The third series of modern Doctor Who is one that for one reason or another gets overlooked by alot of Doctor Who fans myself included. Well I thought that i'd take another look from an episode of this show just to see if this series is worth overlooking or if there are more hidden gems then just Blink to be found in this series of the show and so then join me as I review the episode that has a really very on the nose environmental message in the episode itself with the episode in question being called simply just "42" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is The Doctor and Martha finds themselves stranded on a spaceship and have a little over forty two minuets to stop the spaceship from crashing into the sun and saving the lives of all of the crew on board it. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with this episodes plot being rather simple but at the same time it lacks the emotional punch that an episode like this one really should have in order to make it fully work out for the best in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is David Tennant as The Doctor , Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones and Adjoa Andoh as Francine Jones. Also starring in this episode is Eastenders star Michelle Collins as Kath McDonnell , Where the Heart Is star William Ash as Riley Vashtee , Anthony Flanagan as Orin Scannell , Matthew Chambers as Hal Korwin , Vinette Robinson as Abi Lerner , Gary Powell as Dev Ashton , Rebecca Oldfield as Erina Lessak and Elize Du Toit as The Sinister Woman.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured /presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With both David and Freema turning in some good performances which is to be expected but what was';t expected was the fact that the episodes guest cast more then hold their own acting wise when acting against either David or Freema which only raises the quality of thew acting in this very episode.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at The Mill and Any Effects. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty a very mixed bag of affairs as we did get one or two good looking CGI effects shots in this episode but those were very quickly and very often followed u by two or three bad looking CGI effects which really haven't aged all that well.
From little information that I can gather about this episode this episode did go through some very minor changes from script to screen with the original name of the ship being SS Icarus. This was however changed when producers learned that the film Sunshine which has a very similar premise to this episode was going to have it's main ship called Icarus this is something that would have been a cool thing and I can see why writer Chris Chibnall included it in his script as just like the Greek god Icarus the human characters flew to close to the sun but at the same time it would have been a bit on the nose with it's theme if they did stick with that name.
Speaking of being a bit to on the nose this episode just like Sunshine also has a very heavy handed environmental message. This is something that could have been removed from the episodes script sand you wouldn't have to change a single line of dialog but for some reason Chris Chibnall really wanted to hammer it home what kind of message he wanted in this episode instead of doing something subtle and clever like they would have done in the classic series here tho they went the opposite and it is something that I really hated abut the episode as it really does come out of nowhere and it comes across as being really forced as well.
What I really loved about this episode is that we got to see The Doctor himself get effected by the same virus that has already killed one of the crew on the ship. As it's something that now says to us the audience that if this character can get effected then maybe other main characters can as well and so now we have alot more tension that wasn't there previously and having The Doctor openly act scared only hit home just how dangerous this threat really is which in turn makes the episodes villain all the more scary as there now making the one person who shouldn't be afraid of them in the slightest be terrified of them.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely live of me remember whatever this episodes running time even was I do know that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly forty five minuets. Which is a great running time for this episode to have as the episode doesn't have alot there interms of either plot or story to cover a longer running and plus when you add in the fact that the episode has a ticking bomb element to it it means that every single scene has to be about advancing the episodes plot and still tell a really good story and I will admit that this episode does have some really good pacing to it as well.
So now then since this is a drama that means that I have to actually talk about the actual drama that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual drama that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As this episodes drama was really well handled as it was all drama that was really built up all through out the episode and it's this episodes drama that leads to Martha's best scene in the whole entire episode where she calls his mum as she things that she's going to die just to tell her that she loves her and while that scene clashes with the tone of the rest of the episode it was still a really good scene that's really well written and acted in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this was a pretty bad episode in alot of respects but it was also a good episode in other respects as well and is a good example of just how mixed this third series well and truly was in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this episode earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website that I personally preferred to use to get the images that I personally used in this very review being the wonderful Google Images since all of the images that are currently up and and featured / presented to us on the great Google Images are really all fairly high in quality and as them all being really being fairly freaking high in definition.