If someone in the U.K. wants to call that number and report, I’d be your best friend forever.

Alas, MaryAnn, you just get the BT messaging service saying that the person isn't available to answer the phone, so leave a message after the tone. Nothing cool.

42 reminded me way too much of the Impossible Planet/Satan Pit double of the previous season, and I spent the whole episode thinking that it was going to tie in. I thought it was quite a good episode taken by itself, but given that we'd already had the whole Satan Pit experience, it seemed a bit unnecessary.

I wonder if there’s been a bit of leveling out of class attitudes, and that a posh accent doesn’t carry quite the same air of authority that it once did.

We have a weird relationship with accents in the UK these days, I think. People like Jamie Oliver use a Mockney accent to try and attract a younger audience, be one of the lads, and so on. The traditional Received Pronunciation that some of the older Doctors (I've just been watching William Hartnell, and he's a classic example) used probably wouldn't cut it with the modern Britain RTD's trying to engage with. And also it's just not very common any more; most TV presenters and newsreaders have some sort of regional variation. Christopher Eccelston's northern Doctor was, in many ways, a perfect example of that - regional authority. Fantastic.

On the other hand, the sort of accent Billie Piper used as Rose is the sort of accent that often gets the label "chav" attached, and chav isn't a complimentary label. Yet Ten's accent isn't that different.

I've been wondering how different Ten would have been if Tennant had just used his own (sooo gorgeous) Scottish accent for the part. I don't actually think it would have worked, or the delivery of the lines would have been very different - and that would have been a shame. I've read a bit of fanfic suggesting Ten picked up his accent from Rose when regenerating, which is an interesting theory.

Like Maddie above, I saw an awful lot of parallels to the "Impossible Planet" in "42". The orange spacesuit for a start, and the general colour and feel. But I thought it was a stronger episode than I'd originally thought when I rewatched it.

What is rather fascinating, though, is that “42” is just about the runtime of these episodes, so this one unravels almost in real time.

Careful, MaryAnn. You'll get the "RTD must go" crowd's backs up if you link his name with Paul Cornell and Steven Moffat's scripts. Or even Chris Chibnall's, come to that.

"I've read a bit of fanfic suggesting Ten picked up his accent from Rose when regenerating, which is an interesting theory."
That's not fanfic, it was at the Christmas Invasion script, the idea that the new Doctor picks up some of his new features from the companion, some kind of imprint. But they never got to film that part of the script.

I agree that 42 was lame.

I'm also looking forward to Human Nature and Blink. People were discussing them at Armadillocon last week, and pretty much said what you just said - may be the best SF on TV ever.

I rather liked last night's Master of Science Fiction, though I wish Jerry hadn't looked so much like Data.

I believe it's only in the last ten years that the BBC news services made an effort to introduce regional dialects into their broadcasts. The kind of people who you hear reading the news often go pretty far toward shaping your concept of what 'authority' is, and the Doctor, whatever else he may be, is an authority figure.

You'll note how little success news anchors who aren't white, male, and old have had over here.

Why?

Because the net (well, Outpost Gallifrey) is full of outspoken fans who think that at best Davies deserves praise for bringing the show back and at worst is a frivolous hack who laces his scripts with silly jokes, pop music, cultural references that will date the episodes, inappropriate gay/sexual innuendo and deus ex machina endings. To them, Doctor Who must be “adult” and “gritty”, Davies can do no right and Moffat is da man. Their latest war cry is “Moffat or Cornell for showrunner”.

I don’t agree with them – and the writers in question seem to have nothing but respect for Davies (who won the British Academy’s Dennis Potter Award for television writing last year) – but if you hang around these fan circles long enough it’s hard to avoid these guys. Which is why I’ve stopped visiting the new series discussions on the OG forums. Too depressing.

Oh, and I forgot the other charge laid at Davies's door. That he's turned the show into a soap opera.

This episode reminds me just a smidge of the recent British SF film Sunshine

Yes! I thought of it a couple of times while I was watching that movie a couple weeks ago. What I thought was, "Wow, that episode was stylized and defanged." It's like a cup of decaf versus a double espresso. Nothing wrong with the decaf, but the espresso, hoo boy.

Regarding the title "42"--I thought it was a deliberate reversal of the title of the TV show "24" plus the fact it tied into the way it played in real time.
I thought it was ok, but nothing like Blink, which is one of the best TV shows I've ever ever seen. Stands alone--don't ever have had to see Doctor Who to enjoy it. Stephen Moffat is a genius.
And as an American, I too get baffled by the cues I don't pick up because of the differing accents or the continual jokes about Wales.

I agree with everyone that '42' did bring to mind 'Impossible Planet/Satan's Pit' only those two episodes, 'Satan's Pit' especially were just amazing. Simply amazing...the Doctor's travel down the pit and then his experience in the pit...brilliant!

'42'...eh. But I love the Doctor in it so it's watchable.

I still don't like Martha's Mom and still say that she comes off as just a mean bitter woman instead of someone strict and concerned for their daughter. She just seems really really mean.

"...laces his scripts with silly jokes, pop music, cultural references that will date the episodes, inappropriate gay/sexual innuendo and deus ex machina endings."

Ummm...hasn't this always been part of Sci-Fi? Hasn't Sci-Fi always been a metaphor for our current cultural and political state? I guess I missed the part where Sci-Fi was only fantasy. Obviously I won't be visiting those sites.

MaryAnn you're so not the only one in love with David Tennant's Docotr. And speaking of David Tennant's real accent (sigh)...is it wrong I spent a good portion of Friday on YouTube listening/watching interviews with him because it's so lovely?

Oh my gods...'Human Nature/The Family Blood'...I'll save all my thoughts for next week but...oh oh oh!

I don't think 42 is the least satisfying episode of the season because Graeme Harper did give some above-average direction even though he's not up to his fantastic Sam-Peckinpah style direction peak that he used to be with "Caves of Androzani" and "Revelation of the Daleks"? I mean, there was some good suspense and some great moments such as the silent shouts in space as Martha was ejected in the pod was a great moment.

MaryAnn, do you think Graeme Harper has lost his creative peak directing Doctor Who after his heyday directing "Caves of Androzani" and "Revelation of the Daleks" (Granted, I know you didn't care much for "Revelation of the Daleks" even though it did offer some boldly grim, slickly directed moments and action scenes that were above-average even for the Colin Baker era.
Good examples of slick action scenes are the start of this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I8LDEpvZrU
or the end of this clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rnZBTQ4bM4)?

Along with Graeme Harper, there seem to have been some decent directors like Douglas Camfield(The Web of Fear, Inferno, Terror of the Zygons), Paddy Russell (The Massacre, Pyramids of Mars, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Horror of Fang Rock) and David Maloney (Genesis of The Daleks, Planet of Evil, The Deadly Assassin, Talons of Weng Chiang) who would have become talented film directors sucessfully, even winning Oscars, by now if they moved on from the BBC to doing films just as much as Ridley Scott moving from directing for the BBC to directing films because those directors seem to bring a feel, style and look to their directing all to their own. What do you think, MaryAnn?

Well, MaryAnn, the show was also dominated by the directing and the performances. I mean, the show wasn't always dominated just by the writing because some stories needed help elevating the stories by the direction and the actors carrying a presence, especially with a low-budget (thank god, we had some clever producers, writers and directors who knew how to make effective use of the show on a low budget.

Well, that I agree with. Of course, many low-budget BBC sci-fi show productions including the classic series have a huge advantage over glossier American scifi shows, and that is a creepy atmosphere from the right blend of low-lighting and scary, dark, claustrophobic sets. When you see that sort of atmosphere, it's like watching a story where the inhabitants enter strange, creepy haunted houses with the same feel as the Blair Witch Project (Nigel Kneale's creepy 1972 sci-fi/supernatural BBC TV play The Stone Tape springs to mind there) . A real pity we can never capture that same atmosphere, even if it was low-budget looking, in newer slicker, BBC productions.

Come on - 42 is obviously a reference to "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".

From the Wikipedia article on the episode "42"--
"When asked whether the title referred either to that television series or to the work of Douglas Adams (see Life, the Universe and Everything), he said yes, and acknowledged that "It's a playful title". Adams was a writer and script editor on the original Doctor Who series. A key plot point in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy story (book and television serial versions) is the protagonists being trapped on a spaceship which is pre-programmed to crash into the sun (as part of a rock concert special effect); the number 42 is a key element in the Hitchhikers Guide stories. "

One of my favorite bits is that the ship captain was played by Michelle Collins...and as a big Eastenders fan, it was cool to see a brunette Cindy Beale running around in space.

I'm in the UK and I called Martha's number. Turns out it was the props guy (Nick Murray I think his name is). I had a nice conversation with him about what it was like to work on Doctor Who. What a pleasant man.

God, I love everything you write, Mary Ann, but when you write things like this, I just want to pack up the car and drive to New York and back, tonight, just to high-five you:

Also, I have to say this: I’m so madly in love with David Tennant’s Doctor. I mean, it’s scary, and sad, how I can’t stop thinking about him. Even in the not-so-awesome episodes like this one. Watching him running around and doing nothing is maybe second only to actually traveling with him on the TARDIS. “Burn with me, Martha”? Ooo, I think I might.

I’m so pathetic. And I don’t care who knows it.

Out and proud, my pathetic sister.

Also:
-- a lot of the internal links in these old DW posts don't work anymore, which is a bummer.
-- your comment system apparently hates me and my attempts at html tags (like quotes in the above comment). Oh well.

This was the first (and only) episode (at least of this new batch, which is all I've seen) bad enough that I couldn't sink into the story and stop mocking ridiculous bits. But in the midst of all that, I was still delighting in the Doctor, and the wonder of that made me realize that I've finally stopped wishing that David was Christoper. What can I say, I'm just too loyal...

Love your blog!

I just rewatched "42" and I think that the Doctor's line about being scared was not for himself but that he was scared of "killing them all."

There is something gut wrenching about the Doctor's screaming, DT does it so well though, this episode and "Human Nature" contain screams that rip my heart.

Gawd I am going to miss ten :-)

oh my god i cant believe the negativity about this episode! i think it is FABULOUS and i really cant understand why anyone wouldn't adore every last drop.

Well, now that Pluto is no longer a planet, they're going to have to rewrite this entire episode. So maybe that's why MaryAnn was so negative about it. ;-)