Episode #187 : 42

"The wonderful world of space travel... The prettier it looks, the more likely it is to kill you."

Episode #187:  42.
Companions:   The 10th Doctor and Martha Jones.
Air Date:         19th May 2007.

The Tenth Doctor and Martha follow a distress signal, only to be trapped on a spaceship hurtling towards a sun and cut off from the TARDIS. With only forty-two minutes left till impact, can they save the day? Also, something else is on the ship and it wants everyone to burn.

As the blurb says, the Doctor and Martha find themselves trapped on a starship falling into a star with very little time left to save everyone as something not human begins to stalk the crew and burning them with a gaze. It is good classic Doctor Who again with our heroes fighting against the clock, running down corridors and trying to outsmart whatever monster is on board the ship with them. Add to that a subplot where the Jones family are being manipulated by the strange men and women in black to find out where the Doctor is and what he is up to, all in preparation for later this season, and you have a spot on adventure.

You can see now that Martha has become a companion. She started out only a few stories ago as someone the Doctor picked up and whisked through time and space as a thank you for her help on the moon. She has since been properly brought on board with this story. Martha is a companion that I can take or leave usually but in 42 when it appears that she is going to die in the grasp of an alien sun I find a side to her that makes me take her in a bit more. 

If it is a good episode why am I giving it an average rating? It is difficult to put my finger on it if I am honest. Something about this doesn't look right. I don't know if it is because the production played with the colours or it was filmed in a different way but something niggles at the back of my brain. To be fair I have noticed this a lot with the David Tennant era episodes as I've been re-watching them and it applies to a lot of them especially in this current season. But also in fairness, it is a good episode but it isn't up there as a four star rating as it is basically the show at the level that I expect of it. Harsh? Maybe but a fair point.