Doctor Who Project - 42

Like the last review, I've put off reviewing this episode. I saw it weeks ago and to be honest it was so forgettable I've just had to look it up online. I honestly confused it with the story that has The Hoth and The Doctor's daughter in it (isn't that called 'The Doctor's Daughter'?!). Made a commitment to this project though and I really want to watch some of the next episodes especially as we're getting towards the end of this series and have series 4 to look forward to which was easily Tennant's finest point.

Like the last episode we see another soap actress cast in one of the major support roles (last time round it was Mavis from Corrie now it's Cindy Beale from Eastenders). RTD stunt casting aside this episode is most memorable for the "burn with me" line muttered by the baddie. I would imagine this bad guy would be scary to younger viewers especially when The Doctor becomes 'infected' and turns on Martha muttering the baddie mantra of "burn with me".

There's the obvious pun on '24' in the title, especially as they only have 42 min to save the ship from falling into the sun but having never seen '24' that's where my comparison to that ends.

42 isn't that bad of an episode, it's still filler but at least it's not 'The Lazarus Experiment' or others I care not to mention. It has the benefit of not being set on Earth (although most of it is on the ship) and you get the sacrifice at the end, the ship's Captain putting right to her wrongs whilst dying in her partner's (who is infected with the Sun's energy) arms which gives a far more satisfying conclusion than ringing a bell and hoping a giant primordial genetic throwback falls to his death.

Yet again at the end of the story we see the obligatory Saxon mention, this time around it's more heavy handed with Saxon's people doing an FBI listening in on Martha's call to her Mum. The story also parallels the previous story as The Doctor gives Martha a key to the TARDIS (previously had told her she's ok to carry on travelling with her).

Oh well onward and upwards the 'Human Nature/Family of Blood' double followed by 'Blink' next!

Alons-y