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42 Format Reviewed: TV Review Following hotly on the heels of The Lazarus Experiment, or more correctly, following a weeks hiatus for the Eurovision Song Contest, 42 continues the the third series of the new television adventures of Doctor Who. Possibly stemming from the success of the American series 24, this episode is the first Doctor Who story to be shown in 'real time'. The title, 42, refers to the amount of time in minutes until an impending disaster. Fortunately, this is also the amount of time left in an episode once the credits and introduction have been taken out, fortunate eh? The Doctor picks up a distress call and takes the TARDIS to its source, a ship that is about to crash into a sun. The TARDIS becomes inaccessible as it is in a locked vent chanber, and someone has sabotaged the ship. The Doctor must reignite the ships engines to save the crew. There are auxiliary engines, but there are many locked doors with trivia questions as the opening mechanisms, so the Doctor sends a crewmember, Riley, with Martha to try to reach them. Meanwhile, the Doctor gets everyone else to the medical bay. There, another crewmember, Korwin, is discovered to be the saboteur and he struggles against others who are trying to help. Korwin then starts to physically change, and he starts to kill and convert the rest of the crew one by one. When Martha eventually reaches the auxiliary engines, they appear not to work so she tells the Doctor to vent all teh fuel. The Doctor is now starting to change, but this is averted as the fuel is emptied from the ship into the sun and the engines ignite, averting the impact. Martha then phones her mother again, having called her whilst trying to work out the answers to some of the trivia questions with her, now soniced phone, explains that she needed some answers in a hurry and is sorry. After the conversation, it is revealed that agents of Mr Saxon were with Martha's mother listening in on the call. When leaving the ship, The Doctor gives Martha a TARDIS key, alongside her soniced mobile phone this indicates he has really accepted her like he did Rose. For me, this story has some very good, and some not so good elements. Let's start with the good ones, such as the effects and general visuals during the show. This is such a good start for any story, that the sets, lighting and effects match what the story is trying to portray, and here it does so in abundance. We also see the advancement of the general Saxon related plot, now knowing that Saxon is monitoring Francine's interaction with her daughter, Martha, following the warning given to her during The Lazarus Experiment. Such references do spark the imaginations of fandom, and theories and counter-theories spring up all the time until the real outcome is known. The other great element of the story is the fact that the Doctor appears to have finally gotten over Rose enough to accept Martha, and effectively performs the informal induction onto the TARDIS by modifying her mobile phone and giving her a TARDIS key. These are the good parts, but there are certainly some not so good parts. There appears to be a direction that more of the adversaries should have catchphrases to go along with the Daleks 'Exterminate!' cries. The Cybermen were given their, and here we have 'Burn with me!'. By doing this, it strikes me that not only is it pandering to the tabloid culture of today where people supposedly need catchphrases and headlines as they cannot think for themselves. It also strikes me that such catchphrases are done for the sake of merchandising, another worrying trend. This story has a relatively small cast, but the regular members David Tennant and Freema Agyeman again show that their chemistry is very good on screen. The way they interact is excellent, far better than the Piper-Tennant relationship as far as I'm concerned. Of the guest cast, the most prominent member is Michelle Collins as Kath McDonnell. She does OK, but it has to be said that I am not really a fan of her acting. The rest of the cast do OK, with nobody really standing out as being particulary bad or good. As this episode is shown in real-time, and is fast paced generally with action happening all the time, the assumption is that the story should be engrossing, and like it or not the attention should be grabbed initially and not released until the end credits roll. Somehow though, this just wasn't the case. I want Doctor Who stories to lift me out of the back of the chair, and keep me on the edge of my seat until, tired, I slump back at the end of the episode. For some reason I just felt detached from this story, and therefore didn't particularly enjoy it as much as I thought I might. This view appears to be reflectd in part of the fan reaction to the story, with many getting totally into the story from beginning till end, and others feeling detached from it as if there is something missing. Still, if we all liked exactly the same things life would be boring wouldn't it? Overall, 42 is a story with a lot going for it, but sadly didn't have the X factor that grabs the attention, not letting go until the end. The visuals are stunning, and in concept the story takes an interesting way of showing a tale in real-time, something that is enabled by the 45 minute time-slot as opposed to the classic 30 minutes. This is a story I wanted to like, but just couldn't and ended up feeling detached from what could have been much better had it had the missing element, whatever that may be. Rating:  |