The Edge of Destruction
They say you never really get to know a person until you've gone to hell with them. Or something like that. Imagine if you will you're stuck in an elevator with strangers, or people you may only slightly know, and what kind of frictions might develop as you await rescue. Now take it a step farther and remove the possibility of rescue, that you are helpless, that there are forces working against you that are going to kill you. And then you want someone to blame. Add sharks and you've got Open Water, which followed the same formula, dumping two unfortunate divers in the middle of shark-infested waters. Replace the ocean with a suddenly stranded TARDIS, and that's The Edge of Destruction.
As series continuity goes, the evnts of the previous episodes have taken place over a very short period of time; it's doubtful that anyone actually got any sleep until being held captive by the Daleks on Skaro and coming close to dying of radiation sickness. Ian and Barbara want to go home; they are scared and have lives they must return to. As soon as it becomes apparant that there is something wrong with the TARDIS, the Doctor immediately suspects they are actually attempting to sabotage the ship to blackmail him into taking them back to Earth. The entire crew start to feel the creeping parinoia of being trapped inside the dying time machine, perhaps wondering if something from outside has broken in and is now stalking the corridors. The Doctor reacts with outright hostility and prepares to take the extreme measure of throwing Barbara and Ian off the ship into the void outside, which would certainly kill them. It is only when it becomes obvious that the TARDIS itself is trying to communicate with the crew to alert them to the danger they are facing that the Doctor relents and must make amends to the two teachers. Susan herself beings to suspect Barbara and Ian until she rationalizes that there are other factors at play, but the Doctor remains adamant until almost the last minute.
This is where the friction between the Doctor and his two newest companions starts to wane. The Doctor himself says to Barbara "As we learn about each other, so we learn about ourselves," which would indicate that he realizes his own faults and begins to see the value in the others around him. After dealing with such extreme situations one after another the crew are beginning to get used to each others ways of coping with stress and realizing that as a group they do work well together in a crisis, almost like a family.
The Edge of Destruction is a 2 part adventure, with standalone titles of Edge of Destruction and The Brink of Disaster. In the final moments of the second episode, Susan and Barabara go outside onto a snowy landscape and find a giant footprint in the snow, something Susan speculates must have been made by a giant...
NEXT EPISODE : MARCO POLO
As series continuity goes, the evnts of the previous episodes have taken place over a very short period of time; it's doubtful that anyone actually got any sleep until being held captive by the Daleks on Skaro and coming close to dying of radiation sickness. Ian and Barbara want to go home; they are scared and have lives they must return to. As soon as it becomes apparant that there is something wrong with the TARDIS, the Doctor immediately suspects they are actually attempting to sabotage the ship to blackmail him into taking them back to Earth. The entire crew start to feel the creeping parinoia of being trapped inside the dying time machine, perhaps wondering if something from outside has broken in and is now stalking the corridors. The Doctor reacts with outright hostility and prepares to take the extreme measure of throwing Barbara and Ian off the ship into the void outside, which would certainly kill them. It is only when it becomes obvious that the TARDIS itself is trying to communicate with the crew to alert them to the danger they are facing that the Doctor relents and must make amends to the two teachers. Susan herself beings to suspect Barbara and Ian until she rationalizes that there are other factors at play, but the Doctor remains adamant until almost the last minute.
This is where the friction between the Doctor and his two newest companions starts to wane. The Doctor himself says to Barbara "As we learn about each other, so we learn about ourselves," which would indicate that he realizes his own faults and begins to see the value in the others around him. After dealing with such extreme situations one after another the crew are beginning to get used to each others ways of coping with stress and realizing that as a group they do work well together in a crisis, almost like a family.
The Edge of Destruction is a 2 part adventure, with standalone titles of Edge of Destruction and The Brink of Disaster. In the final moments of the second episode, Susan and Barabara go outside onto a snowy landscape and find a giant footprint in the snow, something Susan speculates must have been made by a giant...
NEXT EPISODE : MARCO POLO
Labels: Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton, Susan Foreman, The 1st Doctor
posted by Sean Hoover @ 2:07 PM
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