The (re)Generation Gap
There are, of course, many Who fans out there for whom Who is a recently discovered passion. For whom the 2nd Doctor is David Tennant rather than Patrick Troughton.
But with nearly 50 years of material where to begin.
Luckily Matt is here to help us plug the (re)Generation Gap.
But with nearly 50 years of material where to begin.
Luckily Matt is here to help us plug the (re)Generation Gap.
21st of May 2011
Episode 3: The Edge of Destruction
By Matt Crossman
After the excitement of “The Daleks” comes the two part story “The Edge Of Destruction” which we all know is set entirely within the confines of the TARDIS and only features the regular cast.
I was curious to see what James would make of this story so enamoured as he was with The Daleks. It’s a brave move by the production team. After the introductory story (An Unearthly Child) and then the first ‘monster’ story (The Daleks) here is a story all about the Doctor’s time travel machine the TARDIS. Both parts are played out as if a stage show with only 2 or 3 sets. We get to see more of the TARDIS than we will in the future (possibly only Castrovalva shows us more). The Console room is on show as usual but here we also see some resting quarters as well as a ‘food’ machine. The beds in the resting quarters are unusual in that they are only missing some stirrups and it could have been mistaken for a gynaecologist’s office. The food machine appears to be a rather large water cooler too. There are some nice touches in this episode which could be easily overlooked by the casual observer, chiefly the Doctor’s bandage around his head and of course the clock.
It is the Doctor who comes off poorly in this episode being portrayed as mean, grumpy and slightly dim witted but at least he has the stones to apologise at the end. Perhaps the symbiotic nature of the Doctor and the TARDIS are more intertwined than we could imagine. Susan does a great Glen Close impersonation with a pair of scissors whilst Ian and Barbara go from protesting their innocence to doing their best to solve the mystery.
Despite the staginess of the setting, and the wordiness of the production James really enjoyed it. So much so that, as with every great mystery story, he wanted to watch it again immediately at the conclusion, so that he could watch it with the benefit of hindsight.
I think it also shows that despite the programme only being nine episodes long by this time audiences had already invested themselves in the characters and that is a real testament to the cast and crew.
Viewing it again for the first time in over 10 years I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. This was like watching ‘old’ Who anew (if you like). I personally think that this story is under appreciated especially coming off the back of the hugely successful Dalek story but I urge all Who fans not to skip over it as it really does work well in cementing the cast for the upcoming adventures.
I was curious to see what James would make of this story so enamoured as he was with The Daleks. It’s a brave move by the production team. After the introductory story (An Unearthly Child) and then the first ‘monster’ story (The Daleks) here is a story all about the Doctor’s time travel machine the TARDIS. Both parts are played out as if a stage show with only 2 or 3 sets. We get to see more of the TARDIS than we will in the future (possibly only Castrovalva shows us more). The Console room is on show as usual but here we also see some resting quarters as well as a ‘food’ machine. The beds in the resting quarters are unusual in that they are only missing some stirrups and it could have been mistaken for a gynaecologist’s office. The food machine appears to be a rather large water cooler too. There are some nice touches in this episode which could be easily overlooked by the casual observer, chiefly the Doctor’s bandage around his head and of course the clock.
It is the Doctor who comes off poorly in this episode being portrayed as mean, grumpy and slightly dim witted but at least he has the stones to apologise at the end. Perhaps the symbiotic nature of the Doctor and the TARDIS are more intertwined than we could imagine. Susan does a great Glen Close impersonation with a pair of scissors whilst Ian and Barbara go from protesting their innocence to doing their best to solve the mystery.
Despite the staginess of the setting, and the wordiness of the production James really enjoyed it. So much so that, as with every great mystery story, he wanted to watch it again immediately at the conclusion, so that he could watch it with the benefit of hindsight.
I think it also shows that despite the programme only being nine episodes long by this time audiences had already invested themselves in the characters and that is a real testament to the cast and crew.
Viewing it again for the first time in over 10 years I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. This was like watching ‘old’ Who anew (if you like). I personally think that this story is under appreciated especially coming off the back of the hugely successful Dalek story but I urge all Who fans not to skip over it as it really does work well in cementing the cast for the upcoming adventures.