Voyage of the Damned by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: James Strong

 

“Voyage of the Damned” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Kylie Minogue as Astrid Peth with Geoffrey Palmer as Captain Hardaker, Russell Tovey as Midshipman Frame, George Costigan as Max Capricorn, Jimmy Vee as Bannakaffalatta, Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott, Paul Kasey as the Host, and Colin McFarlane and Ewan Bailey as Alien voices.  It was written by: Russell T. Davies and directed by: James Strong with Brian Minchin as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Tuesday 25 December 2007 on BBC One.

 

Russell T. Davies, when informed of a further revival for a fourth series to air in 2008 with a 2007 Christmas special, with the option for a fifth series in 2009 began to go into a bit of a drag.  Already, Davies was unsure of who the new companion would be for the fourth series and the general stress of production was beginning to wear on the producer.  Davies while still loving the work he was doing on the program decided around 2007 that 2009 would be his last, asking for a special commission of a series of specials to air in 2009 instead of a full series to lighten his load.  While the full story of these specials and the eventual successor to Davies would come in time and details hashed out late in the production of the fourth series, Davies was still struggling to devise a companion for the fourth series, deciding once again to have a one-off character for the 2007 Christmas special.  Davies also realized that like “The Runaway Bride” before it the 2007 Christmas special would need a large draw as a one-off companion, and after going through a fair few potential candidates including Dennis Hopper, a chance meeting with director James Strong led to Australian singer and Eighth Doctor Adventures fan Kylie Minogue was contacted and given the spot of one-off companion, a waitress on a spaceship version of the Titanic.  “Starship Titanic” as it was known at this point was written by Davies to be a tribute to disaster films such as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno as well as James Cameron’s 1997 Best Picture winning Titanic.  Davies developed the character of Astrid Peth for Minogue, modeling her after 2000AD character Halo Jones, created by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson, and renamed the episode “Voyage of the Damned”.  James Strong, responsible for Minogue’s casting, was also asked to direct the episode and the special was given an extra long 72 minute timeslot on BBC One as part of the Christmas festivities, while production also secured a small role for veteran British actor Bernard Cribbins, intended to be a small-one off role that would actually become recurring when the main production blocks of the fourth series went into production.  Also returning to Doctor Who after a role in Revelation of the Daleks was Clive Swift, who would go on to give an infamous interview to Benjamin Cook of Doctor Who Magazine.

 

“Voyage of the Damned” as a story is one that has an incredibly solid premise and structure, but this is an episode that is honestly one with a lot of little mistakes that break it down and make it one of the more underwhelming Christmas specials.  Now perhaps the biggest problem of the episode overall is Russell T. Davies’ attempts to take down capitalism’s tendency to turn people into numbers and profit while exploring an entirely new alien race.  Davies makes the admirable attempt to give every side character their own story arc, but the issues come when these arcs feel almost entirely undeveloped.  There is a pair of characters, the Van Hoffs played by Debbie Chazen and Clive Rowe, who are saddled with some of the comic relief of the episode, all really uncomfortable fat jokes at their expense that honestly feels cruel.  There are brief moments where their love as a married couple shines through, though these are generally there for this random idea that Foon Van Hoff has been lying about winning their spot on the Titanic.  They are also characters who both die, Morvin dying by accident while Foon just jumps to her death which is treated as at least heroic but gratuitous and unnecessary.  The episode somehow doesn’t have enough time to dwell and reflect on most of the deaths in this episode, with only three characters surviving: doddering Earth ‘expert’ Mr. Copper, asshole capitalist Rickston Slade, and Midshipman Frame (played by Russell Tovey).

 

The other major death in the episode is cyborg Bannakaffalatta played by Jimmy Vee, another character who gets an underdeveloped character arc.  Davies’ worldbuilding includes the tidbit that cyborgs are discriminated against and there is some sort of structural bigotry against them, LGBT discrimination being the major inspiration for this character, but Bannakaffalatta is another character who sacrifices himself, for whatever reason his body having an EMP self-destruct feature that powers him off, though this isn’t adequately explained as to why it kills him as it has already been established that he can just be powered back on.  Astrid’s demise, killing the cyborg CEO of the corporation crashing the Titanic Max Capricorn, with a forklift is also a scene that doesn’t quite work, James Strong’s direction includes several quick cuts that make it difficult to watch and it’s presented in a way that the Doctor could intervene and save her.  Both of these sequences are the closest we get to explaining the bigotry.

 

With all of these issues you would think that this was an episode that was immediately sunk, and honestly you’d be wrong.  While it’s not good in my eyes, there are several redeeming elements. The first act in particular is excellent, the period costuming of all these human like aliens hosting a party on a ship in very poor taste is genuinely quite a good premise and commentary on the rich that sets the anti-capitalist theming on a good starting point that would only fail to be developed later in the episode.  The same can be said with the sequence on the Earth just before things begin to fall apart with Davies using his writing talents to genuinely make the mundane nature of a street on Christmas Eve seem as if it is a genuinely special occurrence, something that even shocks the Doctor in the scene.  Bernard Cribbins appears in this scene as Wilfred Mott which is an excellent little cameo, despite the character not being named on screen.  Despite her character’s lackluster death and the fact that Astrid quickly falls in love with the Doctor, Kylie Minogue actually has some nice acting talent and great chemistry with David Tennant as the Doctor.  Their final scene together is one that is genuinely heartbreaking as the Doctor once again gives a poor victim of himself a quasi-immortal fate and dispersion among the stars that she genuinely wanted to travel to see.

 

Overall, “Voyage of the Damned” is an incredibly mixed bag of an episode, though it definitely benefits from an increased budget and longer running time, Russell T. Davies leaves several important ideas and characters underdeveloped.  While the cynicism baked into this Christmas special is a welcome change, Davies has this issue of also making the episode tonally happy because it is Christmas instead of fully committing to cynicism turning into a bittersweet hope in the end that it is kind of going for.  The performances are the strongest part of the episode, all being a joy to watch even if the Doctor gets another patented “I’m awesome” speech that has essentially become a meme in the fandom.  Underdeveloped is honestly the biggest issue with the episode.  4/10.