What happened?
The Doctor and Martha are propelled onto a cargo spaceship in dire distress; plunging into a sun and, at the time of their arrival, there’s approximately 42 minutes left to impact. With the TARDIS confined to a red hot ventilation shaft, The Doctor, Martha, and the handful of crew must somehow restore the ship’s damaged engines and auxiliary system in the short time available.
As if the situation wasn’t difficult enough, some strange entity is taking over members of the crew and with a fearsome cry of “Burn with me” is picking off the remaining people one-by-one. The Doctor eventually realises that this strange entity is the sun itself, attacking the ship for pillaging its energy as fuel.
The Doctor is almost killed by this energy but Martha is on hand to save the day, venting out the fuel and returning it to the sun before he dies. She is rewarded with her own key to the TARDIS in addition to the earlier gift she received; a universal telephone. Using this phone she had spoken to her mother and arranged to go and see her, unaware the call was under surveillance by people working for the illusive “Saxon”.
Thoughts
Let’s just say this now: Best episode of Doctor Who I’ve seen so far. Not just of this series, but stretching back to when Christopher Ecclestone was the main man (I don’t have any real awareness of Doctor Who prior to its modern revival). Aside from some fringe elements regarding Martha’s call home and Saxon, this was a stand alone episode that rarely relented from the moment it started and reached a near feverish level of intensity.
The title 42 referred to the number of minutes remaining before the ship crashed, which basically meant the episode ran in real time, adding to the drama. It’s a well-worn premise, seen countless times in films and TV: small group of people in a confined, contained position of jeopardy , getting picked off one by one to keep tightening the dramatic noose. It’s well-worn because, when done right, it makes for a top notch thrill ride.
What really helped this episode sail through was that the crew were a hardy, likeable bunch. We joined them at crisis point and they quickly accepted the sudden appearance of The Doctor and Martha and put them to use whilst they tried to save themselves. Between the devoted captain and wife, the lonely, disconsolate young man and the glass-half-full engineer they seemed varied and managed to bring a sense of history to their cookie-cutter collection of caricatures.
The monster of the week was more compelling when it wasn’t fully-explained. If the episode had a weak point then the monster itself, and most particularly the explanation as for why it was taking down the crew, was definitely it. The notion that this ‘sun’ was a living entity I was OK with, but the scooping out of its heart by this ship mining it for fuel and it then possessing them to drag them back to it. . . That was a bit hard to swallow.
I think it was the energy being classed as its heart that I got most hung up on. It’s not like my enjoyment was totally destroyed it just jarred me a little. But otherwise the ‘monster’ possessing the crew and intoning the deep-throated “burn with me” was imposing. Although it did become a little laughable that the threatening gesture of attack was a hand poised at the eye shield visor!
Minor niggles though, because for the majority the episode shone (pun intended) as a terrific jolt of adrenaline; it hit the ground running and then worked up to a breathless sprint. Even The Doctor seemed to get swept off his feet by it, with some interesting character traits fired out from him when he became possessed by the sun monster. He panicked when he was being put into the freezer, admitting that he was scared even, before trying to say something to Martha about his capacity for regeneration (frustrating, really, that it wasn’t quite clarified what he was trying to put across).
Perhaps most interesting was his strange manner at the end of the episode, back in the TARDIS. Martha was jubilant and rightly making a truthful joke about the fact that she had saved the day again and it was thus worthwhile her being around, but his reaction was momentarily cold and distant. Again, it was hard to gauge where his head was at during this moment.
Given this moment of coldness came just before he handed Martha the key to the TARDIS I can only figure it was almost like he’d been hit by a blast of realisation, that a) Rose was definitely gone and b) He had gone and found a replacement. In short, he was officially moving on from Rose.
Whilst that’s the best explanation I can summon, I must say I found his stern expression difficult to rationalise with that interpretation. Odd.
The episode closed out with another ‘cliffhanger’ surrounding the identity and purpose of this mysterious “Saxon”. Whilst I expect there’s going to be big reveal about this I have to say I am not as blown away by these Saxon-related stings as the show seems to think I should be. I simply cannot be stunned or excited by something or someone I don’t know anything about!
Martha has made arrangements to go and meet her mother on Election Day, but luckily she can travel in time so there’s room for a few more episodes of adventures yet, I am sure, before she drops by on that same day and, presumably, walks straight into whatever this Saxon character has waiting for them.
What was the best part?
The moment where Martha and the other guy crammed themselves into an escape pod that was then jettisoned prompted one brief moment of eerie silence. As the pod drifted helplessly towards the inferno, Martha and The Doctor looked at each other through the porthole windows, calling out to one another. It was a classy, emotional punch running counter to the high-octane pace of the rest of the episode.
What do I think will happen next?
Almost certainly The Doctor and Martha will return to Martha’s mother, on Election Day, as they discussed on the phone. There they will encounter these people that rerpresent Saxon, and presumably Saxon himself. Whilst I didn’t closely watch this series of Doctor Who when it was first-aired (in fact, having been re-watching, I am actually startled as to how few of them I watched originally – less than three so far) I am reasonably sure that this Saxon fellow will turn out to be The Master (though, I’ll be honest, his significance in the Doctor Who universe isn’t one I am aware of).
The Doctor and Martha are propelled onto a cargo spaceship in dire distress; plunging into a sun and, at the time of their arrival, there’s approximately 42 minutes left to impact. With the TARDIS confined to a red hot ventilation shaft, The Doctor, Martha, and the handful of crew must somehow restore the ship’s damaged engines and auxiliary system in the short time available.
As if the situation wasn’t difficult enough, some strange entity is taking over members of the crew and with a fearsome cry of “Burn with me” is picking off the remaining people one-by-one. The Doctor eventually realises that this strange entity is the sun itself, attacking the ship for pillaging its energy as fuel.
The Doctor is almost killed by this energy but Martha is on hand to save the day, venting out the fuel and returning it to the sun before he dies. She is rewarded with her own key to the TARDIS in addition to the earlier gift she received; a universal telephone. Using this phone she had spoken to her mother and arranged to go and see her, unaware the call was under surveillance by people working for the illusive “Saxon”.
Thoughts
Let’s just say this now: Best episode of Doctor Who I’ve seen so far. Not just of this series, but stretching back to when Christopher Ecclestone was the main man (I don’t have any real awareness of Doctor Who prior to its modern revival). Aside from some fringe elements regarding Martha’s call home and Saxon, this was a stand alone episode that rarely relented from the moment it started and reached a near feverish level of intensity.
The title 42 referred to the number of minutes remaining before the ship crashed, which basically meant the episode ran in real time, adding to the drama. It’s a well-worn premise, seen countless times in films and TV: small group of people in a confined, contained position of jeopardy , getting picked off one by one to keep tightening the dramatic noose. It’s well-worn because, when done right, it makes for a top notch thrill ride.
What really helped this episode sail through was that the crew were a hardy, likeable bunch. We joined them at crisis point and they quickly accepted the sudden appearance of The Doctor and Martha and put them to use whilst they tried to save themselves. Between the devoted captain and wife, the lonely, disconsolate young man and the glass-half-full engineer they seemed varied and managed to bring a sense of history to their cookie-cutter collection of caricatures.
The monster of the week was more compelling when it wasn’t fully-explained. If the episode had a weak point then the monster itself, and most particularly the explanation as for why it was taking down the crew, was definitely it. The notion that this ‘sun’ was a living entity I was OK with, but the scooping out of its heart by this ship mining it for fuel and it then possessing them to drag them back to it. . . That was a bit hard to swallow.
I think it was the energy being classed as its heart that I got most hung up on. It’s not like my enjoyment was totally destroyed it just jarred me a little. But otherwise the ‘monster’ possessing the crew and intoning the deep-throated “burn with me” was imposing. Although it did become a little laughable that the threatening gesture of attack was a hand poised at the eye shield visor!
Minor niggles though, because for the majority the episode shone (pun intended) as a terrific jolt of adrenaline; it hit the ground running and then worked up to a breathless sprint. Even The Doctor seemed to get swept off his feet by it, with some interesting character traits fired out from him when he became possessed by the sun monster. He panicked when he was being put into the freezer, admitting that he was scared even, before trying to say something to Martha about his capacity for regeneration (frustrating, really, that it wasn’t quite clarified what he was trying to put across).
Perhaps most interesting was his strange manner at the end of the episode, back in the TARDIS. Martha was jubilant and rightly making a truthful joke about the fact that she had saved the day again and it was thus worthwhile her being around, but his reaction was momentarily cold and distant. Again, it was hard to gauge where his head was at during this moment.
Given this moment of coldness came just before he handed Martha the key to the TARDIS I can only figure it was almost like he’d been hit by a blast of realisation, that a) Rose was definitely gone and b) He had gone and found a replacement. In short, he was officially moving on from Rose.
Whilst that’s the best explanation I can summon, I must say I found his stern expression difficult to rationalise with that interpretation. Odd.
The episode closed out with another ‘cliffhanger’ surrounding the identity and purpose of this mysterious “Saxon”. Whilst I expect there’s going to be big reveal about this I have to say I am not as blown away by these Saxon-related stings as the show seems to think I should be. I simply cannot be stunned or excited by something or someone I don’t know anything about!
Martha has made arrangements to go and meet her mother on Election Day, but luckily she can travel in time so there’s room for a few more episodes of adventures yet, I am sure, before she drops by on that same day and, presumably, walks straight into whatever this Saxon character has waiting for them.
What was the best part?
The moment where Martha and the other guy crammed themselves into an escape pod that was then jettisoned prompted one brief moment of eerie silence. As the pod drifted helplessly towards the inferno, Martha and The Doctor looked at each other through the porthole windows, calling out to one another. It was a classy, emotional punch running counter to the high-octane pace of the rest of the episode.
What do I think will happen next?
Almost certainly The Doctor and Martha will return to Martha’s mother, on Election Day, as they discussed on the phone. There they will encounter these people that rerpresent Saxon, and presumably Saxon himself. Whilst I didn’t closely watch this series of Doctor Who when it was first-aired (in fact, having been re-watching, I am actually startled as to how few of them I watched originally – less than three so far) I am reasonably sure that this Saxon fellow will turn out to be The Master (though, I’ll be honest, his significance in the Doctor Who universe isn’t one I am aware of).
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