the best development, and the Doctor and Barbara
are close seconds. But all this ridiculous concussed behaviour
business really should have been under much tighter control,
because it is ugly to watch, and only shows us who our characters
are NOT. One concussed character, or two at the most, should have
been sufficient, so that the others can remain sane and discuss
the problems and concerns over the concussed ones, without trying
to let the concussed ones carry the story on their own - this would
have worked better. The only part of the concussed behaviour
plot that worked was the possibility of Susan being possessed.
The Doctor is largely responsible for solving the mystery
and employing the solution, although Ian helps with encouraging
questions (as a sidekick should), and the Doctor hands much
of the credit to Barbara later, who fought tooth and nail to
keep the Doctor from lapsing into recriminations and losing
his head down the wrong path. Still, this is the best example
of a heroic Doctor that the series has come up with so far.
Nice one David Whitaker!
The story finishes with the Doctor and Barbara healing
their emotional differences just outside the console room.
It is a very believably acted and moving scene, as the
interaction of these two has been particularly exceptional
throughout the story. Okay, so episode two does feature
something from the `deeper' portions of the TARDIS, but not
much. It is also interesting to note that the Fault Locator
Room appears to be a completely separate room in the first
episode, in the way in which it was shot, but it appears in
this episode to be part of the console room separated by
a glass divider.
Finally, we get a welcome bit of a teaser for Marco Polo
as the travellers prepare to explore the frozen snows outside -
a fun scene that proves that all is well again for the TARDIS
and her crew.
Thus, Doctor Who's third story turns out to be a successful and
enjoyable little coda to the previous two classics that launched the
show, and the series can now continue with a better bonded team
leading us through the adventures. The best gem of season one,
however, is still yet to come....
This story has become available on DVD as the third adventure in
"The Beginning" DVD box set.
Click on the Amazon symbol for the location nearest you
for pricing and availability:
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DVD NTSC Region 1
The Beginning 3-story box set
for the North American market:
in the U.S.
in Canada
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DVD PAL Region 2
The Beginning 3-story box set
for the U.K.
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VHS Video
NTSC
for North America
PAL
for the U.K.
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