The Edge of Destruction

IAN: You're working late tonight, Miss Wright.

SUSAN: Who are you?
IAN: Susan.

DOCTOR: He very nearly tried to strangle me.

BARBARA: Oh, don't be so stupid.
DOCTOR: I know it. I'm sure of it.
BARBARA: How dare you! Do you realise, you stupid old man, that you'd have died in the Cave of Skulls if Ian hadn't made fire for you? And what about what we went through against the Daleks? Not just for us, but for you and Susan too. And all because you tricked us into going down to the city. Accuse us? You ought to go down on your hands and knees and thank us. But gratitude's the last thing you'll ever have, or any sort of common sense either.

BARBARA: Yes, of course. That explains the clock face. We had time taken away from us, and now it's being given back to us because it's running out.

(What on earth are you babbling about, Barbara?)

Points of Interest

• Ian mentions that the Doctor's heart is working okay. Heart singular. That said, Ian's not exactly a trained medic, so we can't really take his word as gospel. 
• To go back to the Barbara/Ganatus theme... I wonder why she changed into Thal trousers. Why would she have been taking her trousers off in the first place? Hmm. 
• Barbara's rant at the Doctor is magnificent (helped by Hill's brilliance), but it is rather undermined by it ending with her turning around and screaming at a clock. 
• The ointment headband is a fun idea. It has colour in it which drains away as the ointment "enters the wound". Shame the side of his head didn't get treatment. The colour never fades from there. 
• I like the way Barbara says, "Susan, please don't!" as Susan starts to begin yet another session of crying and yelling. Even kind Barbara is getting tired of her by this point. I can't believe the Doctor calls her brave. His definition must be quite different from the dictionary one. 
• William Russell's vacant acting is quite fun, from the "working late tonight, Miss Wright" to pointing at the Doctor on the floor and saying, "what's he doing there?" to the bit where he looks at his broken watch and says, "if it is night, we have no way of telling now". The forced creepiness of the first episode doesn't really work brilliantly, but I think Russell sells it the best of the four of them. 
• The TARDIS is supposedly giving off these warnings and clues. I'm not sure how things like repeatedly knocking out the crew and opening and shutting the doors to frustrate Ian exactly count as clues so much as being annoying!  

 

Verdict
  It's good for what it is. We all know how this story came about, and I think David Whitaker made the most of it. As far as spending 50 minutes in the TARDIS with just the regulars can go, I think you can't get too much better. There are issues, and even for such a short story the pacing is a bit odd. The change of directors halfway through did help (poor old Richard Martin), but this again is a middling story. It's fine, it passes the time, it's better than most shows. It isn't Doctor Who at its best. It serves a good purpose, though, and any time spent with Hartnell, Russell and Hill can never be all bad. Now it feels like Doctor Who is really beginning. Should be fun.