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BBC 42 |
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| Story No. | 195 | 
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| Production Code | Series Three Episode Seven | |
| Dates | May 19 2007 |
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With David Tennant,
Freema Agyeman Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Graeme Harper Executive Producers: Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner. |
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|
BBC 42 |
|
| Story No. | 195 |
|
| Production Code | Series Three Episode Seven | |
| Dates | May 19 2007 |
|
With David Tennant,
Freema Agyeman Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Graeme Harper Executive Producers: Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner. |
| Synopsis: The S.S. Pentallian is hurtling towards a sun and the Doctor has only 42 minutes to stop it. |
Hot Ship - Over and Over by John Nor 9/6/07
As I described in my review of Gridlock, as Doctor Who stories can be set anytime, anywhere, so Russell T guards against the show feeling incoherent by having us visit certain times and places again. And so with this episode we return to the era of human future history last explored in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit: the "used universe" of the 42nd Century.
This episode shares some of the cinematic influences of that two-parter (e.g. the Alien films) but the clean, blue lines of the escape pod demonstrate that Soderbergh's version of the film Solaris is also an inspiration. (The idea of a sentient celestial body is also similar to Solaris.)
The escape pod sequence, although partly inspired by Soderbergh with the image of Martha receding into the distance, has another wonderful accompanying image of the Doctor silently mouthing "I'll save you!". This must be the most poetic sequence of images since Nu-Who appeared in March 2005. (Well done Graeme Harper.)
Just as the 50 million and first Century is sometimes portrayed as whimsical (as I describe in my review of Gridlock), there is a harder aspect to the stories set in the 42nd Century and to the science depicted (e.g. with this episode illustrating -273 degrees C).
The stirring theme that I liked so much in Gridlock is back here to underscore the peril in the story as the Doctor strives to save Martha. This episode looks great and sounds great. Chris Chibnall has harsh critics for his scripts for Torchwood, but I thought Cyberwoman and End of Days were great fun, and this Doctor Who episode is a slightly more serious though similarly fast-paced story.
The ongoing arc storylines seem tightly woven this year, with the appearance of Elize Du Toit as Sinister Woman tracking the Doctor for Mister Saxon, after the previous episode began this idea of Saxon's interest in the Doctor. Martha is finally accepted by the Doctor here, with his surprising admission that he is scared showing he is finally able to speak to her without evasion.
The season continues with another excellent episode.
A Review by Paul Williams 18/7/07
For the first time ever I could not watch a Doctor Who story through to its conclusion. Ten minutes before the end I had changed channels, remembering the few positive aspects of stories such as Timelash, Time and the Rani and Horns of Nimon. 42 was postponed for a week to allow for the Eurovision song contest. Quite frankly, the worst entry in that tournament would attract more points than this.
To begin with, the science seems flawed. No ship could be that close to the sun and have any chance of survival. It was established in The Moonbase that once you'd entered the gravitational pull of the sun there is no escape. Add on a spaceship that none of the crew could control or understand, an over-extensive security password system that asked riddiculous questions for the time and age (this diversion allowed Martha to phone home in the same annoying way that Rose did), and the obligatory alien possesion. When dialogue such as "it's picking us off one by one" can be predicted, there are serious problems and we have reverted quickly back to running around corridors. These shorter stories should not need padding.
On the rare occasions when the ninth and tenth Doctor have left Earth, they have usually landed on spaceships or planets that resemble or are modelled on Earth. We've seen spaceships under threat before; The Girl in the Fireplace for instance dealt well with the stereotype, and should not be here again. Amateur copies of Alien are not the way forward for Doctor Who. It needs orginality, not men with shining eyes and space helmets or isolated human groups under pressure from an unseen monster.
If Doctor Who is to survive it needs to avoid alienating the casual viewer. Seven people with limited or no knowledge of the programme, but a good understanding of science fiction, watched this with me. All agreed it was not worth waiting for the end; in fact, they wanted it switched earlier.
By Numbers by Mike Morris 16/10/07
One of the things that people are fondest of saying about Doctor Who is that it isn't science fiction. In a way it's a meaningless statement, almost as meaningless as the phrase "science fiction" itself. What we mean, probably, is that it isn't "hard" science fiction, or maybe that it's not space opera. Personally I don't know where science fiction stops or starts, why Phillip Pullman - say - isn't thought of as science fiction, or why - for that matter - CSI Miami isn't either. Still, blurry as the edges might seem to be, there's no getting away from the fact that 42 is squarely, resplendently, proudly, a sci-fi story.
As for whether it's a good story - hmm, well, sort of, maybe. It's hard to know what to say about it, really. It fulfils the primary criteria of being entertaining, in a lots-of-people-running-about sort of way, and there's an adversary who's properly threatening. While the thing-in-the-helmet probably isn't as scary as it really should be - of which more later - at least we're back in the realm of things that are actually there, and I'd lay odds that any ten year-old would find this about five times as frightening as the CompuBlob from The Lazarus Experiment.
The story's central gimmick is that it's set in real-time (although that actually breaks down slightly in the middle of the story), following the 42 minutes before a spaceship plunges into the sun. Now, leaving aside the obvious theft from 24, a programme which I find about as entertaining as watching a sink back up, there's definitely the core of an idea here. It was a surprise that - according to the Confidential episode - the addition of this element happened relatively late, as it's hard to really see what the story had going for it without this. Like The Lazarus Experiment, it's a dreadfully thin plot and while The Lazarus Experiment does at least have weighty concerns at its heart, 42 is primarily about people trying to open a bunch of doors by solving quiz questions. This is the sort of thing that could only possibly work with a ticking clock in the corner; without it, I fail to see why the thing was commissioned at all.
(Course, it's entirely possible that Rusty was telling porkies. I wouldn't put it past him.)
If there's a problem then, it's that the tension doesn't really work as well as it should. Graeme Harper is generally listed in my book as He Who Can Do No Wrong, but his style has obviously altered since the days of The Caves of Androzani. Then, he could do tension better than anyone else - witness the almost unbearable cliffhanger to Part One of Caves - but his Nu-Who stories have been much more action-orientated (and, before now, to no less effect, I might add). A shame, since what this really needed to be truly memorable was some of that cross-fading and atmospheric work that we see in Caves and Revelation of the Daleks, but what we get is too frenetic. Or, to put it another way, the story needs to be directed like Alien, but instead it's more like Aliens. The clock-ticking just doesn't seem as doom-laden as it should and as a result it feels like the tacked-on gimmick that it is. To compare it to its obvious progenitor, 24, it's far too conventional; 24's use of split screens builds a genuine sense of time going by that's absent from this.
Apparently, That One With The Devil In It from last year was an influence for this story's look. I like that. I like the fact that Doctor Who is returning to different time periods and giving each a distinct look, that the year 5 billion has a tweeness as consistent as the wire-strewn look of the 51st century or the clunk-click utilitarianism of... erm... whenever this one's set (the time period's not explicitly stated, but the fact that I just slotted it in with That One With The Devil In It shows how good Doctor Who is becoming at this sort of thing). It's a mistake, though, to pretend that the utilitarian look is something that Doctor Who invented or something even remotely new.
On the plus side: blimey, hasn't Tennant been good this year? His performance here is pitched in sympathy with the rest of the show, i.e. frenetic with a capital "frenetic", but he doesn't half convey the tension well. His scenes when fighting possession are beautifully played, particularly the wonderful moment of vulnerability when he tells Martha "I'm so scared" - one of the nicest moments of the third series, that, which almost justifies the rest of the episode. It's probably worth mentioning that, although we - as fans - are used to the idea of the Doctor becoming possessed, it's not actually happened in the new series and does provide a who's-going-to-save-us-now jolt.
Martha also does well. The scenes with her mother do actually work, and at this point her relationship with the Doctor is achieved very nicely; look at the final scene, when the Doctor pulls away from any meaningful conversation with his characteristic cheerfulness and Martha recognises it for the rejection it so clearly is. In fact, the last ten or fifteen minutes or so do genuinely work very well - perhaps because, at this point, the frenzied edge to the whole thing has been earned.
The problem, really, is that it takes too long to get there. Early on, there's so much shouting and running around that we don't actually get to grips with the characters of any of the crew, with the possible exception of Yer One From Eastenders. And there are some truly bizarre moments of characterisation: in the middle of the emergency situation a crew member starts to bitch about her boss and then turns off the communicator when she knows there's a killer stalking the crew. It's actually stated at one point that the crew are being picked off one by one, but it's not as if this isn't something we've seen a thousand times before. And as for the revelation about where the threat is coming from... predictable isn't in it.
Ultimately, I enjoyed 42 in an absent sort of way. It doesn't annoy me as much as The Lazarus Experiment does, although it's equally generic and I'd entirely understand someone disliking it far more than I do. It's clearly filler, and - irritatingly - has no desire to be anything but filler. More annoyingly still, it's pitched at "science fiction fans" in a way I've no desire for Doctor Who to be, with cartoonish derivations of traits like "gritty" and "edgy"; words that could only be used in connection with 42 by by SF-geeks who think The Matrix is a philosophical series of films about the very nature of existence, barely watch anything that isn't set in space, and certainly never watch anything that's truly gritty. 42 isn't gritty or edgy, it's silly and unimaginative. The season cranked it up a notch from this point onwards, thankfully, which sadly means that 42 stands out as the one from Series 3 which you really didn't need to watch at all.
A Review by Graham Pilato 30/1/08
Somewhere between a good episode of 24 and a terrible hour of haste to get the pigsty house pretty for the fat and critical neighbors suddenly coming over, this episode exists as a rather strong piece of sensationalist Doctor Who sci-fi thriller. Everyone can relate to the need for haste stuff, but the sudden urgency for the exorcism of energy beings and the trivial pursuit of doom is a little extraordinary. And it comes off here as a kind of filler episode of Doctor Who-y stuff. It's not bad at all -- it's actually quite exciting -- and wonderfully not embarrassingly so at all, despite all the inadequate aspirations to be 24 or perhaps a TV version of the last act of Danny Boyle's recent film, "Sunshine". But this is a case of a show that was clearly designed to bolt and shock and run, and it just comes off as being a bit like the race to get the house cleaned.
It's just so familiar and so expected, despite such a pace of things falling apart just so fast. Thankfully, the music is thoroughly convinced by the plot, because I think half of the swallowing of this wild pill is its powerful music. Far more than is usual for Doctor Who, though it does happen often enough, the exciting music and expertly paced and pitched camera work here just plain keep one gripped as can be. The wild plot aside, David Tennant's very affecting acting aside and some truly gorgeous CGI work this time around aside, this one's success is all about the main production team and their efforts.
Though the plot was mad, the meta-gameshow was pretty wonderful early on.
Thanks for the ride, Doctor. Good of you to finally show Martha some real faith and give her a TARDIS key...
It was lovely to see the Doctor admit fear for once. And it would certainly be real fear for such an occasion... It's fearsome stuff for one that expects to have to start killing innocents.
7/10
A Review by Joe Ford 10/4/08
After a slight knock with the (still entertaining) Lazarus Experiment, the near-flawless series three gets right back on track with this fantastically energetic and pulse-racing story.
I want to tell you a vaguely embarrassing story. I remember when I was younger I caught the repeat of Revelation of the Daleks on BBC2. I was blown away. Drama seemed to squeeze from every second of the story and the highpoint of the story for me was the end of episode one. Looking back now, it is a bit of a copout to have a statue fall on the Doctor but through my naive young eyes it was seat-wettingly exciting. I can remember (being the loner I was at the time) being so thrilled I spent the evening up in my room re-enacting the scene and (genuinely!) tipping my wardrobe over me for added realism. You might wonder what this has to do with the episode 42? I think there are moments in Doctor Who that just scream out to the excited child in you and demand you to act them out in real life. Ace drowning in the airlock in Battlefield, the Doctor desperately running across the surface of Androzani with bullets at his heels, Leela jumping out of the window to escape Mr Sin. I think I have (like most people) become more cynical and unadventurous in my adult life (I turned 27 recently...) but 42 reminded me of what it felt like to be so excited about a television programmed you want to run around screaming about monsters and saving people from great catastrophes. Poor Simon (who adored this episode), he had to put up with me rushing to the car as if it was going to explode, running around the supermarket looking for the bomb that was going to go off ANY MINUTE and then rushing up the stairs on the way home because the flat was going to take off any minute with dangerous criminals inside! Are these the ravings of a madman? Possibly, but thank you Doctor Who for reminding me how brilliant escapism is. I haven't had so much fun in ages.
Anyway, back to the episode. Wasn't it stylish? Graeme Harper is already well known for his dynamic direction but this episode must have still been something of a challenge. Basically, 42 starts out running and develops into a strong sprint before climaxing in a rocket-fuelled dash. The pace never lets out and, despite a few quiet moments, it maintains its energy throughout. Obviously, the experimental nature of doing an episode in real time is a treat but it forces some strict rules on the story, not allowing it to deviate from the main plot for a second. I can say with some degree of honesty that I haven't watched anything, not even surrounding episodes of Doctor Who, that has managed to packed in so many dramatic scenes or built to such a pulse-racing finale. Voyager (spit spit spit) attempted a very similar episode set on a Maelon ship with B'lanna Torres getting all hot and sweaty but that didn't reach a hundredth of the energy of this episode, hampered by the usual restrictions placed on any Star Trek series that doesn't have the word "nine" in the title.
It surprises me that this comes from the pen of Chris Chibnall because his scripts for Torchwood were hardly works of art. Episodes such as Day One and Cyberwoman strained credulity beyond even my limits, and his story structure and motivations for his characters left me cold. Shocking then that 42 is his tightest script to date, not wasting a single second. I have no date that the science of this episode is a load of science-fiction nonsense that left Ms Sheik (my gorgeous and frighteningly intelligent physics teacher) tutting with disgust but frankly this is all set in the future so let's chuck realism out of the window. Chinaball picks a couple of cliches (real time, disaster movie, race against time) and applies a fresh lick of Doctor Who that spruces them all up, adds a Doctor Who tradition (possession) and presents a dynamic script with lots of exciting scenes for the cast get their teeth into. For instant impression on transmission only Gridlock has impressed me more. His characterisation here knocks spots off of anything he attempted on Torchwood with McDonnell and Riley coming across especially well. Who cares if its plot resembles Planet of Evil? Of which I have no doubt some people will moan about, in the end of the day this feels like a completely different story with one plot similarity.
Billie Piper must be steaming at the ears to see the sort of material Freema Agyeman is getting this year and the sort of stories she is getting to be a part of. The more I see of Martha, the more I like her and after last week's recognition that she and the Doctor make a great pair and should continue travelling together, they are suddenly an iconic pair, like the Steed and Mrs Peel of modern day telly. Martha gets to go on a rollercoaster emotional ride in 42 but it is good to see her getting so involved in the stories and her scenes with Riley, especially those in the escape pod, crackle with feeling. It helps that the script stays the right side of maudlin, but the performances really sell the desperation of the situation. I also love how readily Martha throws herself into danger for the Doctor; no sooner are they out of the TARDIS in 42 and she is thrown into one death-defying situation after another. Even hot and sweaty and with the threat of impending death by sun or emissaries of a sun organism, Martha still rushes to save the Doctor's life and be with him when he is in pain. She's excellent.
Tennant gets to flex his acting muscles this week, as the script manipulates him into the position of a victim. Simon and I exchanged worried glances (completely forgetting these are fictional characters) as the Doctor screams with pain as his mind is invaded and his body temperature taken to extreme levels. When he is suddenly telling Martha that he could kill her at any minute I was so hooked in to this episode an atom bomb could have exploded right next to me and I wouldn't have noticed. Tennant is typically authorative otherwise, exploding across the scene like a firework. In an episode where everybody is acting their little socks off and running about to keep things as fast-paced as possible, Tennant is the most noticeable and the fastest.
The lighting gives 42 some really strong visuals: the blistering heat of the sun highlights many scenes and simple tricks like wafts of steam bleached blood-red help add atmosphere to proceedings. I love the scene in the escape pod, bleached blue but with Martha's face framed in a tangerine orange. Murray Gold's score is especially bombastic this week, some might say intrusive, but an episode that is throwing so much drama at you I feel needs a score that you notice. He certainly got me jumping up and down in my seat like a deranged loon during the episode's climatic moments.
It's worth noting how strong some scenes are in 42. Whereas some previous episodes (especially in series one) might have shied away from 42 seems to thrive and exploit the horror of its situation. There are some lovely gruesome deaths, my favourite being the technician who is throttled to death whilst smoke suggests the blistering of his skin whilst he screams with absolute horror. I suppose in an episode where the stakes are this high you have to show that the pain is very real.
Other points of interest:
Not literate, but damn cool.