42. So first off, I really like the concept of this one, the idea of doing a Doctor Who story in which the events essentially occur in real time (though not the first time I saw it because it was on Sci-Fi Channel with commercial breaks, and actually still not because of Region A speed difference). 24 was a very popular show back in that time (not sure how much it reached the UK though), and its whole thing was the season was a story taking place over the course of a single day, every episode 1 hour in real time, and I think it was neat to see a Doctor Who take on the concept. I think they could have more heavily leaned into the style though, with some split-screen shots of things happening at the same time, like 24 did.
That said, the entire setup for this is incredibly contrived, a trivia-based door locking system? That feels so very intentionally designed to make it take more time to get from one end to the other, maybe just to get Martha to call her mom, and I don’t believe anything would have a system so stupid, I don’t believe anyone would design that, especially if there was an emergency situation like this. There’s also some spots of weird pacing, the biggest of which is when Martha and the other guy are jettisoned, and the Doctor stands there saying “I’ll save you” for a solid minute, time he could have been using to actually save them. Also at the end, the Doctor tells Martha to get them to vent the sun particles from the fuel. Could she not have told them over comms instead of having to run all the way from one end of the ship to the other to tell them in person?
The side characters frankly aren’t very interesting, I could barely even tell you any of their names. This story is often compared to The Impossible Planet a season before, but every single member of that crew was memorable. Zack, Ida, Scooti, Toby, Danny, Mr. Jefferson, I can name them. Not the same here. Riley, the guy with Martha was ok I guess, but I still had to look up that name. And this story does have a lot in common with that story, basically a base under siege, some possessing alien force, falling into a star at some point in its life cycle, and just a very similar vibe, Strong (TIP/TSP) and Harper (42) directing these stories in a way that I think feels similar.
I do like the direction though, it was shot well, Graeme Harper is just very good. My favorite shot was, oddly enough, the same scene I criticized at a script level earlier. The Doctor telling Martha he’ll save her as he gets further away, and paired with complete silence. It does capture the frantic, race against the clock nature of the story for the most part.
The idea of the living star was cool, and I liked the sort of environmentalist analogy of humans “grabbing what’s nearest and bleeding it dry.” Do we really need things going around with a catchphrase like “burn with me?” probably not, but I guess it’s reasonably effective. Kath, while I appreciate that she did come to understand what she did was wrong, I think it’s funny how unnecessary her sacrifice of herself and her husband was. If she waited just a little bit, they would have dumped the sun particles back into Torajji and it would have probably let him go like it did the Doctor. Though I guess there’s another point that that’s basically just the ending to Planet of Evil again, where the ship could leave once they left the antimatter behind on Zeta Minor.
Last major point, this is the episode where I really lose sympathy for Francine Jones. It’s one thing to be concerned about your daughter and want her to just tell you what’s going on (something Martha definitely could have done better), but it’s entirely another to be working with and reporting to some mysterious government people, letting them track the phone call for who knows what reason because of it. And sure, they probably were manipulating her, but there still becomes a point, like I said in Lazarus that you just need to trust your daughter over some suits you don’t know, and when you hear “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” that should be an immediate red flag for anyone. It’s such an overstep on her part to the point that it’s hard to really feel bad about what ends up happening to her later on, she brought it on herself, and even ended up getting the rest of the family hurt as a result. At least Martha’s dad will end up having the stones to stand up against it. Also, for all she knows, Martha was allowed one phone a friend in her pub quiz.
I think I will up my 5/10 to a low 6, because I think it is an ok story, but there are many ways it could have been better.