Voyage of the Damned

It's a... thing I guess? It's very good at its set pieces, but it just can't help being total cringe when it's not showing off (and often times, when it is showing off)

The Doctor and Astrid's relationship is cutesy, but her death is very silly. Max had no business being on the Titanic and I'm not sure why he needed to orchestrate the meteor crash when he was completely capable of just turning the engines off himself. It's not like anyone would have noticed and it probably would've achieved his plan a lot quicker. Weird.

Kylie Minogue! Can you believe Doctor Who once had enough cultural capital to get Kylie in it? That’s mad! Perhaps we’re headed on a trajectory where we’ll see Ncuti face off against a Taylor Swift level star, but for most eras of the show, this level of star power would be considered a totally unrealistic, farcical ambition. It’s not just that it’s Kylie, but that Tennent and Kylie actually have chemistry. They play off of each other beautifully. You could imagine an alternate reality where Astrid continues beyond this 70 minute epic.

Voyage of the Damned is a big camp slice of Christmas cake Doctor Who. Some parts of it don’t hold up to close inspection (why is Mr Copper convinced he's going to prison again?) and other parts don’t come across in the way the production team must have initially envisioned (Astrid’s death scene is clunky, slow and for some, embarrassing). Overall though it’s got all the drama and pazazz you’d want from a Doctor Who special. In some ways it’s the quintessential Doctor Who special - it certainly ‘feels’ special.

The party scene and the betrayal of the captain at the beginning does suggest a slightly tighter story - a killer 60 minutes could have been carved out of it. But riffing on The Poseidon Adventure and seeing a group of bubbly, richly drawn characters get picked off one by one is a smart and exciting premise. Each character gets their moment to shine - particularly touching are the lively competition winners who end up dying during the lengthy bridge sequence.

Max Capricorn is a better villain that I remembered from original transmission. Looked at as a frothy spectacle for all the family (rather than the super serious sci-fi drama I probably wanted it to be) I sincerely enjoyed his performance this time round. Although the captain of the ship did give a more convincing, weighty turn before he died and sent Titanic 2 hurtling to Earth.

God bless Wilf who deserves a special mention. He knocks his small role out of the park. He helps build a sense of continuity between this and the series 4 that is to come. Slender threads.

RTD smashed this one. It’s not perfect, but with so many complex moving parts and a far broader than usual audience, this Titanic themed adventure could have easily been a disaster.