Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction

Spoilers for the episode

Story:

Everyone acts really strange and no one has a clue what’s going on. Which doesn’t change by the end of the episode.

Thoughts:

Barbara is the first to wake up and she’s a bit confused wandering around. Then Susan wakes up and she’s got memory loss as well. But she’s also got a headache that seems to hit her randomly.

The Doctor’s on the floor with a cut on his head so Susan goes to get water and bandages. Ian wakes up while she’s gone and he’s got some memory loss as well.

When Susan comes back the doors are open and she has a little freak out. Ian goes over to the doors but they close when he gets near and open when he moves away. I think the TARDIS has got bored and decided to freak them all out.

Susan faints when she touches the control panel and Ian takes her away to lie down. The doctor wakes up enough to say he felt like he was hit on the back of the neck. He was also mumbling about not being able to take Susan back.

Ian fetches Susan some water but when he comes back she doesn’t remember who he is. She’s also got scissors and starts stabbing the furniture until she drops them. It’s actually quite a creepy scene. The way she’s sat perfectly still as he enters.

Ian’s back in the console room with the others. Apparently he’s decided to leave the girl who had some sort of mental break alone.

They want to know where they are but the Doctor says the better question is why. Then he wants to know if they touched the controls.

Barbara thinks something got in because the doors were open but the Doctor ridicules her and says it’s impossible. So he’s off to the fault locater.

Ian tells Barbara not to tell Susan that something might have gotten in but as he says this she’s lurking in the background. And she finds another pair of scissors or they’re the same ones from before. Why would you leave them lying around?

Barbara goes to see Susan who lets on that she knows they’re lying to her. Barbara tries to reassure her but out come the scissors again and Susan looks like she’s struggling with herself not to stab Barbara. They struggle over the scissors until Barbara wins. Susan also thinks something got in and it’s hiding in one of them. She’s very good at being creepy. Can’t we have more creepy and less hysterical.

Ian enters the room. There’s no fault with the ship so the Doctor thinks it’s a fault outside so he’s going to turn on the scanner. Susan rushes to stop him but he’s just standing in the middle of the room not touching the console.

She says she felt the back of her neck be hit when she touched the console but he turns it on fine.

Then the doors open again and different images of places they’ve already been flash across the screen.

The Doctor then decides this is a good moment to accuse Ian and Barbara of sabotaging the ship. This is the last straw for Barbara who tells the Doctor off spectacularly for everything that has happened with the Daleks and points out how much they’ve helped (or how much Ian has helped). This great moment is undone by Barbara getting hysterical and crying.

In this time the Doctor decides to make everyone drinks for a night cap. It’s not even an apology and Ian comments on how strange he acts.

Barbara decides she’s going to bed and leaves while Ian’s demanding an apology from the Doctor. Again the doctor wanders off and Ian has to follow with a huff.

They have a conversation about motives again and the Doctor says one man’s law is another man’s crime (which is not very helpful but makes him more menacing) and that Ian should stop trying to be a step ahead of him. Ian will always be behind because he doesn’t know the technology.

They all go to sleep and the doctor checks on them to make sure they are sleep while chuckling to himself. He goes to the console and hands grab his throat.

This was a very strange episode. Nothing was discovered or decided and the beginning felt very aimless. Characters had amnesia on and off while they all sort of wandered around.

Susan was good at being creepy and the Doctor got to upset everyone again.

I likes the bandages that changes from colour to white when you’re healed and the TARDIS records everything everywhere they go.

I think it’s the TARDIS trying to freak them out because from a writing stand point that would make the alien technology even scarier.

I love the cliffhanger it ended on. We still don’t know the Doctor well enough to know how his mind works and he’s proved that he’s willing to put people in danger to get what he wants.

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