ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
42
is – so far – the shortest
title for any Doctor Who story. This was something of an experiment, a
story
broadcast in real time, 42 referring to the number of minutes that pass
in the
programme. As an experiment it works fairly well, I wouldn’t want to
see it
done very often, but as a one off it gives the tale some extra impetus.
The
Doctor and Martha answer a
distress call from a ship whose engines have failed and which is
falling into a
nearby sun. They have 42 minutes before they plunge into the sun. To
reach the
drive room it is necessary to go through some password protected doors,
whilst
she is working on this Martha is cut off from the Doctor and is
accidentally
jettisoned from the ship in an Escape Pod.
In
the meantime, the Doctor meets
the ship’s captain, Kath McDonnell (Michelle Collins) and learns that
her
husband, Korwin (Matthew Chambers) has been infected by some unknown
entity
which is causing his temperature to rise alarmingly. Korwin starts
killing
other members of the crew by looking at them and burning them to powder.
Whilst
rescuing Martha, the
Doctor realises that the sun below them is a living being and the ship
has been
refuelling from it and the only way they can escape is to get all the
sun’s
matter back to it. He gets infected with the sun matter and whilst he
struggles
to maintain consciousness he instructs Martha to get the surviving crew
to vent
the ship’s engines but the ship is still being pulled to the sun.
McDonnell
realises that her husband’s infection means he has sun matter within
him. She
jettisons herself and her husband into space, allowing the ship to
escape.
Long
term fans might recognise
some key plot points from Planet of Evil here, chiefly the living
planet that
will not allow any of its matter to be removed. The time constraint of
42
minutes does add to the build up of tension and there are some great
scenes as
Martha’s capsule descends into the sun – even though you’re pretty sure
that
the Doctor will still rescue her.
Michelle
Collins gives a super
performance as Captain McDonnell, in fact, if she hadn’t done so then
42 could
have been a pretty painful experience – as the Doctor is incapacitated
for
quite a while and Martha is isolated, McDonnell takes a big chunk of
the
action.
David
Tennant, when he’s infected
with the sun matter, is terrifying and really acts his little socks
off, you
can really feel the pain he is in. The catchphrase of ‘burn with me’ is
spooky
and used to good effect.
So,
Chris Chibnall’s first
adventure in Doctor Who is entertaining and exciting, well made, well
acted and
better than you tend to remember it.
NEXT UP: HUMAN
NATURE / THE FAMILY OF BLOOD
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Productions and
Andrew J. Müller,
Roy Barton
and Shaun Runham
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2022
