“Doctor Who” has no internal logic! In “42”, Francine Jones remarks upon the fact that she has received three calls from her daughter in one day, the implication being that she’s usually lucky to hear from her at all. Yet, it was established right at the beginning of this series that the Jones family are always on the phone to one another! Martha’s Mum could only feel this way if a great deal of time has elapsed, between the end of the events of “The Lazarus Experiment” and the start of the deep space epic that is “42”, during which the Doctor’s new companion hasn’t phoned home at all. Up to the beginning of “The Lazarus Experiment”, despite experiencing four adventures over five episodes, we know Martha has only been away from home for about twelve hours. Her life during this period has therefore been greatly elongated compared with the passage of time on Earth. All of a sudden, in the latest story, it seems that new rules apply. From her mother’s remark, it can now be assumed that time is running concurrently between home and abroad! To be even more precise than Chris Chibnall’s script, Francine has actually received three calls in the space of three-quarters of an hour!! Then, there’s the space freighter’s illogical computer in “42”. During the countdown to “impact” with the Sun, it periodically tells us how long is left before (total!) destruction, not on the minute or half-minute, as you might expect, but at all sorts of random times probably when best-needed to punctuate the drama! “Impact” is impossible, of course, a Sun being a gaseous body!! In “The End of the World”, two years ago, a great deal was made of having Sun shields on the space station as part of a plot device putting characters in peril. Protection from extreme light and heat no longer seems to be an issue as the Doctor, minutes from zero-time, opens an airlock to operate a fail-safe device situated on the outside of the spaceship!!! There are also twenty-nine password-sealed doors between the bridge and the engine room. I would like to know what idiot designed this vehicle? And, why are human beings possessed or killed for what the Captain has done when they’re all about to die anyway? Even dafter, I actually enjoyed this nonsense!! I must have disengaged my brain for the duration as it is all well-and-good being true to the emotion of a piece but not when it defies commonsense!!!
