I checked this out on a random lark, and, honestly, it wasn't terrible.

First of all, it is hilarious this appears to still be hosted on the BBC, exactly as it was when it was originally published for the 42 episode.  That episode is alright.  It's got some memorable visuals, but it's written by Chris Chibnall so the script lacks any sense of polish or precision.

In comparison, this prologue short story was great.  It was suspenseful as we count down the moments before projected impact of their vessel his the 42 minutes that defines the original episode.  We are literally taken to the very moment the story starts in the show and I think that's a pretty cool framing device.

But also, I find myself learning a lot about the crew.  Erina misses her mom and has a lot of stirring thoughts about her past and coming to the Pentallian.  We learn about little details like how she thinks Orin is always making these little glances at Kath.  I barely remember any of these names but suddenly I have context for all of cast of the episode I never had before, which begs the question - why on Earth wasn't this stuff in the ACTUAL EPISODE?

This is good character work and I can't believe how absent it is in comparison to what we got on screen.  This isn't the first time I've seen prologue content do exactly that and it is a little bewildering.  In fact, it was so bewildering I looked it up, and it turns out this wasn't really written by Chibnall at all.  Joseph Lidster wrote it based on Chris Chibnall's 42 script, which is why the latter is still given some credit.  Mystery solved, in the most embarassing way possible for Chibnall, really.  I don't know anything about Lidster other than this short prologue and I feel he should have written the actual 42 episode now.