Saturday 15th February 1964 - The Brink of Disaster

 

"The controls are alive!"

It's more of the same distrust and paranoia before Barbara puts Ian and the Doctor onto the cause of the crisis with the TARDIS. What's most striking about this episode is the transformation in the Doctor's character at the end. After accepting that Barbara (especially) and Ian enabled him to resolve the malfunction of the TARDIS, the Doctor's attitude towards them alters: he's pleasant, friendly and warm. The final scene of the episode has the group laughing and throwing snowballs.

Essentially it's a "countdown" plot.

Ian attacks the Doctor - then collapses. The Doctor thinks that it's a plot to take control of the TARDIS. He threatens to put them off the ship.

15...

An alarm - "The Danger Signal" - is given by the fault locator. The TARDIS is at the point of disintegration. Faults are registering every every 15 seconds. Every piece of the TARDIS is malfunctioning simultaneously. This is used as a measure of time. Barbara works out that they had time taken away from them (the watch faces) and now running out. They have a countdown to destruction.

10...

Time is running out. Susan reveals that the heart of the TARDIS is under the central column of the TARDIS console. Barbara - then Ian - first realises that they have been given clues, warnings from the TARDIS itself.

"My machine can't think," asserts the Doctor. Then reconsiders and asserts that it thinks... like a machine. The indication is that at this point the Doctor know less about the TARDIS than he lets on.

5...

It's getting tense and dark inside the TARDIS. When the TARDIS doors open Susan is distressed that there's nothing out there. The TARDIS runs through the sequence of photos again and opens and shuts the doors. The machine-intelligence of the TARDIS seems pretty rudimentary to me.

The defence mechanism has been working to protect them. Together, Ian and the Doctor realise they've travelled back to the beginning of the solar system (it doesn't sound like the Big Bang though).

"We're at the very beginning..." There's a lovely spotlight with the Doctor relating the birth of a solar system. Excitedly. William Hartnell clearly enjoys this monologue.

It turns out that the "Fast Return Switch" had stuck. The little spring wasn't connecting to the base. The Doctor turns the spring around and the TARDIS lights up and the hum of flight. It wasn't broken so not triggering on the fault locator. The whole affair was caused by a little spring.

"It was a narrow squeak" The Doctor realises that it was Barbara's "instinct and intuition" that saved them and admits that they owe her their lives.

The final shot? Is that the footprint of a yeti?

 Next week: The Roof of the World.