Future showrunner Chris Chibnall made his Doctor Who debut with this episode, which loosely adapts a "24" style real time gimmick, for an actiony adventure that's a decent if not particularly inspired episode.
Now an official companion, Martha (Freema Agyeman) joins The Doctor (David Tennant) in responding to a distress call from spaceship. Leaving the room that the Tardis lands in, the crew deadlock the door as the temperature skyrockets, making the Tardis unavailable for escape. This is particularly unfortunate as the spaceship's engines are down and it's caught in the gravitational pull of a nearby sun. With the temperature increasing, the crew have only 42 minutes to make it through dozens of sealed doors and restart the engineers - but something is picking them off, one by one.
Watching all of the episodes in quick succession again, you can see the similarities between this episode and the "Satan's Pit" double bill from last season. The threat is almost identical, but with the black hole replaced by a sun and the crew of British character actors picked off by an internal and emotionally manipulative threat. This time it's the companion that accepts their death and says their goodbyes rather than the Doctor, but it's the same idea.
That crew includes Anthony Flanagan, Vinette Robinson (who would return 11 years later for a much more high profile role as Rosa Parks) and Michelle Collins, who you don't tend to see as much of now as we did a few years back - but who appeared in nearly 500 episodes of both "Eastenders" and "Coronation Street".
So yes, a bit derivative but it was OK, I thought. It did enough to maintain my attention and I didn't notice any painfully obvious flaws in logic or science that would have annoyed me. The B-Story, with Mr Saxon takes a step up as Elisa Du Toit joins the cast as his currently unnamed underling. Overall reasonably solid.
Now an official companion, Martha (Freema Agyeman) joins The Doctor (David Tennant) in responding to a distress call from spaceship. Leaving the room that the Tardis lands in, the crew deadlock the door as the temperature skyrockets, making the Tardis unavailable for escape. This is particularly unfortunate as the spaceship's engines are down and it's caught in the gravitational pull of a nearby sun. With the temperature increasing, the crew have only 42 minutes to make it through dozens of sealed doors and restart the engineers - but something is picking them off, one by one.
Watching all of the episodes in quick succession again, you can see the similarities between this episode and the "Satan's Pit" double bill from last season. The threat is almost identical, but with the black hole replaced by a sun and the crew of British character actors picked off by an internal and emotionally manipulative threat. This time it's the companion that accepts their death and says their goodbyes rather than the Doctor, but it's the same idea.
That crew includes Anthony Flanagan, Vinette Robinson (who would return 11 years later for a much more high profile role as Rosa Parks) and Michelle Collins, who you don't tend to see as much of now as we did a few years back - but who appeared in nearly 500 episodes of both "Eastenders" and "Coronation Street".
So yes, a bit derivative but it was OK, I thought. It did enough to maintain my attention and I didn't notice any painfully obvious flaws in logic or science that would have annoyed me. The B-Story, with Mr Saxon takes a step up as Elisa Du Toit joins the cast as his currently unnamed underling. Overall reasonably solid.