"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is 71 minutes long and was broadcast on BBC One at 6:50pm on 25 December 2007. It is the third Christmas special of the revived Doctor Who series by Russell T. Davies, and the first episode to be made available for free on the internet by the BBC iPlayer service immediately after its first showing (the internet version is available in the UK only). The episode introduces a new variation on the opening and closing Doctor Who theme tune and companion Astrid Peth and is dedicated to the memory of the founding producer of Doctor Who, Verity Lambert.

On its original airdate, 25 December 2007, "Voyage of the Damned" attracted 13.8 million viewers at its peak, with an overnight rating of 12.2 million viewers earning the episode 50% of the total television audience. It was the second most-watched program of the day, being beaten by the 8 p.m. episode of EastEnders. These were the highest viewing figures for Doctor Who since 1979's City of Death.

 Synopsis

This story continues from the final scene of "Last of the Time Lords" and "Time Crash", in which a luxury space cruiser called the Titanic breaches the walls of the TARDIS console room. The Doctor teams up with Titanic waitress Astrid Peth in order to fend off a new enemy called the Host.

 Plot

As the Doctor leaves Earth, the bow of the Titanic crashes through the TARDIS' wall. Though momentarily stunned, he quickly pushes some buttons to repair the TARDIS walls and push the ship out. The TARDIS then materialises aboard the ship. The Doctor soon learns the Titanic is a large luxury spaceship from the planet Sto, orbiting present-day Earth. He decides to stow away to enjoy the party, only confessing his unauthorized status to lively waitress Astrid Peth, who reveals her own desire to travel the stars.

Astrid has found her new job disappointing, as she is not allowed off the ship to visit destination planets. The Doctor cheers her up by sneaking her onto an excursion to London via teleport, along with couple Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, and a small alien with a red head, called Bannakaffalatta. This is not a problem since London is all but deserted, an atmosphere of fear having been cultivated from the alien attacks on the previous two Christmases. Queen Elizabeth, Nicholas Witchell, and newspaper seller Wilfred Mott are among the few that remain. Ship's historian and guide Mr Copper gives the excursion party a bizarrely inaccurate explanation of human society, especially Christmas, despite the fact that he claims to be an expert on the planet. Meanwhile, on the Titanic's bridge, Captain Hardaker dismisses all the officers so they can take a break. Only one, Midshipman Frame, refuses to go, citing the rule that at least two officers must be present on the bridge.

The party returns to the ship just as Hardaker reveals his true motives and commits an act of sabotage, causing meteors to collide with the ship. Midshipman Frame is shot and wounded when he attempts to prevent the disaster. Hardaker is killed in the resulting collision, as are the bulk of the crew and passengers. The meteors cause three major hull breaches, one of which sucks the TARDIS into space. The Doctor notes that it will just land on Earth automatically. With the teleport system offline and the engines losing power, the Titanic is heading for an extinction-level collision with the Earth. The Doctor makes contact with the injured Midshipman Frame, and leads a small group of survivors in a climb through the shattered vessel to reach him.

Complicating matters are the Host, information androids resembling angels that have been reprogrammed to kill everyone onboard. The Doctor's party is harassed by Host all the way, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver proves to be useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals to Astrid that he is actually a cyborg, something considered shameful in the society on Sto. Bravely, he saves the party from a Host attack by transmitting an electromagnetic pulse from his cybernetic implants, killing himself in the process. The Van Hoffs also die: Morvin falls from the ledge into the nuclear engines, and Foon subsequently commits suicide while pulling a surviving Host down with her. The Doctor makes a grim promise that "no more" will die. The survivors take Bannakaffalatta's EMP unit with them as their only effective weapon against the Host.

The Doctor sends the remaining survivors on ahead with the EMP unit and the sonic screwdriver, while he attempts to reach the place from which the Host are controlled. Using a security protocol, he convinces the Host to take them to their leader. This turns out to be the cruise line's owner, Max Capricorn, who is hiding in an indestructible impact chamber on Deck 31. Capricorn is also revealed to be a cyborg, a human head set in a small wheeled vehicle. Having been forced out by the company's board of directors, he is seeking revenge. The collision of the Titanic into a heavily-populated world will not only break the company, but see the board charged with murder. Outnumbered by Host and faced with death, the Doctor is saved by Astrid, who has made a short-range teleport to his position. She rams Capricorn with a fork-lift truck until both are forced off a precipice and fall into the fiery engine of the ship.

Assuming control of the Host upon Capricorn's death, the Doctor grimly makes his way to the bridge just as the ship plunges into Earth's atmosphere. Working with Frame, he uses the heat from the re-entry to try to re-start the ship's engines, but discovers that they are headed straight for one of the few places in London currently inhabited: Buckingham Palace. Calling through with a security code, he manages to get the Queen out of the building, which the Titanic narrowly misses as the ship pulls up, now back under control. The Queen, in her dressing gown, is heard thanking the Doctor as he pilots the ship back into space.

With the danger over, the Doctor suddenly realises that there might be hope for Astrid after all. A safety feature of the ship's teleport system is that in case of accident, it automatically holds in stasis the molecules of the affected passenger. As she was wearing a teleport bracelet at the time of her death, her pattern might still be stored in its buffers. However, despite desperate efforts, only a shadow of Astrid can be generated due to extensive damage to the teleport system. The Doctor watches her dissipate into motes of light that float free into space. This way, she can at least fulfill her dream of exploring the universe, forever.

The Doctor teleports back to earth with Mr Copper, who is no expert on Earth, but a former salesman who lied his way onto the ship to explore the stars. The Doctor leaves him on the planet to build a new life, funded by the ship's expenses card, which contains £1,000,000. The Doctor then heads off in the TARDIS, alone.

[edit] Cast

• The Doctor — David Tennant
• Astrid Peth — Kylie Minogue
• Max Capricorn — George Costigan
• Mr Copper — Clive Swift
• Rickston Slade — Gray O'Brien
• Midshipman Alonzo Frame — Russell Tovey
• Foon Van Hoff — Debbie Chazen
• Morvin Van Hoff — Clive Rowe
• Bannakaffalatta — Jimmy Vee
• Captain Hardaker — Geoffrey Palmer
• Wilfred Mott — Bernard Cribbins
• Chief Steward — Andrew Havill
• Engineer — Bruce Lawrence
• Nicholas Witchell — Himself
• The Host — Paul Kasey
• Kitchen Hand — Stefan Davis
• Newsreader — Jason Mohammad
• Alien Voices — Colin McFarlane, Ewan Bailey
• Voice of the Queen — Jessica Martin

[edit] Cast notes

• Clive Swift previously appeared as Jobel in Revelation of the Daleks.
• Geoffrey Palmer previously appeared in Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Mutants. His son, Charles Palmer, directed four episodes of Series 3.
• Bernard Cribbins previously appeared in the 1966 film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, based on the 6-part TV story The Dalek Invasion of Earth shown 2 years previously. He also appeared in the Big Finish Productions story Horror of Glam Rock.
• Jimmy Vee previously appeared as the Moxx of Balhoon in "The End of the World", the Space Pig in "Aliens of London" and the Graske in the interactive special "Attack of the Graske". In The Sarah Jane Adventures, he appeared as the Child Slitheen in Revenge of the Slitheen and The Lost Boy, and reappeared as the Graske in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?.
• Jessica Martin played Mags in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.
• Yamit Mamo performed the songs "My Angel Put the Devil in me" and "The Stowaway" on the Series 3 soundtrack, the latter being specially composed for this episode.
• Kylie Minogue has previously been referenced as a real person in the Doctor Who universe, in "The Idiot's Lantern" (2006) - with the Doctor exclaiming that '"It's never too late, as a wise person once said... Kylie, I think!"', in reference to her 1989 hit single "Never Too Late".
• Composer Murray Gold makes a cameo appearance in this episode^[3] along with arranger Ben Foster and singer Yamit Mamo.^[4]
• Queen Elizabeth II was previously played by uncredited extra Mary Reynolds in Silver Nemesis and appears in person (in archive footage) in "The Idiot's Lantern".

[edit] Continuity

• Although the special takes place aboard an otherworldly namesake of the famed ocean liner, the RMS Titanic and its sinking was mentioned previously within the series in Robot (1974), The Robots of Death (1977), The Invasion of Time (1978), "Rose" (2005) and "The End of the World" (2005). The Titanic also appeared in the Virgin New Adventures book The Left-Handed Hummingbird, written by Kate Orman, and the 1989 Doctor Who Magazine comic strip Follow That TARDIS!.
• This episode introduces a new variation of the Doctor Who theme tune arranged by Murray Gold. It features a musical nod to Peter Howell's 1980s version.^[4]
• London has been evacuated due to alien attacks the previous two Christmases - referring to "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Runaway Bride". Clips from each of these episodes appear as part of news footage.
• The BBC broadcast near the end makes matter-of-fact statements about alien invasions and the London public (due to the evacuation and the dialogue from the street vendor), a difference to previous episodes where the public is either in denial or it's covered up; most recently in "The Sound of Drums", where the Master stated the government "told you nothing".
• Earth was previously referred to by its Gallifreyan name "Sol 3" in The Deadly Assassin and Last of the Time Lords. Earth was also previously refered to as a "Level 5" civilization in City of Death. This episode also marks the first time in the revived series of Doctor Who that the Doctor has referred to Gallifrey as being in the constellation of Kasterborous.
• Excluding Jack Harkness's repeated deaths, Astrid is the first companion to die in the revived series (and the first since Kamelion in 1984's Planet of Fire), although she is partially resurrected. She is also the first alien companion since Kamelion, and the first in the revived series to never set foot in the TARDIS.
• The Doctor previously had a close encounter with Queen Elizabeth II in the Seventh Doctor story Silver Nemesis.
• Once again, the Doctor uses the phrase "allons-y" ("let's go" in French). He previously said it in "Army of Ghosts", "Evolution of the Daleks" and "42". He was surprised when told by Midshipman Frame that Frame's first name is Alonzo, and was quoted saying "You're kidding me!?". He indicated that there is "something else I've always wanted to say", and as he starts to steer the ship, he yells "Allons-y Alonzo". In "Army of Ghosts", when he thought of using "allons-y", he thought the name Alonzo would go nicely with it, and later asked Yvonne Hartman whether Torchwood has anyone named Alonzo.
• The Doctor notes that "this suit is bad luck", he previously wore it in "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" and "The Lazarus Experiment". Both times he had been attending a seemingly normal party which goes wrong.
• Just like in the 2005 & 2006 Christmas specials, it is revealed at the end that the 'snow' falling is actually something else (debris from the Titanic). The Doctor wonders if it will ever snow for real. In "The Christmas Invasion", the 'snow' was ash from the Sycorax spaceship, and in "The Runaway Bride", the Doctor uses 'basic atmospheric excitation' supplied by the TARDIS to make it snow.
• The Doctor refers to himself as being 903 years old, contradicting the serial Time and the Rani where he states his age as 953.
• The waitress Astrid's name is an anagram of TARDIS. This caused wild speculation among fans, with some believing that Astrid herself would be revealed as the TARDIS.
  

 Outside references

• Cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" are heard aboard the Titanic, and the Captain refers to "Silent Night". The incidental music in the pre-title sequence features the tune of "Jingle Bells".
• One scene is set in the fictitious Donovan Street, named after Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue's former Neighbours co-star and collaborator on 1988 Number One hit duet "Especially For You".
• The Host stuttering over the name "Max" is a reference to 1980s virtual presenter Max Headroom.
• Russell T. Davies included a line from The Lion King in the script for this episode. He previously referenced The Lion King in "The Christmas Invasion".
• This episode is dedicated to the memory of Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who, who died on 22nd November 2007 - a day before Doctor Who's 44th anniversary.
• The Doctor states he was present "at the very start" of Christmas, and that he "got the last room" - this refers to the Gospel story of Jesus's birth, in which there was "no room at the inn" at Bethlehem for Mary and Jospeh on the night of his birth. (Luke 2:7).
• The Doctor mentions protocol 42, a number meant to be the answer to everything from the book Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (Incidentally, the Special is the 42nd episode of the new series). He then tries protocol 1, which turns out to be the correct one. This is also the confidential password for the restricted site for the game Starship Titanic.

Pre-broadcast publicity

• Kylie Minogue was initially reported by tabloid newspapers to be appearing in this episode.Russell T Davies dismissed this story, but a statement by Minogue indicated that she would be in the episode. The BBC officially confirmed her role in early July.
• On 19 July 2007, The Sun published a photograph of an actor on set in Wales, in make-up, supposedly playing a red, spiky creature called "Porg".
• On 20 July 2007, the Paisley Daily Express reported that David Tennant's mother, Helen McDonald, had died from cancer,and SyFy Portal noted that filming had been delayed by one week so Tennant could attend his mother's funeral.
• The Series 3 Doctor Who soundtrack includes a track named "The Stowaway", which Amazon.co.uk have confirmed is a song appearing in this episode, in the same vein as "Song for Ten" and "Love Don't Roam" in previous Christmas specials (both of which were on the original soundtrack).The full song was released online at SilvaScreen Records' MySpace page.
• On the 4 December 2007, Radio Times mentioned that the gold creatures are new monsters and are referred as 'the Hosts'
• On December 8, the BBC released a series of three short clips, showing the Doctor, Astrid and the Titanic floating in space, above the Earth. This was accompanied by a 90-second long trailer for the episode in British cinemas, which was released on the BBC website on December 14th.

Reception

A scene where the Doctor is lifted through the ship by the angelic Host caused offence to the group Christian Voice.

Before its broadcast, the episode drew criticism from Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the 1912 Titanic sinking, who stated that it was "disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy".^[16] The organisation Christian Voice expressed offence at the religious imagery of a scene in which the Doctor is lifted through the ship by robot angels. The episode's Christmas Day UK broadcast received 13.8 million viewers, an audience narrowly exceeded by the 13.9 million who watched the BBC soap EastEnders.^[18] The average across all 70 minutes was 12.2 million viewers. This was the highest total of viewers for the new series, exceeding the previous record set by "Rose", and the highest for Doctor Who overall since 1979 (specifically, the final episode of "City of Death" which aired while rival network ITV suffered programming disruptions due to a strike).

Gareth McLean, reviewing a preview screening for The Guardian's TV and radio weblog, appreciated the episode's use of "the disaster movie template" and came to a favourable overall conclusion: "For the most part, The Voyage of the Damned is absolutely smashing." Its main flaw, in his view, was the "blank and insipid" acting of Kylie Minogue.^[20] James Walton of The Daily Telegraph called the episode "a winning mixture of wild imagination and careful writerly calculation".