Doctor Who - Voyage of the Damned
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This is the third Christmas special of the revived Doctor Who series. Season three of the series ends with the Titanic crashing into the tardis, and the TV movie picks up there. It turns out not to be the actual Titanic, but rather a space cruiser with the same name, and apparently built to resemble it. It comes from a planet called Sto, and was apparently the final venture of a business tycoon named Max Capricorn, who has lately been falling into ruin. The ship is currently orbiting Earth, which is celebrating Christmas, so the ship is also celebrating the holiday, though they get the details terribly muddled. Meanwhile, it seems almost everyone in London has fled the city, because after the events of the last two Christmases (in the previous Christmas specials), they fear yet another dangerous alien threat this year.

The Doctor decides to have a look about, enjoy himself (as a stowaway) on the ship, and soon befriends a waitress named Astrid Peth (played by Kylie Minogue, who we of course like). But it turns out the captain of the ship has been paid to commit sabotage: he gets some meteors to crash into the ship, and leaves the shields down. There are quite a few deaths straight away, and the ship will crash into the Earth if the Doctor can't stop it, which would kill not only the surviving passengers, but everyone on the planet. So the Doctor has to lead a number of survivors in an attempt to reach the bridge (they have occasional radio contact with a midshipman named Alonzo Frame, the only person left on the bridge). Those in the Doctor's party include Astrid, an obnoxious businessman named Rickston Slade, a married couple named Foon and Morvin Van Hoff, an alien named Bannakaffalatta (whose long name the Doctor would rather not have to pronounce in its entirety, which rather reminded me of the fourth Doctor's companion Romana, or rather Romanadvoratrelundar, from the original series), and Mr. Copper (the cruise's Earthologist).

The basic plot from this point on is lifted from The Poseidon Adventure, though of course there are some differences. Most notably, perhaps, is the fact that the Heavenly Host (robots designed to resemble golden angels), which were supposed to just give the passengers information or assistance, turned out to have been programmed to kill everyone. And of course there's a whole mystery for the Doctor to solve about just why they were so programmed, and why the meteor collision happened in the first place. My guess turned out to be a bit off, but at least I was right about who was behind it all.

Well, I don't really want to give away any more of the plot. Like I said, it's alot like "The Poseidon Adventure," and it also brought to mind "Starship Titanic," a computer game which I never actually played, but was aware of. And I reckon there were some other elements to the movie that were sort of familiar. No, nothing terribly original about it, really, but it was still decent enough. Plenty of humor, and drama. You know, "I almost laughed, I almost cried," style o' fing. I would say my least favorite of the Doctor Who Christmas specials thus far, but I liked it, for the most part. And that's all I can think to say, I guess....