Review - Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned (2007)

          Hey guys, Chuck here, and we're finally in the month of December, which means we're just days away from the start of 12 Reviews of Christmas. And since we're officially in the holiday season, I thought I'd start a little early with my review of the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas special: Voyage of the Damned. 

         Picking up where we last left the Doctor, after parting ways with Martha Jones, who was the Companion for the third season, Voyage of the Damned starts off with the bow of a steamliner in the side of the TARDIS. After the Doctor undoes the damage and properly boards the TARDIS onto the steamliner, we learn that it is the Starship Titanic, a cosmic cruise ship made by a company owned by Max Capricorn. 

         The Doctor then checks his surroundings, and it's here where he meets and befriends a ship staff member named Astrid. Astrid reveals that she joined the crew to see other worlds and to traverse the stars. The Doctor also befriends a couple, the Van Hoffs, on a cruise vacation, who are about to be taken down to the planet Earth as part of a luxury tour. The Doctor joins, with Astrid as his plus one, and the tour group gets a bit of misinformation from another member of the ship's staff, Mr. Copper. The tour group touches down in London, which has been cleared out with the exceptions of the likes of the Queen, as well as Wilfred Mott. But why? Well, after the Sycorax invasion during the 2005 special The Christmas Invasion, followed by the Racnoss invasion during the 2006 Christmas special The Runaway Bride, the people of London feared another massive alien invasion on Christmas, so they all fled to the country, with a handful of exceptions. 

       Unfortunately, due to some problems back on the ship, the tour group is transported back onto the ship, which ultimately ends up in the middle of a meteor shower. Top that off with the malfunctioning of the robotic hosts on board, and the passengers and crew members are all in danger. So, the Doctor leads a party, including Mr. Copper, Astrid, and the Van Hoffs, on a journey through the ship to get to the bridge, and hopefully get some answers. The only member of the bridge crew still alive, and in contact with the Doctor, is a midshipman named Alonzo Frame, who guides the Doctor through the inner workings of the ship. Unfortunately, there are a few casualties as the Doctor and co. traverse the bowels of the Titanic, including the Van Hoffs. Upon learning of a spot on the ship still drawing power, the Doctor learns that Max Capricorn himself is on board, and set up for the ship to be hit by the meteor shower, and had the Hosts reprogrammed to kill any survivors. Max reveals that the board of directors decided to remove him from controlling his own company, so he set it up for the ship to suffer an unfortunate accident, crash into the Earth, which would cause an extinction-level event that would bankrupt the company, with the board getting the blame and Max, himself, enjoying retirement. 

         With Astrid's help, the Doctor is able to stop Max's plan, but sadly at the cost of Astrid's life. The ship and the Earth are both saved, Mr. Copper starts a new life on Earth, and the Doctor goes on to have many more fantastic adventures aboard the TARDIS. 

        I'm just going to be honest, I'm not a fan of this particular Doctor Who Christmas special. Not that it's bad, per se, it's just that I have definitely seen better before and since when it comes to Doctor Who Christmas specials. This one just felt weak. The villain felt weak, and the plot to bankrupt his own company, which he got the boot from by the way, is very generic and just something out of any general sci-fi franchise, and I expect something more unique to Doctor Who.

       With that said, however, I do enjoy the acting quiet a bit. David Tennant is fantastic as the Doctor, and I thoroughly enjoyed Kylie Minogue as Astrid. Other performances I enjoyed include Russell Tovey as Alonzo Frame, Clive Swift as Mr. Copper, and Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott. Other than that, a lot of the performances were passable but not memorable. 

         Overall, this is probably the one Doctor Who Christmas special that is fine to skip over, except if you're binge watching the entire run of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. I'm giving Voyage of the Damned a rating of 3.35/5. Sorry guys, but as much as I love Doctor Who, this just isn't a favorite of mine. 

         Anyway, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HallowScream - Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001)

        Happy Halloween, everyone. Chuck here, and we've reached the end of another HallowScream . To finish out this month, I'm taking a look at something that not everyone will see as a Halloween movie, but a few do. This is my review of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie , released in 2001, and featuring the returns of Steve Blum as Spike Spiegel, Beau Billingslea as Jet Black, Wendee Lee as Faye Valentine, and Melissa Fahn as Ed.          Okay, so a few days before Halloween on Mars, Faye sees an unknown terrorist blow up a tanker truck while she's chasing another bounty. The blast unleashes a dangerous pathogen that kills many, and causes many others to fall ill. After the attack, the Martian government offers up a bounty of 300 million Woolong for the capture of the culprit. And, of course, the Bebop crew wants the bounty. Upon investigating, two things are discovered. First, the culprit may, in fact, be a man named Vincent Volaju, who was pr...
Read more

Review - Snow White (2025)

       Well, here we are. Snow White , the latest film from Disney to reimagine one of their animated classics, was directed by Marc Webb, written by Erin Cressida Wilson, and stars Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, and Ansu Kabia, with motion capture performances by Martin Klebba, Jeremy Swift, George Salazar, and Titus Burgess just to name a few.        So, the movie tells the story of Snow White, a princess who goes on the run when, after consulting with the Spirit of the Magic Mirror, the Evil Queen grows jealous of her innermost radiance and wants her dead. Snow White meets and befriends several woodland critters, as well as the Seven Dwarfs (Doc, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey, and Grumpy), and a young man named Jonathan, who leads a group of bandits, and she works with them to save her kingdom from the rule of the Evil Queen.        Okay, so the myriad of controversies surrounding this movie are well docume...
Read more

Review - The Penguin (2024)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. The Penguin is the most recent series from HBO, and is a spin-off of the 2022 Matt Reeves film The Batman .          The series focuses on Oswald "Oz" Cobb, who is portrayed once again by Colin Farrell. Oz, after the events of the movie The Batman , finds himself in a very interesting position as far as the criminal underbelly of Gotham is concerned. Carmine Falcone is dead, Sal Maroni is still locked up, and there's a power play among the major criminal factions in the city. So, Oz takes on a young protege, Vic, and works in tandem with Sofia Falcone, Carmine's daughter, to reshape the criminal underworld of Gotham.           Now, not only does The Penguin showcase Oz's rise to greater power, but it also showcases a similar uprising for Sofia, who spent years in Arkham after being sent there by her father. And now, with both her father and brother (Carmine's son Alberto) dead, she m...
Read more