Story Three: The Edge of Destruction

The shortest story thusfar - and most limited in its environments - is The Edge of Destruction, which takes place entirely on the TARDIS.  It's a psychological little two-parter.  More after the jump.



Themes: Fear, mechanical failure, problem-solving, madness

Episode Notes:

The Edge of Destruction: We begin in unexpected chaos as the TARDIS booms and lights flare.  Her crew are tossed to the ground.  When they awake, they don't recognize one another at first, though their wits return to them shortly.  Everything on the TARDIS seems malign.  The doors open, but close as you near them.  The Food Replicator says it's empty but delivers food and drink nonetheless.  The console and various panels are either dangerous to touch or unreadable.  Susan gets all stabby.  In general they're just not in a good spot and no one seems to understand why.  The clocks go Through The Looking Glass and Ian decides for some reason to strangle the Doctor.  It's a fairly unsettling episode and all along I'm thinking hallucination is at work among the crew.

The Brink of Disaster: Matters become far more dire here.  The Doctor threatens to toss Ian and Barbara off the ship, into whatever hell awaits them outside.  The "Faulticator" (spelling?) reads that literally every bit of machinery on the TARDIS is malfunctioning.  In the end, it turns out all this madness has a very simple solution.  If this were true though, how can all the madness be explained?

Character Notes:

We still have the originals - The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Susan.  I won't go into much detail here, breaking down characters specifically because none of them really acted themselves at all, except maybe Barbara, who managed to be the only reasonable one throughout.  

Quotes:

(Regarding a feared interloper) Barbara: "Where would it hide?"

Susan: "In one of us."

Susan (on looking outside the ship): "There's nothing there!  Nothing!  Nothing!  Nothing but space!"

"They must be put off the ship."  - The Doctor

Barbara: "Originally the machine wasn't at fault, we were - and it's been trying to tell us so ever since."