How do you follow the first two serials of Doctor Who? Well, if you're on a budget and you have the expensive "Marco Polo" waiting in the wings, you'd go with the cost-effective drama of "The Edge of Destruction."

After "The Daleks," the quaret of Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor leave Skaro...only to have the TARDIS explode. They wake up with headaches and paranoia. You can have fun in the first few minutes pretending the Doctor had broken out the "good stuff" from Gallifrey prior to the story. Anyway, the Doctor starts getting assier than usual, Susan gets to the point where she's grabbing sharp objects and not using them the way they were meant to, and the TARDIS doors open and close on their own.

While this wasn't the best story out there, it was pretty dramatic with one location and only four characters. The stuff with the clock and watches melting because the gang was "losing time" went over my head, and I had to watch the documentary on the serial to get it (the clock's hands were supposed to be melting, but they couldn't pull off the effect). For any would-be Who historians (Whostorians?), this is the first evidence that the TARDIS was more than a mere time machine, as it clued the Doctor and friends on how to save it. In fact, the docu drew parallels between this serial and current continuity, complete with scenes from "Boom Town" and "The Parting Of The Ways." Bonus: in a fit of pique, Barbara rips the Doctor a third corn chute. I know...growing pains and all, and I know Hartnell's Doc is supposed to be whimsical...but damn, his Doctor could grate. I gotta see his better side someday.

Not to mention you hear the Cloister Bell again during "Children in Need".

And in "Logopolis" if I'm not mistaken.

Whimsical? One? Really? He does mellow a bit a things go on. By the Time Ian and Barbara go home, he is genuinely sorry that they leave.

Ivrinel...okay, so it's obvious I don't have a black belt in all things Whovian, and "whimsical" was a poor choice. From what I understand, One was the funny-looking old guy, Two was the funny-looking not-quite-as-old guy (I've seen the "Lost Classics" DVDs from both, so I know there are more differences), Three was the suave man of action, and so on.

Cloister bell? Forgive me, but when in the arc did that come up? I don't think I've heard a cloister bell before.

The Cloister bell is this bell that rings when the TARDIS is in danger of being destroyed. Apparently it rings during The Edge of Destruction (Don't remember that myself) again in Logopolis, and then again in the Pudsey Cutaway.

The Cloister is part of the TARDIS, first seen in Logopolis (if I'm not mistaken), and then seen again, with a much different look, in the TVM.

I like the Edge of Destruction, but you do have to wonder about the mentality of the TARDIS. Wouldn't life have been much easier if it had flashed up a message that said "My quick return switch is jammed, and we're hurtling towards a fiery death" on the scanner screen? Instead it decides the best way to alert people to danger is to cut the lights, drive everyone mad and melt all the clocks. But what else can you expect of Time Lord technology? As a species they seem congenitally unable to do things the easy way.

And I surprised no one else here has mentioned what I would consider to be the stand out moment of this show - the absolutely insane acting choices William Hartnell makes when describing the creation of the solar system. I suppose you can excuse it by saying the Doctor's had a very trying day, but so have Ian and Barbara, and they're not hamming like Emototron 3000.

I think they did a lot with the little they had. Reminded me a little of old Twilight Zone with 4 people locked in a confined space, losing thier minds. Actually it specifically reminded me of the TZ where the clown and balerina etc are trapped in a cylinder trying to figure a way out. If they didn't have a lot of money to spend, they certainly could have done a hell of a lot worse.

I feel sure that this story was one that Douglas Adams watched as a kid. While watching it, I kept thinking how much it reminded me of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There's a machine there that dispenses food--just like the Nutrimat on the Heart of Gold. The (stolen) spaceship is doing weird things. Ian spends the second episode wearing a housecoat and being grumpy. It all just feels like Adams was subconsciously basing his book on early influence or something. Ironically, New Who spent a Christmas Special dedicated to DNA and Hitchhiker's. Everything is just a big circle, I guess.

This story is so different from anything that comes before or after it (on Doctor Who), yet still fits perfectly into the setup of the first season, as Barbara/Ian and the Doctor distrust each other and learn to respect each other.

Early in Donna's run on the new Who, she joined Barbara on my favorite companions list. They have more similarities than their backgrounds would suggest. I was never quite sure of why Donna reminded me of Barbara until I watched these episodes again, the moment where Babrara tells the Doctor ("stupid old man") they saved his life and he should be on his knees thanking them. She says this forcefully, yet not with excessive bitterness or hysteria. It's a classic moment, and quite shocking.