Having started with Marco Polo today I learned something I found quite interesting about Edge of Destruction...
The internet seems to disagree about the exact reason it came into being. One theory is that was hastily commissioned because Marco Polo - a 7 part historical story of quite impressive scale - was taking ages to produce due to scenery. The other theory is that the show was initially only commissioned for 13 episodes and the first two stories only totalled 11. Why 4 + 7 = 11 only came to light at short notice I don't know (Maybe when making The Daleks it felt like it was 9 episodes long, it certainly felt that watching it).
Whichever is truth and whichever is myth, one things seems to be agreed upon: The story was written by David Whitaker in only 2 days.
This might not seem like that much of a feat but when you consider how this story developed the relationship of the crew, introduced the idea that the TARDIS has a life of its own and also included the spectacular soliloquy from Hartnell on the creation of a solar system, it makes the production of the story seem even more impressive.
Anyway, I'll get back to Marco Polo now. It's quite good so far.
The internet seems to disagree about the exact reason it came into being. One theory is that was hastily commissioned because Marco Polo - a 7 part historical story of quite impressive scale - was taking ages to produce due to scenery. The other theory is that the show was initially only commissioned for 13 episodes and the first two stories only totalled 11. Why 4 + 7 = 11 only came to light at short notice I don't know (Maybe when making The Daleks it felt like it was 9 episodes long, it certainly felt that watching it).
Whichever is truth and whichever is myth, one things seems to be agreed upon: The story was written by David Whitaker in only 2 days.
This might not seem like that much of a feat but when you consider how this story developed the relationship of the crew, introduced the idea that the TARDIS has a life of its own and also included the spectacular soliloquy from Hartnell on the creation of a solar system, it makes the production of the story seem even more impressive.
Anyway, I'll get back to Marco Polo now. It's quite good so far.