Voyage of the Damned

"A silent night I believe they call it. A silent night."

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: TV

Broadcast: 25th December 2007

Series: 2007 Christmas Special

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis 

A spacecraft set on an apocalyptic collision course with Earth, a host of killer robots and an evil severed-headed mastermind - it's just another Christmas for the Doctor...

The Doctor is astounded when his ship is struck by the Titanic - a space-going reproduction of the luxury ocean liner. Venturing on board, he meets several of the alien tourists, but when the ship is devastated by a meteor shower, the Doctor and his new friends find themselves stranded in the wrecked, timebomb of a craft set on collision course with Earth...

Verdict 

Voyage of the Damned is an excellent episode of Doctor Who and certainly serves as a brilliant Christmas special. I can't quite believe it's nearly been nine years since this story broadcast and even at nineteen, that fact is really making me feel old. Time is going by so quickly and the next festive story will soon be upon us. I think it was good to be watching a Christmas special in September as the fever surrounding the event hasn't yet started so I was purely judging it on its content and quality. I thought it was action packed and I enjoyed the immediate continuation from the surprise ending of Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords with the Titanic having crashed into the TARDIS. As we were reminded by the Fifth Doctor in Time Crash, the TARDIS shields were still down but the Tenth Doctor soon saw to fixing them and seeing his ship repaired. But the Titanic crashing into his time machine was just too much for the Doctor to ignore and he immediately made the short hop on board. I thought the references to Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel and The Lazarus Experiment were great when commenting on the Doctor's tuxedo. It really did bring him bad luck! There were also terrific mentions of The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride when the Doctor met who he would later know as Wilf. I've only recently watched The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky and the references to this story in that were fantastic. I thought Astrid was a wonderful character and I was quite surprised that the Doctor seemed genuinely smitten with her. He was flirting, talking tales of the stars and even showed her a brand new sky which she just adored. They did get on pleasantly and as much as I liked Donna, I think it would have been brilliant to have Astrid as the companion. It does seem our Tenth Doctor has a thing for blonde girls. I'm quite the opposite. Midshipman Frame, or Alonso as we later knew him after a comedic moment with the Doctor, was excellent and his quarrel with the ship's captain that got him shot was quite a surprise. There was a meteor storm coming and the captain attracted it towards the ship. It was obviously intentional and what did he care, he was dying anyway. Foon and Morvin were a great couple and I loved how the Doctor instantly got along with them. He even humoured them with the sonic screwdriver. Mr Copper was also fantastic and his apparent knowledge on Earth, and particularly Christmas, was rather hilarious. He later revealed that his degree wasn't much at all to brag about and that he'd lied to get the job on board. He was one of the few to survive and ended up on Earth with a healthy supply of £1 million. Rickston wasn't such a likeable character but Gray O'Brien played that role superbly and that's what made him a good character. Bannakaffalatta was also a fantastic character and full of humour and emotion when it came to Astrid. The infamous speech by the Doctor was an episode highlight but I also loved the scene where he went arm in arm with the Host after Max had died and Astrid with him. The Doctor was sick of death but after saving the planet, which contradicted Turn Left a little, he couldn't save Astrid. He gave her a last kiss but her molecules went flying amongst the stars. It was quite an emotional end to what was a fantastic episode. Overall, very good!

Rating: 9/10