42

Moments after the Doctor gives Martha an intergalactic call anywhere mobile phone (I'd hope with no roaming), the TARDIS ends up on a space shuttle that only has 42 minutes (a slight play on the hit series "24")before it crashes into the sun. Of course they become separated from the TARDIS, to make matters worse a mysterious entity is possessing members of the crew. For a filler episode, this one's fairly good and moves at a good pace. It's thrilling enough and I must admit I had fun with it, but the real meat of this 29th series won't start in earnest until the next episode.

My Grade: B-

The main problem with this one is its similarities to The Impossible Planet & The Satan Pit. But I did still like the story and I am really enjoying the premise of new Doctor Who, who seems to be having a story that is too scary for children at least once a season with season 1 as The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and season 2 with the Impossible Planet/Satan Pit and now this. Not as good because of the similarities but still good enough

First of all I'll start by saying I really like this episode, it's pretty much back to basics, it's pacey, it's grim, it has a sense of urgency about it. It feels like a mix of the movie Sunshine, and a toned down version of the Satan Pit.

Claire Rushbrook is switched for Michelle Collins, and there are other similarities between this and The Satan Pit.

No plodding into the story here, no build up, within 2 minutes it's crash bang and we are straight in. A ship is falling into the Sun and has only 42 minutes left, but something is on board taking out members of the crew one by one, but can the Doctor and Martha help?

Tennant's brilliance continues, and Freema continues to impress, but again her family are so irritating, i am definitely missing Jackie!!

I really enjoyed Michelle Collins in this, and her final scene is really well done, she did a great job.

On its own merits it's a cracker of a story, with excellent effects, a rather good cast, and an energy that has been lacking in some of the previous stories, particularly the Dalek car crash story. 'Burn with me' is a pretty good phrase. It just feels a wee bit unoriginal, it seems to have drawn heavily on many different sources, those already mentioned, possibly even Planet of Evil, the fuel theme idea is, shall we say paid 'homage to.' It is a very bleak story.

Who is this chap Saxon???

Overall, 7/10

I don't completely understand the large number of negative reviews for this episode. I actually thought it was really great. I liked the concept of real time. Yes, there were echoes of Impossible Planet, but I didn't mind. Additionally, I really love Martha. Wish the Doctor was better to her. 🙁

Future showrunner Chris Chibnall made his Doctor Who debut with this episode, which loosely adapts a "24" style real time gimmick, for an actiony adventure that's a decent if not particularly inspired episode.

Now an official companion, Martha (Freema Agyeman) joins The Doctor (David Tennant) in responding to a distress call from spaceship. Leaving the room that the Tardis lands in, the crew deadlock the door as the temperature skyrockets, making the Tardis unavailable for escape. This is particularly unfortunate as the spaceship's engines are down and it's caught in the gravitational pull of a nearby sun. With the temperature increasing, the crew have only 42 minutes to make it through dozens of sealed doors and restart the engineers - but something is picking them off, one by one.

Watching all of the episodes in quick succession again, you can see the similarities between this episode and the "Satan's Pit" double bill from last season. The threat is almost identical, but with the black hole replaced by a sun and the crew of British character actors picked off by an internal and emotionally manipulative threat. This time it's the companion that accepts their death and says their goodbyes rather than the Doctor, but it's the same idea.

That crew includes Anthony Flanagan, Vinette Robinson (who would return 11 years later for a much more high profile role as Rosa Parks) and Michelle Collins, who you don't tend to see as much of now as we did a few years back - but who appeared in nearly 500 episodes of both "Eastenders" and "Coronation Street".

So yes, a bit derivative but it was OK, I thought. It did enough to maintain my attention and I didn't notice any painfully obvious flaws in logic or science that would have annoyed me. The B-Story, with Mr Saxon takes a step up as Elisa Du Toit joins the cast as his currently unnamed underling. Overall reasonably solid.