42

After a week without the Doctor, thanks to Eurovision, Doctor Who returned to BBC1 last Saturday with the episode "42". And while not a masterpiece, I thought it was much better than the last couple of episodes.

Spoilers and whatnot



As well as being a nod to HHGG "42" was an attempt at a new way to tell a Doctor Who story. The title refers to the 42 minutes left until the spaceship the Doctor and Martha land on crashes into a star. So other than the short bits at the beginning and end of the story, the 42 minutes in the middle are told in just about real time with shots of the countdown clock every few minutes.



This seems to be a decent idea for the new series as it usually seems rather rushed anyway, and this time there is a decent excuse for it. Even so, this episode has the same problems as most of the new series, you don't get to know the guest cast well enough to care if they live or die.



Because of the whole crashing into the sun scenario, from the moment Martha and the Doctor arrive on the ship they are rushing around trying to keep it it from burning up. And while they do save the day, I believe that 5 of the 7 people on board the ship die, and for the most part we don't really have much reason to care. Martha makes a friend with one of the crew, and he gets to survive. The Doctor gets to know a couple of the crew, and they get to die.



Martha's life is put in danger, and the Doctor saves her of course. The Doctor is also put in a couple life threatening situations, and the seemed like regeneration causing threats, but somehow he made it through them without snuffing it.

We also had some more teases about the mysterious Mr. Saxon, and how he is manipulating Martha's Mum, but it will be a few more eps before that unfolds.