Sarah -
We can be forgiven for having thought Chris Chibnall’s first Doctor Who script would be a homage to Douglas Adams. It was actually inspired by the TV series 24, which was a huge hit at the time.
Harry -
Oh yes, Jack Bauer’s time-sensitive adventures were all the rage in the 00s, and Chibbers provided us with a Whovian spin on the format.
Sarah -
The story begins with Martha becoming a proper companion when the Doctor upgrades her mobile to universal roaming.
Harry -
It’s a deceptively casual opening, with the Doctor even ditching his necktie for a more loungey look.
Sarah -
Things take a quick turn when the TARDIS picks up a distress signal and they find themselves on a spaceship hurtling towards a sun, with only 42 minutes until impact. I’m a huge fan of base-under-siege stories and being under siege by a sun is about as siege-y as you can get.
Harry -
The pacing of this episode is positively frantic. So many conventions got compressed in the opening minutes, from receiving the distress signal, to the TARDIS landing, to meeting the crew and getting hurtled right into the action.
Sarah -
And, did I mention "42" was directed by Graeme Harper?
Harry -
And, he delivered a cracker.
Sarah -
The direction is outstanding.
Harry -
Having met the panicked members of the crew, the Doctor realizes that the TARDIS is stuck in the spaceship’s venting room and temperatures inside have soared by thousands of degrees. The craft is being pulled into a sun, and the on-board computer is counting down the minutes to impact.
Sarah -
Things aren’t looking good. The engines have been compromised by someone who knew what they were doing and the auxiliary engines are behind a series of password-protected doors. The crew isn’t feeling particularly hopeful and the Doctor tries to rally them with, “Oh, listen to you. Defeated before you've even started. Where's your Dunkirk spirit?” It works enough to get crew member Riley working on the passwords with Martha’s help.
The passwords are all tied to pub-quiz-type questions and they’re stumped when asked who had more number ones -- The Beatles or Elvis. The Doctor is busy with other things, so Martha uses her universal roaming privileges to call her mum back on Earth.
Harry -
Martha's flip phone was endearingly antiquated.
Sarah -
Remember the excitement of your first flip phone? It was incredibly satisfying to shut it with a snap after a call. I imaging Francine doing a lot of snapping her phone shut back in the day.
Harry -
Poking the touchscreen in anger just ain't the same.
Sarah -
Francine is immediately concerned about Martha, which is this case is entirely reasonable, and wants to know if she’s with the Doctor. Francine gives Martha the correct answer -- Elvis -- and we discover that a young woman, with ties to the mysterious Harold Saxon, is listening to their conversation. With hindsight, I really admire the way "42" was linked into the series arc in such a fluid way.
Harry -
Saxon's acolyte is found in the cast list as "Sinister Woman" played by Elize du Toit. How's that for a sinister name? It would have been perfect for the character.
Sarah -
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Captain McDonnell are trying to track down Korwin, McDonnell’s husband, after a series of seizures in the medical bay and the mysterious vaporization of Lerner, the medical attendant. The Doctor tells McDonnell that her husband has been infected by something and killed Lerner. She doesn’t want to believe him until another crew member has been killed.
Harry -
Alas, poor Abi Lerner, picked off after only a few lines of dialogue. She was played by Vinette Robinson and would return to Doctor Who eleven years later to star as Rosa Parks. I didn't realize that this was her first appearance on the show. And she's now a legendary repeat guest star!
Sarah -
Wow! I was so caught up in the story, I didn’t realized that was her. I love when Doctor Who guest actors go on to bigger things!
Harry -
Honestly, we'd barely gotten to learn anything about Korwin before his transformation. It must have been one of the painfully necessary cuts to the story that enabled Chibbers to realize the 42-minute framework.
Sarah -
I like to imagine Korwin was a lovely fella before his horrifying transformation. The first time he bellows, “Burn with me,” is chilling. Base-under-siege as horror -- I am here for that!
Harry -
Martha and Riley work well as a team, but having already burned through "ask an audience member" and "phone a friend", the pace of their lock-breaking slows. Korwin continues to wreak havoc on the ship and the pressure is building. The tension is augmented by vintage sci-fi elements like sirens and gratuitous steam -- very Alien! The colour palette is also fantastic, all harsh reds and yellows lighting up the actors' faces.
Sarah -
I was thinking the same thing about Alien. That movie really reset our expectations about how sci-fi horror should look.
Harry -
Crew member Ashton also becomes infected by the "burn with me" menace, and he chases Martha and Riley into a chamber. The door slams behind them and suddenly they are in a cool blue room and everyone gets the briefest of respites. However, Riley reveals that it's an escape pod, and Ashton begins attempting to jettison the pod from the ship. A frenzied back and forth of commands and countermands ensues, but Ashton succeeds and the Doctor arrives too late to stop the pod being jettisoned. Another fantastic nod, this time to 2001: A Space Odyssey, as the scene cuts between the Doctor and Martha, looking at one another and yelling across the silence of space as the pod begins to drift towards the sun. It was riveting stuff.
Everyone was on their game in this one. Tennant, Agyeman, and all the guests acted the hell out of it. Murray Gold's score was also pulse-pounding stuff, and I remember it was used in promotional spots for this season as well.
Sarah -
That moment is absolutely perfect. The image of Martha in the window has always been the lasting image of this story for me and probably everyone else who’s ever watched it. Absolutely iconic!
Martha’s scene with Riley in the pod is so sweet. She tells Riley that the Doctor will save them, as unlikely as it seems. Riley’s not sure about the Doctor, but he’s clearly smitten with Martha. (And who wouldn’t be?) I was hoping they’d kiss, but instead, she calls Francine. That call doesn’t go well as Francine only wants to know about the Doctor. Fortunately, Riley is there to comfort Martha in her moment of distress, but, alas, no kiss.
Harry -
They really did form an effective team in no time.
As the Doctor struggles to keep a handle on things, he's gotten no closer to figuring out the cause of this crisis, but during the mayhem of the jettison we were given a clue when Korwin confronted Captain McDonnell and said: "It's your fault."
Sarah -
Whoops, that’s awkward.
The Doctor climbs outside the ship to magnetize the pod back to the ship. Hooray! Unfortunately, he also looks at the sun and realizes that it’s alive and that he’s become infected. It turns out McConnell has illegally mined the sun for fuel without checking for life signs and has essentially scooped the heart out of a living being. Things have just gotten even more awkward.
While Martha is trying to treat the Doctor in the medical unit, he confesses to her that he’s scared and tries to tell her what will happen to him if he dies. It’s really startling on the rare occasions when the Doctor admits he’s afraid, but Martha is having none of it. The Doctor saved her and she plans to save him.
Harry -
This story was great for Tennant being "physical". He stretches and heaves outside the ship. He thrashes and flops around on the floor. He makes terrible faces of anguish. It's all wonderful.
Sarah -
He does seem to be having fun with it.
Things move quickly as Korwin shuts off the power to the stasis chamber where the Doctor is being treated. He’s trying to fight the infection, but manages tells Martha that the contraband fuel needs to be jettisoned. Meanwhile, McDonnell runs into Korwin, admits she is responsible, apologizes to the crew that’s left, and lures Korwin into an airlock, sending both of them into space. The crew vents the fuel and the day is saved -- hugs for everyone!
Harry -
Normally I hate when writers fall back on the "guest character commits suicide to save the day" trope, but here it worked. McDonnell atoned for her crime, removed the threat to her remaining crew, and saved the day without melodrama or histrionics. Nicely done by Chibs.
Sarah -
It works so well. The moment when she tells Korwin that she loves him is heartbreaking.
More importantly, we finally get the kiss! Martha plants a big one on Riley and says goodbye.
Harry -
"Well done, very hot," Martha concludes. Oh, they really did make a sweet couple.
Sarah -
I want to find the fan fiction where Riley joins the TARDIS crew and settles down with Martha on Earth.
Harry -
That would have made for a much more satisfying conclusion than Martha and Mickey being shoehorned together as spare parts. Dammit, RTD!
Imagine how radical it would have been if Martha turned the tables on the Doctor. As he headed for the TARDIS doors, she could have cheerily announced that she'd prefer to stay with her new friend and lend her help where it was appreciated. If Leela could dump the Doctor for someone else, surely Martha could too. And he would have really deserved it this time.
Sarah -
And she actually had a relationship with Riley, unless the awkward Leela-Andred "relationship." I kind of love the Martha and Mickey pair because they're both awesome and, more importantly, because it confuses the heck of out of the Doctor. "What, you picked Ricky over me?"
Harry -
42 never seems to be talked about as a classic of Nu Who, but on this rewatch I totally loved every ticking second of it. Season three is really building up steam now, and not the gratuitous kind.
Sarah -
It’s a solid story that deserves more attention.
Harry -
Best Line:
"Talk about dumbing down! Don't they teach recreational mathematics any more?" As someone who never made it beyond grade 10 mathematics, I love it when the Doctor totally geeks out like this.
Favourite Moment: the escape pod is jettisoned.
Lasting Image: Martha and Riley.
9/10
Sarah -
Best Line:
Ha! I noted the exact same line. Apparently, I get the badge for mathematical excellence on this sofa -- I made it to grade 11 maths!
Favorite Moment: THE KISS!
Lasting Image: Martha in the pod window
9/10
Our marathon continues with Story #185: Human Nature / The Family of Blood...
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