The Edge of Destruction Review

The Edge of Destruction.

I've seen this once or twice before and I quite liked it. I still do. The first episode is great. It's a brilliant 'filler' money saving episode. It's let down a bit by the second episode which reveals in fact it was just the fast return switch was stuck. The second episode shows that it doesn't quite have enough story to sustain itself.
But still I rather like it.

At the start of the episode Carole Ann Ford overplays it a bit too much when Susan has the hurt head and her neck keeps flopping around everywhere but later she much improves. Before I get to that though I think William Russel plays Ian's confusion really well. Right from the off, he's just stood there but combined with the camera work it works. We instantly know he's not quite right here. He's also great at the start of the Brink of Disaster (the second episode) after he 'attacks' the Doctor and then is clearly in some sort of state on the floor, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Now back to that scene with Susan and the scissors (which I always mistake for a knife at first). Bloody hell I'd forgotten how well scary and unsettling it is. When Ian comes back into the room and she's just stood there grasping them in her outstretched arm. It's genuinely quite shocking. And then she threatens Ian before completely breaking down and stabbing the chair. It's like something out of Psycho! And it's played well by Ford.

The nightie type clothes that Susan wears after this only help to make her look creepy still. Yet when we see Barbara wearing them a bit later on they don't have the same effect.

At the end of the Daleks we had the Doctor becoming much more like the kind Time Lord we know, but here (for the first episode and some of the second at least) he goes back to being rather unpleasant again. He accuses Barbara and Ian of attacking them and somehow tampering with the ship. He really isn't nice to them and it's good to see that at the end Barbra is still quite unhappy. I noticed how the Doctor never actually apologised to her or Ian. He does say how useful Barbara was and is a lot warmer to them, but he never actually says sorry to them. I think he's a little bit too stubborn to do that.

We do get some nice bits with the Doctor at the end though. The scene when he realises that they are at the start of a new solar system is really good. A great speech (for want of a better word) and good camera work too, slowly zooming in on him stood solitary in front of the console in a shot not like any we've seen of the TARDIS so far. He may have returned to his old self when faced with something he didn't understand at the start but the way he is at the end shows that Barbara and Ian (and even Susan to an extent) are having a positive effect on him.

The Edge of Destruction Episode One score: 8/10
The Brink of Disaster (Episode two) score: 7/10

The average score is 7.5/10

One last thought, the written on fast return button didn't escape me! The thing is none of the other buttons have writing to tell you what they do, that's part of the mystery, so they needn't have written it on just for that button. It isn't quite enough to take you out of the moment but it could have been side stepped completely. Ah well.

Next I'm onto Marco Polo in it's full reconstructed form, which I haven't seen before. It will also be my first reconstruction. I must say I'm a little nervous...