I’m the Doctor. I’m a Time Lord. I’m from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous, I’m nine hundred and three years old, and I’m the man whose going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. Got a problem with that?
The Tenth Doctor
Before I get started, this is the 500th post on the website. This is a milestone that I never thought I’d reach. This blog is very much a hobby and life has changed and got in the way at times. I started reviewing Doctor Who following Twice Upon A Time, and in that time, I have had several jobs and have two amazing children.
Thank you to all those who have supported the blog, and here’s to the next 500 posts!
Synopsis
When disaster hits the Titanic, the Doctor uncovers a threat to the whole human race. Battling alongside aliens, saboteurs, robot Angels and a new friend called Astrid, can he stop the Christmas inferno?
Key Facts
| Doctor | Tenth (David Tennant) | Director | James Strong |
| Companion | Astrid Peth (Kylie Minogue) | Producer | Phil Collinson |
| Original Broadcast Date | 25th December 2007 | Composer | Murray Gold |
| Writer | Russell T Davies |
Cast
| Geoffrey Palmer (Captain Hardaker), Russell Tovey (Midshipman Frame), George Costigan (Max Capricorn), Gray O’Brien (Rickston Slade), Andrew Havill (Chief Steward), Bruce Lawrence (Engineer), Debbie Chazen (Foon Van Hoff), Clive Rowe (Morvin Van Hoff), Clive Swift (Mr Copper), Jimmy Vee (Bannakaffalatta), Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred Mott), Nicholas Witchell (Himself), Paul Kasey (The Host), Stefan Davis (Kitchen Hand), Jason Mohammad (Newsreader), Colin McFarlane and Ewan Bailey (Alien Voices) & Jessica Martin (Voice of the Queen). |
Review
Voyage of the Damned sees Russell T Davies attempt to take on a disaster movie in the format of a 70-minute Christmas special. I know that disaster movies are regularly shown at Christmas, however, I don’t think I’ve ever really consciously watched one. Maybe that’s why this story really fails to resonate with me.
Information: you are all going to die.
The Host
The Doctor Who Christmas Special is a bit of an odd beast. It has to appeal to the casual audience, who may not have watched the show for years, or even ever, along with devoted fans looking for the next installment of adventures for the Doctor. It’s a bit of a tightrope for writers to have to walk. These stories will usually have a big star in them – for instance, Michael Gambon in A Christmas Carol or Neil Morrissey in The Next Doctor – or feature a regeneration. Voyage of the Damned‘s big draw for the casual viewer is the appearance of Australian pop star Kylie Minogue as Astrid Peth. The story seems to revel in the implausibility of that notion – you can almost hear Davies saying “look, it’s Kylie, in Doctor Who. Isn’t this absolutely bonker?!?” as he types, which may explain some of the issues I had with the story.
Fundamentally, the story is not too bothered about the people who are killed on the starship and as a result seems quite nasty and to almost forget some of its core messaging. With stories about the Titanic, social class is an important issue, and with the van Hoffs, who won a competition to be in first class. The Doctor sides with them on first meeting them, causing the rich people mocking them’s champagne cork to unexpectedly pop, covering them with alcohol. Equally, with Bannakafalata being a cyborg, the writing is meant to be an allegory for the LGBTQIA+ community, however, Davies does not treat him with respect. As the story progresses, both the van Hoffs and Bannakafalata fall by the wayside, all being killed unceremoniously.
On a show like Doctor Who, you’re only realistically going to have budget for one big action set piece in an episode like this. In this story, it is the bridge scene over the Titanic’s engines. This scene sets up that the ramshackle bridge can only support the weight of one person at a time, adding to the tension and the stakes. The Doctor, Astrid and their fellow survivors are pursued by the murderous Host through the corridors of the destroyed ship, giving us a sense of urgency. Additionally, we have the death of Morvin, which takes the audience by the surprise and reinforces the weakness of the structure. The story then quickly throws that idea out of the window, having the characters crossing all at once. This is only reinforced when Davies writes the Hosts as having the ability to fly. This is something that makes no sense for robots that were designed to provide service information to guests on ships. This leads to numerous characters essentially playing baseball to bat away the Hosts’ halos, vigorously moving on a supposedly weak structure. You can almost feel the episode losing any credibility it still had.
Tonally, this story shifts majorly. It feels bleak to start with, but then veers into overly cheesy nonsense by the end. Russell T Davies has said publicly that he does not believe that the viewing audience cares about alien species. That’s a problem for the crew of this starship, as it has originated from the planet Sto. As Davies doesn’t care about these characters, it feels utterly weightless. As the story reaches it’s conclusion, the tone veers into the realms of ridiculousness, with the introduction of the story’s villain and Astrid’s ultimate fate. That just draws attention to plot holes. These range from why Max Capricorn has to be onboard the Titanic for his plan to work to small points like why Wilf is at his newspaper stand on Christmas Day, a day in which no newspapers are published. Perhaps most egregious is the fast that the Host are able to break through the floor of the Bridge at the end of the story, but do not think of doing this whilst trying to kill all the witnesses. The focus rapidly switches from the Titanic to the prospect of the destruction of the Earth due to Max Capricorn cutting the engines
She’s an old ship, full of aches and pains.
Captain Hardaker
One of the strongest members of the guest cast is Geoffrey Palmer as Captain Hardaker. In a small handful of scenes in the first 20 minutes, he really makes this character feel alive. The above quote is a good example – it sets up the reveal that he is also dying and his reasoning for agreeing to this suicide mission. It does also pose a further question: why is Midshipman Frame on the crew if he asked for old officers for his crew. It’s something else that the story doesn’t answer, as the character is there to be a quest to get to the bridge. Regardless, having an actor of Palmer’s quality in this story does help ground it, before it becomes outlandish.
Otherwise, the guest cast are a bit of a mixed bag, and are not terribly well written. Some are one-dimensional, like Gray O’Brien’s Rickston Slade, who is just a nasty piece of work who survives the events of the story. Equally one-dimensional is Russell Tovey’s Midshipman Frame, who is poorly served by the script. The best-written characters, and the ones whose deaths do feel as though they matter, are Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, whose deaths do actually feel as though they matter. Clive Rowe and Debbie Chazen do make a believable couple and bring real heart to these characters. Unfortunately, Clive Swift’s character, Mr Copper, also does not work. He is there to essentially churn out falsehoods about Earth, but that joke gets old really quickly, and Swift cannot make that character as charming as Davies seems to believe he is. I also have an issue with Mr Copper’s ending. Despite trying to show that social class is irrelevant, Mr Copper gets rewarded with a credit card containing an absurd amount of money to enable him to set himself up on Earth. Then there’s George Costigan’s Max Capricorn, who feels as though he has come straight from an entirely different show. It is not a good performance.
The companion of Voyage of the Damned is Kylie Minogue’s Astrid Peth. Astrid fits into the generic mould of a potential companion; she dreams of going out on her own and exploring the stars. I am too young to have watched Neighbours during the Kylie and Jason years, so this is the first thing that I saw her act in, and I’m not convinced that she is strong enough. She is definitely passable in this story, but I think that it offends the audience’s intelligence to even suggest that she might become a companion. This casting has one-off appearance written all over it due to Kylie’s music career. There’s also the fact that she kisses the Doctor, becoming the third companion to do so. That’s something that feels incredibly old. Astrid’s trip to Earth is a nice moment for her character, but the character’s sacrifice to save the Titanic is really clunky, and the less said about the sappy ending for the character feels like a copp out.
I never lose!
You can’t even sink the Titanic!
Max Capricorn and the Tenth Doctor
This story is a bit of a mixed bag for David Tennant and the Tenth Doctor. The highs are high, but there are enough moments to cement this story as firmly in the middle. There’s the big speech, which I remember doing the rounds on the red button on BBC, which feels like an all too generic hero speech. That’s not helped by the writing, or the direction, and I am glad that Davies does have the confidence to kill off some of these characters. This Doctor thrives on overconfidence, and coming out of this story with only two characters surviving does help the story.
Verdict: Voyage of the Damned is one of the weaker Christmas specials. 3/10
Behind the Scenes
- This story had the working titles of Titanic II and Starship Titanic. The latter title was discarded when it was pointed out that Douglas Adams had previously created a novel and video game with the same title, which shared a lot of the same plot points.
- The story was dedicated to Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who, who died on 22nd November 2007.
- Voyage of the Damned is the fourth-longest story since the 2005 revival and the sixth-longest story in Doctor Who history.
- The story marks the first appearance of Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott. The character was originally called Stan, however, when Howard Attfield was unable to reprise his role as Geoff Noble due to his advancing cancer, Russell T Davies renamed the character.
Cast Notes
| Geoffrey Palmer | Palmer had previously played the Administrator in The Mutants and Masters in Doctor Who and the Silurians. |
| Andrew Havill | Havill would go on to appear in The Witch from the Well and The Enchantress of Numbers. |
| Debbie Chazen | Also appeared in The Outliers. |
| Clive Swift | Swift had previously played Jobel in the Sixth Doctor serial Revelation of the Daleks. |
| Jimmy Vee | Vee had previously played a pig in Aliens of London, the Moxx of Balhoon in The End of the World and would go on to play the Skovox Blitzer in The Caretaker. |
| Bernard Cribbins | Cribbins had previously appeared in the Eighth Doctor Big Finish audio play Horror of Glam Rock. He also played Tom Campbell in Daleks’ Invasion of Earth 2150 A.D. |
| Colin McFarlane | McFarlane would go on to play Jonathan Moran in Under the Lake and Before the Flood. |
| Ewan Bailey | Bailey would go on to appear in Past Lives, The Sinestran Kill and The Galileo Trap. |
| Jessica Martin | Martin played the role of the werewolf Mags in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. She reprised the role for three Big Finish stories. |
Best Moment
I really struggled to find one. I suppose the highlight of this story is the introduction of Wilfred Mott.
Best Quote
One question left. One question. All right. So. You’ve been given orders to kill the survivors but survivors; therefore, must be passengers or staff. But not me. I’m not a passenger, I’m not staff. Go ahead, scan me. You must have bio-records. No such person on board. I don’t exist. Therefore, you can’t kill me. Therefore, I’m a stowaway; and stowaways should be arrested and taken to the nearest figure of authority. And I reckon… the nearest figure of authority… is on deck 31. Final question – am I right?
Information: Correct.
Brilliant. Take me to your leader. I’ve always wanted to say that!
The Tenth Doctor and the Host
Previous Tenth Doctor review: Last of the Time Lords
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