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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 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

Template:Spoiler 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, 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, 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. 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. The Doctor is forced to do what he least enjoys - apologise, and admit that he was wrong about Barbara and Ian.

The TARDIS materializes 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

Alternative titles

As was the case with other early Doctor Who serials, there are differences of opinion as to what the generally accepted title of this two-part story should be.

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, arbitarily adopted for a fan list in the seeming absence of anything else.
• The Edge of Destruction — the title of the first episode, arbitarily 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

Notes

1. The two episodes of the serial had individual titles. They were, respectively, "The Edge of Destruction" and "The Brink of Disaster".
2. 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.
3. This story was written by story editor David Whitaker within two days, and necessity 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 the 2005 Ninth Doctor episode, The End of the World.)
4. The only cast to appear are the Doctor and his companions, and the story is set entirely within the confines of the TARDIS. Both of these result from budgetary restrictions and the origins of this story as a hasty "filler" story so that the series would fit the thirteen episode run that was all that had been granted at that stage.
5. The "Chesterfield" running-gag started in the last story, The Daleks, is used in this to signify that everything has returned to normal after the climax. Here the Doctor calls Ian "Chartow".
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. A novelisation of this serial, written by Nigel Robinson, was published by Target Books in May 1988 under the title The Edge of Destruction.
9. It is indicated in this episode that the Doctor has only a single heart (Chesterton makes no indication of there being more than one heart when he examines the injured Doctor). However, later serials would reveal that the Doctor has two hearts.

External links

• The Edge of Destruction episode guide on the BBC website

• First Doctor serials