Voyage of the Damned
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DVD NTSC
Region 1
14-episode
box set
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DVD PAL
Region 2
14-episode
box set
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DVD PAL
Region 2
1-episode volume
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(Doctor Who Story No. 193, starring David Tennant)
- written by Russell T. Davies
- directed by James Strong
- produced by Phil Collinson
- music by Murray Gold
- 1 episode, 72 minutes
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Story: The TARDIS's next collision is with a spacecraft
from the planet Sto prophetically calling itself "Titanic" and
offering luxury trips to present-day Earth at Christmas.
Disaster soon strikes the ship and the Doctor and stewardess
Astrid Peth (Kylie Minogue) soon find themselves working to lead a
group of surviving passengers to safety, and fighting to prevent
the entire ship from destroying the Earth as it crashes. Why have
the robot servants aboard ship suddenly turned on all the
passengers and crew? And what dark secrets lay hidden in
the bowels of the ship?
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DVD Extras (box sets only) include:
- Audio commentary by composer Murray Gold,
actor Russell Tovey (Midshipman Frame),
and first assistant director Peter Bennett.
- Doctor Who Confidential making-of featurette (16 min.)
- Prequel Scene: "Time Crash"
with Peter Davison
- Deleted Scenes - introduced by writer Russell T. Davies
- David Tennant's Video Diaries -
Trip to turn on Blackpool Lights (15 min.)
- Trailers & Promos
In-Depth Analysis Review
by Martin Izsak
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WARNING: This review contains "SPOILERS", and is intended
for those who have already seen the program.
To avoid the spoilers, read the
Buyers' Guide version instead.
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The final disappointment with the previous season's last story had been
the negative anticipation it had left us with as to what the following
Christmas Special would be about. The thought that it would be
as Earthly, predictable, and depressing as the old Titanic disaster
did not bode well for the future, and I imagined it would be a chore
to sit through.
Boy was I wrong!
"Voyage of the Damned" turned out to be a decent solid adventure
populated by an alien culture worth exploring, without the
predictability of the historical Earthly Titanic story taking all the
suspense out of things. Unlike in the previous two holiday specials:
"The Christmas Invasion" (story no. 171), and
"The Runaway Bride" (story no. 182),
the Yuletide robotics make sense this time,
on par with (and evoking memories of)
"The Robots of Death" (story no. 90),
and the story has just enough Christmas in it to be appropriate
for its broadcast slot without impeding the story. No extra
wedding or regeneration trauma dynamics intrude to mess things
up. Good show.
Though last season's ending tempts one to believe that we had
already missed any chance of seeing a proper TARDIS materialization
to start this story off right, this is quickly rectified in the opening
few seconds, and the TARDIS materializes as beautifully as ever, which
immediately boded well for the rest of the story.
Without knowing anything at all about Kylie Minogue (unlike many others
who seemed keen to label her appearance here before seeing it or turn
somersaults in awe of the fact that she deigned to appear on the show),
I approached
her and her character with a completely open mind and was actually quite
pleased with this companion choice for once.... only once again it seems
that the one-off guest companion is better suited to long-term chemistry
and travel with the Doctor than the actual companions who stick with him.
Bizarre....
A lot of natural comparisons can be drawn between this story and
"The End of the World" (story no. 162),
with "Voyage of the Damned" demonstrating that Russell T. Davies has
improved upon nearly every element that he tried to include in his
previous tale. The one thing that "The End of the World" is still
superior in is the sci-fi premise that forms the basis for the story's
setting.
In this tale, character moments abound, and they are done with far
more feeling and succeed much better. Perhaps unnecessarily, some
alienness is lost to achieve this though. Although largely populated
by creatures from a planet called "Sto" in the Casivanian Belt
(already an excuse to peak
much more interest in learning about their unique culture), the people
of Sto and most of their technology turn out to be almost exactly
like those of Earthlings - they simply have a bit more advancement
in space travel capabilities. They still use cell phones too much,
don't bother with better or different economic models than we do,
imitate our manner of dress and decor.... on and on. Thankfully,
there are other aliens on board as well, helping to add variety.
Bannakaffalatta is a good example of a character who can throw
the twists and surprises of alien culture at the protagonists and
the viewers constantly. Nice one. In the end, the presentation
of alienness here is more believable and satisfying than in
"The End of the World", even if there is still too much human imitation
going on.
Clive Swift plays one of my favourite characters from this story:
Mr. Copper, the passenger's tour guide to going ashore on Earth.
Very enjoyable acting, and a nicely written part. Geoffrey Palmer
is also an enjoyable and familiar face, having previously appeared
in the Jon Pertwee stories
"The Silurians" (story no. 52) and
"The Mutants" (story no. 63).
His performance is excellent
as usual, bringing yet another enjoyable characterization to life
sympathetically, under perhaps the greatest challenge yet.
And then there's Bernard Cribbins, veteran of many highly successful
"Carry On..." films, whom Doctor Who fans may know best as playing
Constable Tom Campbell - a successful big screen replacement for
Ian Chesterton's heroic protagonist character in the second
Peter Cushing film
"Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D."
(theatrical version of Doctor Who story no. 10). Cribbins appears
to have just a cameo role here, where his character's name
(Wilfred Mott) has practically no chance to make any impression
on the audience. But he is enjoyable as ever, especially for those
of us who know where his future leads....
Hosts of Death
Where previous Christmas specials had murderous robots thrown in
gratuitously, having no true motivation for their actions and making
little sense, the Heavenly Host androids in this tale are fleshed out
quite well. Firstly, they have a proper intended purpose on the ship,
to serve the guests, provide information, and fit in with the theme of the
current cruise. Much mileage is gained from the many scenes in which
their service seems to be slightly, suspiciously off, just as was the case
back in the Tom Baker story
"Robots of Death" (story no. 90). Sadly,
these robots also have their predecessors' fixation for strangulation,
but on the plus side, they also seem to have a new affinity for making
frisbee throws with their halos, leading to some action sequences very
reminiscent of the movie "Tron". A bit derivative, and "Tron" still rules
over this, but a good improvement on strangulation nonetheless.
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This is officially the first story to feature 2008's brand new version
of the Doctor Who theme song, arranged once more by Murray Gold, although
if your first access to the show is through Canada's CBC like me, you may
have heard it first on "Partners in Crime" where its introductory impact
is slightly more polished.
Gold's music for this story seems tasteful and okay at first... but he's
actually just getting warmed up for later. As with the previous two
Christmas specials, a new vocal song is conjured up and released prior
to broadcast on the previous year's music CD. Still a gratuitous move,
it is at least less intrusive than before.
But the closer we get to the end, the better and more emotional
Murray's music becomes, until you come away with hauntingly beautiful
pieces echoing in your head after the fact. Yes, you'll want to listen
to this score again!
The story itself has three distinct phases. The first is the most
pleasant, and the most Christmassy, with the hint of something not being
quite right creating the tension, mystery and anticipation of trouble to
come. The second phase ups the ante, with trouble and danger more
obvious, and action scene after action scene, liberally peppered with
enjoyable character moments.
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Music by Murray Gold
"Doctor Who" (Season 30 Title version),
and "Voyage of the Damned Suite" (10:21 duration)
are available on:
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"The Stowaway"
is available on:
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This second phase culminates in a huge set-piece action scene,
which reveals its cliché content immediately. Yes, Russell is
back to the horrific chasm with a narrow bridge of safety running across it.
As with the teaser for this story crammed into last year's finale, one
easily anticipates predictable routine action with predictable results.
Yet despite the cliché nature of this setting, writer
Russell T. Davies gets superb mileage out of it, delivering many of the
character interactions that make each character's presence in the story
worthwhile,
and using the chasm in surprisingly unique ways to give you action that
you didn't expect on top of the action that you did. Nicely done.
Yes, the chasm is still a crutch, but a worthwhile one. Disguising
it a bit and making it less obvious may be a way to take things up another
notch in future though.
The story catapults into a rich and busy concluding phase, including
a confrontation with the power behind it all. Russell actually tackles
a male lead villain here, and doesn't do too badly with him. Then again,
he isn't quite all humanoid, is he? He may not rank too highly in many lists
for best Doctor Who villains, but he remains a competent & satisfying one.
Many may complain that his plans and motivation aren't all that smart,
but if he was smart, he wouldn't have to do anything villainnously now,
would he? His relationships have clearly degenerated into what
Dr. Barbara deAngelis calls the
"revenge and retardation"
phase, which works for me. Of course, this brand of villainy is not
sustainable in the long term, but here of course it doesn't have to be.
This final phase provides the richest emotional tapestry of the story,
and satisfies with many successful, heroic action beats right up to the end
of the final scene. And there's no cheesy line at the very end to bugger
things up like last year.
"Voyage of the Damned" turns out to be one of the surprise successes
of the Season 30 box set, a very enjoyable adventure, well-suited to
kick off another great year of David Tennant stories.
And so it's two enthusiastic thumbs up from me!
This story has become available on DVD.
Click on the Amazon symbol for the location nearest you
for pricing and availability:
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DVD NTSC Region 1
14-episode boxed set
for the North American market:
in the U.S.
in Canada
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DVD PAL Region 2
14-episode boxed set
for the U.K.
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DVD PAL Region 2
plain 1-episode volume
U.K. format only
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Note: The full season sets
contain commentaries, behind-the-scenes
featurettes, and other extras.
The smaller volumes only feature the plain episodes.
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