The title of last night’s Doctor Who episode was nothing to do with the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, but instead referred to the amount of time before the spaceship which the Doctor and Martha found themselves on plunged into the sun.
Countdowns in Doctor Who are something of a cliché, but I think this is the first time it has formed the entire basis for an episode. It was like the scenes in The End of the World in series 1 where Christopher Eccleston had to get past giant fans to the conveniently inconveniently-placed “Save the Day” switch, only with a more elaborate obstacle course with added trivia questions, plus people talking in deep voices (always a sure sign of possession by an evil force in sci-fi land).
The story was also something of a mishmash of genre clichés. It was obvious a mile off that the Captain would heroically sacrifice herself to help save the day, and ejecting her and the monster out of the airlock was straight out of Alien.
On the plus side, I enjoyed seeing the Doctor being more vulnerable, and the idea of a sentient sun could have been interesting but was completely undeveloped. All told, an entirely generic but moderately entertaining runaround.