The Edge of Destruction

(Series 1, Episodes 12-13)

Summary: Everyone is acting a little strangely, except the Doctor, who is crotchety and suspicious.  Susan takes a dislike to the TARDIS furnishings, Ian shows some leg and Barbara confronts the Doctor about his unpleasant behaviour.  In a ground-breaking moment of character development, he apologises.  Time goes a bit wibbly, but it turns out it’s because a switch was stuck.  Happens on my kettle all the time.

Watch it because: “We’re at the very beginning, the start of a new solar system.  Outside, the atoms are rushing towards each other.  Fusing, coagulating, until minute little collections of matter are created.  And so the process goes on and on until dust is formed.  Dust then becomes solid entity.  A new birth, of a sun and its planets.”

Original Air Date: 8 – 15 February 1964.

Doctor: William Hartnell.

Companions: Susan (Carole Ann Ford), Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill).

Writer: David Whitaker.

Director: Richard Martin (Ep 1) & Frank Cox (Ep 2).

Producer: Verity Lambert.

Available on DVD? Yes.