Full Notes: 42
Full Notes: 42
A spaceship about to plunge into a star has one hope of escape... a pub quiz?
Plot Summary
The Doctor and Martha must rescue a space freighter from certain doom while evading infected crew members who have gone homicidal.
Notable for:
Martha’s first adventure as a “real” companion (not just a temp): she gets a “universal roaming” upgrade for her phone and a key to the TARDIS.
Return of The Impossible Planet spacesuits (suggesting this is roughly in the same time period).
Story unfolds in real time.
Title is both a homage to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the TV show 24.
Ship was renamed from Icarus to Pentallian after producers learned a ship called Icarus would be in the movie Sunshine.
First story written by Chris Chibnall.
Prologue, written by Joseph Lidster, was published on the BBC website.
Pete commentary:
I like the experimental nature of this episode, daring to tell the story in real time. Although the structure (and the title) are clearly meant to reference 24 (which was hugely popular at the time). I’m glad they didn’t overdo it, though, with something like a countdown clock, or split screens, or whatever.
The setup of the ship in danger of crashing into the sun in 42 minutes is your basic rule, but building great suspense within that requires a few more ingredients: good writing that adds believable and interesting obstacles for the characters, good performances that humanize those characters so we care about them, and a solid production (editing, music, effects, etc.) to help with the action so you never get too relaxed to start seeing plot holes. 42 delivers quite capably on all of these, though it never quite rises above an 8 in any particular area: The password thing is fun and frustrating at the same time, the zombie-like “monsters” are scary but derivative, the characters have enough layers of flesh to make them distinct but never that interesting (apart from maybe McDonnell), and the industrial look is excellent but almost cliché at this point. It’s all very good, never great.
Likewise, the environmental message is fine, though done better and with more interesting characters/scenarios in, say, Inferno. It’s also executed in a way that’s confusing: The Doctor criticizes them for using outdated, and apparently unethical equipment (“energy scoops for fusion”), but it’s never explained what that equipment is and why it’s bad. It also seems unrelated to the real violation: “mining” the star, which is actually a living thing.
Making that core mistake that drives the plot is actually really understandable. If you see something that looks like ground, you wouldn’t think that digging a hole would hurt it, especially if you’ve never seen ground “live” before. Likewise, I don’t know why anyone would think a star can be (or house) a living being, especially if that idea is entirely new to you.
That said, McDonnell is certainly portrayed to be someone who cuts corners to get the job done, and clearly is letting her relationship with Korwin compromise her judgment. She’s not a great person or captain, but the script and Michelle Collins’ performance humanize her well enough that you have sympathy for her, and she clearly has good qualities too: decisiveness and strong enough leadership and loyalty to sacrifice herself to save her crew.
Have to give Chibnall credit for the trivia questions: It’s both fun and increases tension in a really frustrating way. The “phone a friend” idea leads to the excellent exchanges between Martha and her Mom, plus lets them sneak in a “Here Comes the Sun” reference!
This is a great episode for Freema Agyeman, who gets to show both sides of Martha: confident and assertive when helping the infected Doctor and releasing the particles, plus terrified and vulnerable while in the escape pod
“Burn with me, Martha,” is a classic moment — maybe what the episode is best remembered for. It’s a bit of a cheat, though: When Korwin is infected earlier, it’s made clear the infection has killed him from the inside, that there’s nothing left of the person. But the Doctor “gets better” pretty quickly once the particles are released. Maybe the freezing did something? Time Lord physiology more hardy in general? Just not enough time for full purging? Take your pick, I guess — still a bit of a syke, but I’d rather have the moment than not.
Better moment: The Doctor promising, “I’ll save you!” when the pod is released. He’s definitely convincing himself, and has no real plan. But the effects when he gets in the spacesuit and is leaning out of the hatch are amazing. Love how RTD has a very strong sense of when characters need to physically push themselves to the limit, when they need to experience pain to do something. Even though the location (why is this outside the ship?) and analog nature of the lever makes no sense, it’s not bad: because the whole setting is an industrial space factory, the ridiculously manual nature of this exercise doesn’t feel too weird.
I can’t say enough about how great Martha’s moment when she calls her mom to say goodbye is. It’s really well written: her saying everything by not saying anything, and mostly falling back on saying she loves her. There’s good writing here where her mom is trying to figure out what’s wrong (she can obviously tell) but also not going too far with it since she’s being monitored. While your heart’s breaking for Martha, your brain is working overtime to figure out what’s happening with Francine. It’s a smart way to add a layer to the Harold Saxon storyline in way that seems natural to the plot.
The plodding dudes in overalls and welding masks are pretty below-average as Doctor Who monsters go. There’s nothing that really stands out about the design of the masks, how they move, or anything else. What they do to people is a bit interesting, at least — I like the “shadows” that they leave behind, and you can’t help but feel something at the gruesome thought of burning to death.
One thing that hasn’t aged that well are the printouts the Doctor looks at in the medical bay. I don’t mind the manual nature of them — clearly the decision was artistic — but it feels really out of place in this future world, maybe even out of place today.
On the good side of the production values, I LOVE the design of the spaceship — it’s very evocative of the Discovery of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The scene with Martha getting the key is nice. I like how Tennant plays the scene: The Doctor has clearly been affected by the experience, but instantly puts his guard back up. This disappoints Martha, but she gets the key. While this is hardly “healthy,” it’s very in keeping with the arc of their relationship: The Doctor being fond of her, but not wanting their relationship to go further than “let’s have some fun together.”
What did Pete’s family think?
Grace enjoyed it, though not as thoroughly as others. It was essentially an “OK” review, though the REALLY liked the trivia questions. Jack really liked it, recognizing the connection with The Impossible Planet/Satan Pit. He holds that story in high regard, and he really liked seeing the same aesthetic and suspenseful story.
Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete
Why did the Randomizer take us here? The Moonbase was a little too clean. Now we’re here at 42, in a story that’s almost “base under siege” but with a different base: one that’s industrial, populated by flawed, working-class people. Martha gets to save the Doctor, and the day, taking the baton from Polly and her cocktail.
What if the evil plot had succeeded? The evil plot is the captain’s: stealing the sun particles. Can it succeed? You’d have to assume turning on the engines gives them enough power to escape. In that case, the Doctor is taken over fully by the infection, but does he regenerate? Let’s assume he doesn’t: basically you have the Doctor as a monster now, forever stalking Martha and the crew of the Pentallion, wherever they end up, kind of like Halloween in space.
Where's the Clara splinter? Clara, a space engineer in the future, designed the escape pods of this ship, putting manual “remagnetizing” levers on the outer hull. She told her boss that it was for accidental droppages in spacedock, but really she knew the Doctor was really going to need them at some point.
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, or Lady Cassandra? Just your average, ordinary Dalek
Chris commentary:
Let's talk superphone. I both love and hate the idea, the former because sci-fi ignores smartphones too much, the latter as it brings up too many questions about how it works and why you can't learn your own future from it, or otherwise save the day bootstrap paradox-style, by phoning a friend (the Doctor?) in the future who knows how it was saved.
That said, it's an interesting marker, when a companion gets the superphone. Rose gets it in her second story. Donna has to wait until the Doctor's Daughter. Amy and Clara get it early off screen. Hard not to think it's a privilege given quicker to the companions he fancies.
So many Cibnall-era problems are here in embryo. The high-concept ideas that can't match the execution. The crew that is barely drawn in, with the possible exception of the captain. The way the script gets distracted from what it's supposed to be, with faux populism (pub quiz!) The non-scary monster (with a knockoff red stormtrooper helmet). The muddled environmental message.
Speaking of which, what, we can't even mine the sun now? These helio-wokes are getting out of control. Plus they're hypocrites with their solar panels, surely. I say drill baby drill!
We sort of forget about the ticking clock after a while. And forget about the questions. The script keeps drifting away from both. And that's Chibnall in a nutshell.
The pub quiz aspect – I liked the idea but found the reality annoying. (Like a lot of pub quizzes, amirite!?) And no, Chris Chibnall, it doesn't help to have Martha say "I can't believe our lives depend on some stupid pub quiz" without responding to that in the script. It just draws attention to how dumb the premise is. This is the 42nd century, they haven't figured out security questions yet?
As for the questions … the happy primes were good – I learned something and that feels like such a Doctor-ish thing to know off the top of his head! – but the whole Beatles-Elvis thing felt just shoehorned in, quite a clunker of a question unfortunately, that draws attention to too many questions. Why would anyone in the 42nd century make the "pre-download" distinction? Are we talking US or UK number ones? (UK, as it turns out: 18 for Elvis, 17 for Beatles … it's the other way around in the US, but only because the Billboard 100 didn't start early enough.) Why?
Then bringing in the "phone a friend" points to all the superphone problems … It just brought me right back to the mundane 21st century with a bump, which is what you don't want this script to do. We're supposed to feel the claustrophobia of the ship and the majesty of the sun, not the thrills and spills of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
Anyway, the Beatles are now catching up to Elvis in the post-download era with the release of "Now and Then" – which debuted in the UK at … number 42!!!
"The auxiliary controls are in the front of the ship" BIT OF A CONVENIENT DESIGN FLAW and this is kind of my problem with the whole "ship under siege" trope, you have to imagine badly designed ships with no connecting software
So unfortunate that Sunshine came out in UK theaters two months earlier – and that the broadcast of the show was delayed a week by Eurovision. (Then again, Sunshine had its release delayed too)
Four Questions to Doomsday - Chris
Why did the Randomizer take us here? From the moon to the sun! The rescue crew falling into the sun in Moonbase! I remember thinking they were abandoned a bit too precipitously. The Randomizer is saying they could have been saved. #RIP. Also the Time Scanner and the Superphone are similarly problematic. And it knows about 3 Body Problem, maybe? And the different but essentially the same reactions to the arrival of strangers … why didn't the Doctor use the psychic paper? Also the Doctor seems to have come quite a long way as a Doctor since studying under Joseph Lister … and there was a prologue to 42 written by Joseph Lidster. Not to mention, the randomizer loves Douglas Adams. Oh, and we have a Vinette Robinson bingo! (Rosa) … and a connection with Amy's choice, the "pivot" episode intended to show a companion becoming a real TARDIS crewmember.
What if the evil plot had succeeded? The sun, uh, "goes nuclear" on the system in a bee sting-like suicide. Perhaps encouraging other star-based creatures to do the same?
Where's the Clara splinter? Not on board. She's back on Earth in the pre-download era making sure that Elvis has more number 1s than the Beatles, perhaps by ensuring the release of the "Little Less Conversation" JXL remix the Doctor mentions.
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, or Lady Cassandra? A Cassandra-Hayter hybrid. Pretty as a movie in parts. Trying the real-time thing would at least tell us this didn't work … and give Mummy on the Orient Express a chance to do it better.