42 (Doctor Who)

Did You Know?

• William Ash later played Sam in the Sixth Doctor audio drama The Condemned.
• Vinette Robinson later played Rosa Parks in the Thirteenth Doctor episode Rosa, co-written by Chibnall.
• Originally planned for broadcast on 12 May 2007, the episode was postponed due to BBC coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 final.

Plot

The Tenth Doctor and Martha answer a distress signal from the SS Pentallian, a human spacecraft falling into the star of the Torajii system. After the TARDIS arrives, rising temperatures separate them from it. The ship's engines have failed, leaving 42 minutes before it plunges into the star. To reach the bridge, Martha and crew member Riley must work through thirty deadlock-sealed doors, each requiring a password from pub quiz questions. Martha calls her mother Francine on Earth via a modified mobile phone to answer one question; Francine asks about the Doctor but Martha ignores her. Meanwhile, crewman Korwin, infected by something raising his body temperature, escapes sedation, dons a welding helmet, and kills crew members before infecting Ashton. Martha and Riley take shelter in an escape pod, which Ashton launches; Captain McDonnell freezes Ashton to death in a stasis chamber. The Doctor recovers the pod with a magnetic control but becomes infected by the star, learning it is a living being whose heart was illegally drawn for fuel. The star seeks its lost parts. Martha places the Doctor in a stasis chamber, but Korwin disables it. The Doctor insists Martha leave and warns the crew to dump the fuel. McDonnell encounters Korwin, apologises, and blows both out of the airlock. The ship vents its fuel, the engines restart, and they pull away. Martha calls Francine again; a woman monitoring Francine's phone confiscates it and leaves.

Production

The SS Pentallian was originally to be named SS Icarus, changed after the producers learned of the film Sunshine, which also featured a spaceship named Icarus falling into the Sun. The stasis chamber was adapted from the MRI scanner prop used in Smith and Jones, according to associate production designer James North. The spacesuit worn by the Doctor had been seen previously in The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit, repainted since, as producer Phil Collinson noted in an online audio commentary. On 12 May 2007, the BBC website published a text-based exclusive prologue written by Joseph Lidster, detailing character Erina Lissak's reactions as the ship's engines stop and she meets the Doctor and Martha. Doctor Who Magazine reported the title 42 was chosen because the episode is set in approximate real time. Collinson added in a commentary that the name referenced the real-time US series 24. Writer Chibnall acknowledged the title also references Douglas Adams's work featuring the number 42, calling it a playful title. Chibnall compared the episode visually to The Satan Pit.