S03E07: '42'

After The Doctor gives Martha the technology to ensure her mobile phone can make calls across time and space, the Tardis arrives on a spaceship that is hurtling towards the Sun with just 42 minutes to spare. Meeting the crew, led by McDonnell, the time travellers learn that the engines have cut out and they are protected by password-protected doors. Soon, a door goes down sealing off the Tardis.

The Doctor visits McDonnell’s husband Korwin in the stasis chamber, where he is very ill and needs sedation. They leave him alone with medic Abi, but the possessed Korwin soon springs to life and vapourises her through opening his eyes and emitting a white light. Muttering the phrase ‘burn with me’, he kills two more crew members whilst wearing a space helmet, including Ashton, whose body is soon possessed too.

Martha and Riley, who have been working to crack the passwords, take refuge from Ashton in an escape pod. However, the possessed man disengages the pod and it heads off towards the Sun. The Doctor arrives just after this has happens, but promises to save her.

Meanwhile, Korwin approaches McDonnell, who makes a plea to her former husband to see if any trace is left of him inside the body. But Scanell quickly incapacitates him before he can do any damage. McDonnell soon reveals to The Doctor that she didn’t scan for life when using Sun particles as fuel, an act supposed to be illegal.

Martha and Riley share an intimate chat about their families as they head for a certain death, although the student says that The Doctor will save them in time. She nervously phones her mother for the sake of having a chat, in case it is their last. However, it transpires that the call is being monitored by some suited people in her living room.

The Doctor dons a spacesuit and undertakes an arduous trip on the outside of the ship in order to activate a mechanism that magnetically recalls the pod. He manages to do this successfully, but on his way back inside the ship he is overwhelmed by the sunlight. Screaming in agony as he tries to stop being taken over, the Time Lord tells the others to freeze him in the stasis chamber. He also tells Martha that the fuel is alive, and with hardly any time left she runs to Scanell and Riley – who have cracked the passwords to the doors – and demands they dump the fuel.

They do so, and immediately power is restored to the engines as the life forms return to the Sun. The Doctor also becomes dispossessed. Heading off for more travels, Martha shares a quick snog with Riley before going into the Tardis. Despite a momentary angry look, The Doctor gives her a key to the time travelling vessel. Martha calls her mother again to say she is safe and will be back for dinner later. After the conversation, a representative of Mr Saxon thanks her and asks if she’s voted in the elections…