Doctor Who: The Brink of Disaster
Spoilers for the episode
Story:
Everyone does what they did last episode which is wander around confused and nothing makes any sense.
Thoughts:
It turns out it’s Ian strangling the Doctor and it doesn’t last long because he makes a strange noise and faints. Barbara comes in and the Doctor accuses them of trying to take over the ship and he thinks Ian’s play acting and he hasn’t really fainted. I know the acting is bad but he shouldn’t point it out.
Susan sides with the Doctor but that doesn’t last long because Barbara points why it can’t be them and she’s not so sure anymore. This feels like a repeat of the last episode.
Ian wakes up enough to shout ‘don’t touch it’ before fainting again. He’s referring to the console.
The Doctor decides he’s had enough and he’s putting them off the ship. But Barbara points out he can’t open the doors which is quite important when your plan is to throw them out.
The doctor’s not letting this stop him though. He tells them to get out even though Ian can’t get up let alone walk.
The fault locater goes off and apparently everything is faulty which the doctor says is impossible.
Then Ian tries to strangle Barbara and the Doctor just stands there and watches. Ian stops for some reason and the Doctor announces the ship is on the point of disintegration. A strong force is at work so it can’t be them and now he trusts them again.
Then Barbara says they’ve had time taken from them but now it’s been given back because time is running out. I don’t even know how that’s relevant to anything and when did they have time taken away. When has anyone mentioned time?
Then there’s a lot more talk about the power source of the TARDIS and I’m sure at this point none of it means anything. They say the power wants to escape.
The doctor gets a bit melodramatic ‘can it be possible this is the end’ and they only have 10 minutes left. At least someone knows what’s going on. I feel like I’ve missed a scene.
They realise you can touch the console as long as you touch the side where the scanner switch is.
Barbara thinks every thing’s a clue but the doctor says his machine can’t think. But it does have a defense mechanism so maybe it can think as a machine. He says there are lots of computers that make up the TARDIS.
He wants to know what would make the power want to escape. Maybe a very strong magnetic force. Up until this point they’ve been trying to keep the science on track but this is getting the basics really wrong. Magnets work on metal not insubstantial power. Unless they are using the word magnetic to mean attraction. Which is unnecessarily confusing things.
The doctor tells Barbara and Susan to stand by the doors and tell them what they see when the doors open. He then confides in Ian there’s no hope and they’ve only got five minutes left.
Outside there’s nothing but space.
They then deduce that the scanner shows a good picture when it’s safe to go out and a bad picture when it’s not safe.
The doctor makes a massive leap (I would say of logic but I don’t think logic has come anywhere near this episode) and decides that it would take the force of an entire solar system to attract the power of the TARDIS so they’re at the beginning of a new solar system. He then stands in front of the camera and monologues about energy and atoms and what happens at the beginning.
Ian wants to know where the Doctor asked the TARDIS to take them after Skaro. He used the fast return switch. They find it on the console and discover it’s been stuck this whole time. They take off the cover and find the spring is stuck. The doctor then gives an unneeded explanation of how it’s bad but doesn’t explain any of the other events.
Susan points out how awful he’s been to Ian and Barbara. He tells Barbara she was right and they owe her their lives but she walks off.
He tells Ian he underestimated her and thinks they should all start over again.
The doctor finds Barbara and tells her they’ve landed somewhere very cold. She points out he said some awful things. Why didn’t they have this conversation in the previous scene?
The Doctor doesn’t apologise just acknowledges what he did must have affected her very much but she wanted to prove him wrong and that’s what saved them. I think he’s trying to say what he did turned out for the best.
They get to the control room and Susan’s outside playing in the snow. They go outside and find a footprint that Susan thinks must belong to a giant.
This was a terrible episode. Nothing was explained. They say the fainting was about electric shocks but what caused Susan to stab the furniture or people to try and strangle each other.
A lot of what happened last episode got repeated and everything else felt like it was being stretched for time. Maybe they should have let it be one episode. Especially if the problem is stuck button. That was very anti climatic and if anything else had made sense and it didn’t feel like they were wasting my time I might have found it funny. As it is I don’t know what they were trying to do with this episode. I have a feeling the entire thing was a set up for the Doctor to talk to the camera about solar systems.
Previous Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction Next Doctor Who: The Roof of the World
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