Running at just two episodes in length, with only the principal cast, a single set, and very little in the way of visual effects, you'd think that there wasn't much that could have gone wrong with this particular story.
In reality, the entire series could have gone wrong - as this came perilously close to being the final Doctor Who story.
From its very beginnings, it was always intended that the programme would run for 52 weeks, and this was the basis on which the production team worked. One significant cost to be met was the interior of the Doctor's space / time-ship, which would feature in most stories.
There were many delays in getting the pilot episode recorded, and the broadcast date kept getting pushed back. This was partly to do with arguments about which studio space would be allocated to the production, and a desire to avoid a summer launch when audience numbers dipped.
As the launch date drew near, the Radio Times decided not to put the programme on the cover for the November 22nd issue. This was because confidence in the viability of the show had fallen.
Planned stories began to fall through. The opening story was to have been one in which the TARDIS crew were shrunk to an inch in height, followed by a story from Anthony Coburn about robots, who was also developing an adventure set in the stone age.
The studio issue put the mockers on the "miniscules" story, so the caveman one was brought forward, whilst the robot story was replaced by a story about mutants from Terry Nation.
Concerns then grew about the budgets. The TARDIS interior had cost a great deal of money, so word came down that the series would end after just 13 episodes. Terry Nation had been asked to extend his story from 6 to 7 episodes, and the opening story was a four-parter. This left two episodes to fill, instead of going straight from the Dalek story to one where the TARDIS crew met Marco Polo.
Producer Verity Lambert was able to show that the cost of the TARDIS had been planned to be spread over the entire 52 weeks originally planned, so it hadn't gone over budget.
The decision was then made to extend the series for a further 13 weeks, so the Marco Polo was back on the cards. However, it was still being prepared so the two episodes following the Dalek story still had to be filled. Problem was that there wasn't any money for them.
No writer could be commissioned in time, so the story editor David Whitaker was permitted to write the filler. No extra cast could be booked, so the story would feature only the regulars. And there was no money for sets, so the existing TARDIS console room would be the only location used.
Whitaker took all these limitations and put a positive spin on things. After an adventure in the past, and one on an alien planet in the future, it was time to spend some time developing the relationship between the regulars - putting them through a crisis from which they would emerge with better understanding of each other.
At the end of the previous episode we saw the TARDIS crew in the ship as it dematerialised from Skaro. We mentioned last time that this was a much smaller console room than previously seen - almost as if there was only enough space in the studio for the console and a couple of walls. This is because there was only enough space in the studio for the console and a couple of walls...
Suddenly, as this story opens, we have the massive TARDIS interior again. Everyone seems to have been knocked out. Whatever has happened has disintegrated the socks Susan was wearing at the end of the last episode. The Doctor has sustained a head injury, and is given a special bandage which has bands of some kind of healing ointment, which is a little wasteful unless he has cuts all round his head.
For the first few minutes after coming round, the companions act very strangely - behaving as if they don't know who they are or where they are. Barbara and Ian address each other as Miss Wright and Mr Chesterton, as though recent events have been forgotten, and Ian must think he is still at the school as he immediately assumes that the "Susan" Barbara mentions must be pupil Susan Foreman.
These days we know all about the sentient TARDIS, with its telepathic circuits, but here this behaviour is never satisfactorily explained.
All sorts of other strange things happen, such as people getting a severe pain at the back of the neck if they approach the console, other than the section with the scanner controls on it. The scanner shows a series of images - some good and some not so good. When a good picture is shown, the TARDIS doors open. When its a bad image, they close again. There is also a sequence of a planet, then a star system, then a whole galaxy - terminating in a brilliant flash.
When the doors open, we can see a white void outside - but a void with a floor.
Not long after Ian and Barbara have spoken about something getting inside the TARDIS, a couple of extraneous shadows can be glimpsed - belonging to members of the production team rather than an invading alien entity.
Then the clock melts, along with everyone's wrist watches.
It turns out in the end that this is the TARDIS' way of warning them that the ship has been set on a course which would destroy it.
The question has to be asked: why couldn't it have done it in a less cryptic fashion? Why do it in such a way that the crew might never have worked out how to stop it being destroyed?
Had it simply flashed up the Fast Return switch on the Fault Locator, and only the Fast Return switch, surely that would have told the Doctor exactly where to look for the problem.
And we all know that the Fast Return switch is the only control on the entire console to have its function written next to it in felt tip pen.
Another obvious question has to be what mechanism does the TARDIS employ to cause all the various strange incidents? How does it melt the numerals on the clock and watches? How does it deliver the pain to the back of the neck? Is any of it real, or is it all just some form of hypnosis? Again, we are left none the wiser by the resolution.
William Hartnell has a lovely soliloquy about the formation of stars and planets, but he also delivers a few choice fluffs, and he skipped a part of the script which dealt with the melted clock and watches.
He repeats the line "It's not very likely", which momentarily throws the others, and has trouble with "You knocked both Susan and I unconscious".
Then we get:
"Don't underweight... underestimate me..."
"You rather suspected I was upset to some mischief..."
"We're on the brink of disgust... destruction!"
And my favourite: "You'd be blown to atoms by a split second!"
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