Episode 7: 42 (The Jones Review)

The tagline for this should be "In space, no one can hear David Tennant shout his lines". With 42 it seems that the good-to-bad episode ratio seems to be righting itself again. I enjoyed this one and even though it was derivative, dodgily acted and miscast in places - it was still a good episode. Perhaps this is where the modern Who finds it's feet, in tight spaces, short timeframes and classic plots.

42 minutes of deadline breaking mania, a significant nod to 24 and apparently the movie "Sunshine" brings a simple plot with no complicated logic or reasoning to contend with. The trivia quiz element to door opening was novel, if not that secure (though a twentieth century music history question? Oh come on!). The Cyclopsian helmet and glowing eyes added some nice anthropomorphisation to the eventual reveal of the antagonist of the story. The dips away to Martha's mum were good tension breakers, as was the silence of space when the pod disengages. Not so quiet when the Doctor pops out for a space walk, but consistency is never a Who strong point.

The Saxon elements are heating up and so is my dislike for Martha's mum, hope she meets a sticky end (though she probably won't - dammit!). Michelle Collins as the ship's captain was hopelessly miscast and wet, and the bit players seemed like they had personalities and histories that were once longer, but don't make sense in the 42 minutes of the main story arc.

All in all this reminds me of an old episode I can't quite put my finger on at the moment. Or maybe it's a classic Star Trek Original series story? It's hard to fault, becasue while watching it I had occasional niggles in the back of my head about where things were derived from, but like with the Lazarus experiment, it didn't seem to matter to me too much. I watched, I enjoyed and apart from the near death pod bit with Martha, paid attention to it.

David acts out his shoutiness a little less, and it has toned down a lot, though in amongst the noise and tension - the volume was not so bad. Once again his wit and pop references at the beginning lended a bit of weight to his Doctor as a character instead of the cardboard cutout hero of the dalek/cyber episodes.

Next week has zombie scarecrows, a boarding school background and a classic period piece that usually works well in Doctor Who. Add to this Jessica Stevenson, all we need now is a visit by Nick Frost and the 'Spaced trifecta' will have been played!