Doctor Who 2007 Christmas Special - Voyage Of The Damned - Review

Starring: David Tennant, Kylie Minogue, Russell Tovey & George Costigan

Written By: Russell T Davies

Directed By: James Strong

 

Our third year, our third Christmas special. Does three specials now mean that we can start calling it a tradition? Well, if the specials of the last two years were big events in the Christmas Day schedule, Voyage Of The Damned upped the game further still, raking in Doctor Who's highest viewing figures (13.3m) since 1979's City Of Death. We've only had two of these specials so far, but will the third be the kind of quality we got with The Christmas Invasion, or is this more of a The Runaway Bride kind of let-down?

 

As we saw at the end of Last Of The Time Lords, the Titanic appears to have crashed into the TARDIS. Fixing the problem, the Doctor boards the ship to find that it isn't the original, but is instead a spaceship replica in orbit above Earth. The ship is carrying cruise passengers from the planet Sto, and the Doctor quickly strikes up a friendship with waitress Astrid Peth. As the Doctor and passengers enjoy the festivities, danger and disaster is about to strike when a meteor shower collides with the ship. The survivors have to climb their way through the ship whilst surviving the constant attacks of the murderous robotic servants, the Heavenly Host.

 

First of all, I just want to say how much I love the image of the Titanic floating through space. It was already a surprise to see it crashing through the walls of the TARDIS at the end of the last series (and if you watched the Children In Need short, even Peter Davison showed up too), but to find it in space is just so wonderfully absurd. It's a very Doctor Who style image and it's definitely a unique and interesting take on the original iconic ship. Not only does it make for a bit of foreshadowing, it's also probably the closest the show can get to having a story set on something that resembles the Titanic, as you can't really blame it's sinking on an alien incursion without sounding more ludicrous than is credible, or even causing offence.

 

An iconic ship isn't the only surprise to show up in this episode, as we also have the iconic and legendary Kylie Minogue joining the ranks. Kylie Minogue's casting, not to mention her own decision to actually appear in Doctor Who was something I certainly didn't see coming. What's most striking about her role in this episode is her remarkably normal performance, though that may have something to do with the fact that the character she's playing is fairly normal and straightforward too. That isn't to say her appearance in this episode was bad. On the contrary, Astrid is an immensely likeable character and despite the fact that she's from a completely different planet, most of the audience will find themselves in her shoes, especially with her desire to leave her current role in life and see the rest of the universe. At no point is this better seen than when she visits a regular Earth street and we get her reaction to seeing regular shops, concrete roads etc. It's such a heart-warming scene and should hopefully remind us that the simplest, plainest of things can be the most extraordinary in the right eyes.

 

It isn't just Astrid that we take too either, as most of the crew and passengers on the Titanic make for rich, multi-layered characters. Everyone has their own role in the story and their own characteristics to set them apart. (Spoiler Alert!) For instance, Morvin and Foon are entirely likeable and share quite a sweet relationship, especially when Foon has to confess about how she got the tickets for their trip. Bannakaffalatta is revealed to have his own secrets, which incidentally provides a nice bit of social commentary, and though I wasn't convinced about his romance with Astrid, he gets a fantastic self-sacrifice scene. Mr Copper takes the award for the most sympathetic character and while his skewered view of Earth may be comical, he too is revealed to have a detailed backstory. It's all these things make it genuinely upsetting when we see a heavy number of these characters die. That being said, there is a weak link to be found here and it's definitely the character of Rickston Slade. He never progresses from anything more than the rich and self-centred idiot, and while I'm aware that people like this exist, it's exaggerated to the point where he genuinely started to remind me of Chip Rockefeller from The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas. However, I did find it a smart move that he was one of the few characters to survive this episode's events. Too often a wholly unlikeable character is written in just so the writer can kill someone without the audience feeling upset, but Russell T Davies was instead clever and showed that sometimes its the horrible people who don't deserve to survive that actually do just that.

 

Back in 2005, Doctor Who proved that when it came back, it came back with a budget for the first time. Since then the show has never looked better, but in Voyage Of The Damned, I have never known it to look this stunning. This is a very demanding episode as far as budget is concerned but it looks amazing. There's constant action, explosions and destruction and it all looks fantastic. The same can even be said for the ship before it gets struck by meteors. It's very reminiscent of the original Titanic and combines history and sci-fi seamlessly. Murray Gold's music score also stands out and shows some impressive range. The suite music used towards the start was suitably Christmassy, before growing more bombastic and dramatic as the action kicked in, before eventually calming to beautiful choral music as emotions ran high. In fact, despite being a very solid standalone story and essentially being the show's answer to The Poseidon Adventure, Voyage Of The Damned still felt like a naturally done Christmas special. Unlike The Runaway Bride, it didn't get bogged down by having to try and be Christmassy, it just was thanks to plenty of festive imagery such as angels, decorations, trees, snow and more. Some imagery is just straight-up beautiful, with the image of the Heavenly Host carrying and flying the Doctor up through the ship being simply wonderful.

 

Speaking of the Heavenly Host, I really enjoyed them and found them effective as a main threat. They're not exactly going to go down as a particularly iconic baddie, but the Heavenly Host simply work. Being straightforward robots, there's nothing deep or interesting required – all we have to know is that they are robots with instructions to kill all survivors, and in quite an interesting way by tossing deadly halos at people. They're strong, we see that they can get the job done and brutally so, and at no point do they stop pursuing our main characters through the wreckage so they're always an omnipresent threat. The angel design also looks great, and I should probably point out that they get one of my favourite lines of the episode: “Information: You are all going to die”.

 

(Spoiler Warning!) However, while the Host work as a great threat, the reveal of Max Capricorn as the mastermind villain is a huge let-down. This is my only really serious problem with this episode, but I'm afraid Max is nothing short of embarrassing. With the shiny gold tooth, fake eye and really awkward dialogue between him and the Doctor, this is a character that would make most Bond villains cringe. There's nothing wrong with a more comical villain, especially at Christmas, but this is just terrible, especially when we consider that there's been so much mystery surrounding who has given the Host their orders. Max also does a horrible job at undermining Astrid's otherwise very emotional death scene. Seeing him grunt and pull awkward faces while she tries to ram him off the edge with a forklift truck really upstages any tragic impact the scene would have had.

 

But as a whole, Voyage Of The Damned is definitely more a The Christmas Invasion style success than a The Runaway Bride let-down. Of the three I've got to say this is probably my favourite, and while I know not everyone was incredibly keen on this one, to me it's how a Doctor Who Christmas special should be done. It's cheesy, slightly camp sci-fi done right, and while things such as the Doctor's grand speech and the Titanic about to crash on Buckingham Palace, complete with the Queen fleeing with her corgis, are out of place, you've got to admit that they're fun. With a constant sense of threat and danger, likeable characters, high production values, as well as the ending with Mr Copper that never fails to bring a smile to my face, this is the holidays done well and in Doctor Who style. Merry Christmas!

Voyage Of The Damned



8/10