42 [TV/2007.5.19]

★★★★☆

  Graeme Harper, the man, the myth, the Goldfinger of Dr. Who... because everything he touches turns into gold. I mean, what a whopper this is. From a direction standpoint, first of all, 42 would be on one of the highest echelons of Who episodes. Harper seems to thrive whenever he gets to direct a tense piece of television that often puts the Doctor and their friends in mortal peril (The Caves of Androzani, The Waters of Mars, etc.), and the flashes of inspired directorial choice (for instance, when the Doctor gets "infected" by the sun by staring at it too long) elevate the adventure up quite a few notches.

  That isn't to say that I find Chris Chibnall's script any lacking. In fact, this is quite good work; a tense direction is usually called for due to a tense script, and Chibnall's airtight script is jam-packed with moments of intensity and (when the situation needs it) light-heartedness to lower the buttock-clenching a little bit. I mean, what sort of mad episode has a detour where the companion calls their mum for a pop culture question to save the day? Mad lad, that Chris Chibnall. For the record, I love the sentient sun thing; it's Dr. Who, not a bleedin' science education show. Well, not necessarily; Chibnall himself would focus much of the first series of his own era on Hartnell-esque education serials, but that's beside the point. The moon turns out to be a dragon's egg in this show, a sentient sun isn't exactly ruining the show's believability here. The sun zombies are cool, the sets are even cooler, and the sickly orange palette that signals the end of days is seriously up my alley. David Tennant gives his all for a -- wait for it -- career-defining performance, and Freema Agyeman rises up to the raised bar spectacularly. I have no idea why people call this a bad episode, and I'm not interested in finding out; this is so efficient in what it does, it's creepy as hell and it's exciting.