Watching Doctor Who

Chris Chibnall is the author of the episode this week. He is also the co-producer of Torchwood, and wrote four of the episodes for the first series of that show. This episode even comes complete with a prologue if you are interested. 42 is even more fast paced than usual. All sorts of running about. I’m sure that all the Douglas Adams fans out there will enjoy the title. Right then, let’s get on to the review. (Oh, and Erik? Thanks for the suggestion!)

Episode: 42 by Chris Chibnall
Rating (1 to 5): 3
Time: ? and Election Day.
Place: On a ship falling into a sun in the Torajii system. (Half a universe away from Earth.)
Baddie: A sentient Sun and the folks it has infected. (And kind of the Captain of the ship in the first place.) Oh, and Saxon’s minions.
The Doctor’s Death Wish: He goes outside of a ship falling into the sun. (He saves Martha…but…)
The Doctor enjoys: A good stasis chamber. The word “Robust.”
The Doctor dislikes: People giving up without trying
The Doctor apologizes to: No One? (Martha apologizes to him.) He does thank Martha, though.
Saxon? Is turning Martha’s Mum against the Doctor. His people are even trying to trace her through the phone. (At least so it would seem.)
Rose? Umm…maybe she’s what he was thinking about there at the end when he was staring off into space? (That’s the only thing I could think of. Otherwise, nothing this time around.)
Who fancies Martha? Riley Vashtee
Doctor-y Strangeness: He gets taken over by a sun. Unlike the Humans, it’s a slower process with him.
Scary Stuff: A sentient sun attacking people. Burn with me. (and those Minions of Saxon. eek.)
Does someone local help out? The crew…until they die, or become infected. (Hey…2 of them survive.)
What we learn: The Doctor gives Martha universal roaming for her phone. A Happy Prime is a number that is both a Happy Number and prime. Elvis had more Number One hits (pre-download) than the Beatles on the UK music charts. Getting into an escape pod when you are falling toward the sun is not perhaps the best idea. Fusion scoops are illegal. A Sun can be sentient. The Doctor is not invulnerable, but he is more resistant than humans to the sun’s invasion into his body. Martha gets a TARDIS key.
My Favorite Bits: Universal roaming. Happy Primes. “Please, kill me now.” (Be careful what you wish for.) “I’m not going to lose her.” The Doctor going out into the heat to retrieve Martha. The Doctor admits that he’s scared. TARDIS key for Martha.

Observations and musings:

Martha saves The Doctor again this time around. It’s becoming quite a habit. Good thing that he decided to keep her around. Martha is getting pretty good at reading manuals for medical machines. That’s a good skill to have when you’re faced with a futuristic stasis chamber. She picks up another fan in this episode, and he even survives. Her mother isn’t being too helpful, though. Those people working for Saxon are kind of freaky.

The Doctor really has to get used to checking readings before he leaves the safety of his ship. You’d think that the whole Satan Pit thing would have taught him a lesson, but no. He doesn’t check, and he and Martha end up somewhere the the Sonic Screwdriver can’t fix, and the TARDIS is out of their reach. So, of course, The Doctor takes over. If he hadn’t, I’ll bet that everyone would have died. As it is, two of the crew and The Doctor and Martha make it through. The Doctor actually admits to being afraid in this episode. We can only hope that this is a sign that he wants to live. Maybe he’ll cut down on the trying to die thing now. It’s good that he is more resistant to the sun invading his system than the others.

This episode is a bit like “24″ isn’t it? Except…minutes instead of hours, I suppose. And all of the women die except Martha. The Doctor has now burned like the sun, just like Rose. Except, in his case, it really was a sun. By the way, the number “42″ is neither Happy nor Prime. Well…I guess that’s about it. See you next week.

Image Source: http://www.time-and-space.co.uk/

42, Chris Chibnall