Why don't people like this one?

The third Christmas special and its another absolute corker. The cast is great, the setting is huge fun and it's basically The Poseidon Adventure in Space. What's not to love?

Okay, I'll admit I'm biased. I am a big fan of disaster movies - they really get my adrenalin flowing - Poseidon (both versions), Earthquake, Towering Inferno, Daylight, 2012 - brilliant. Stupid - but brilliant.

The actual disaster/destruction scenes are always the best bit and Voyage of the Damned doesn't disappoint on this front. Explosions, extras screaming and being thrown around; we even have the classic 'bit of masonry falls on an screaming extra' scene. It's wonderful (I know, I'm a bit sick...)

The 'survivors trying to reach safety' bit is also well done, particularly the scene where they have to traverse a narrow bridge. If this bit isn't influenced by similar scenes in The Poseidon Adventure, I'm a monkey's uncle. It's here we lose three survivors; deaths which would, in a film, probably be a bit more spread out. But the deaths of Bannakafalatta and Mrs and Mrs Van Hoff are touching and tragic.

The cast are excellent: Clive Rowe, Debbie Chazen, Jimmy Vee, Russell Tovey, Geoffrey Palmer etc. It's difficult to watch Clive Swift without remembering that notorious DWM interview but he is excellent as Mr Copper. Tennant is on top form as the Doctor and is clearly very settled in the role after two full series.

And then there is a certain Kylie Minogue. I think she's rather wonderful in this. Her performance for me is note-perfect and her scenes with Bannakaffalatta are extremely touching. I really was rather upset when they killed her off (even it did make an interesting point about the Doctor being unable to choose who lives and dies, with Rickston Slade (the selfish, rude egomaniac) surviving.

Less successful (for a second special in a row) is the central villain: Max Capricorn. I remember feeling a bit let down by him on first watch (and this is the first time I've rewatched this story) but this time round I actually appreciated George Costigan's performance a bit more. The problem is the ridiculous box on wheels they have stuck him in. It looks silly and I'm sure the design department could have come up with something more palatable. it's clunky and far too reminiscent of Arcturus from The Curse of Peladon - something which looked fairly ridiculous in the 70s when they had a lot less budget than in 2007. I also thought the Host, whilst effectively riffing on the Robots of Death (right down to an almost straight remount of the hand in the door scene from that story) didn't quite look right - the tunics and wings just look a bit cheap and the mouth movement is disappointingly jerky.

The Queen stuff is all a bit cheesy, though! (And is Jessica (Mags) Martin in the dressing gown and rollers, or is she just doing the voice?)

That said, though, I'm going to have huge trouble picking a favourite Christmas Special for the vote because all three so far have been absolutely wonderful.

Oh, and there's bonus Bernard Cribbins in a small role which would, unbeknownst to us all, turn into something much bigger and more wonderful than we could have ever imagined....

This is such an emotional puncher I feel this is my definition of a perfect Christmas special

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.