Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who)   
03:33pm 05/01/2010
  "Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on 25 December, 2007, it is 72 minutes long and the third Christmas special since the show’s revival in 2005. The narrative continues from the final scene of "Last of the Time Lords", when a luxury space cruiser called the Titanic, a pastiche of the historical ocean liner, breached the walls of the TARDIS. The ship's captain, Hardaker (Geoffrey Palmer), sabotages the ship shortly after the Titanic's collision with the TARDIS. The Doctor (David Tennant) works with a waitress named Astrid Peth (Kylie Minogue) to prevent an imminent collision with Earth.

The episode marks the only appearance of Australian singer and actress Kylie Minogue as the Doctor's companion, Astrid Peth. Executive producer and writer Russell T Davies described her casting as a "very exceptional case", having written the part of Astrid specifically for Minogue. On its original airdate, "Voyage of the Damned" was watched by 13.31 million viewers, the highest viewing figure for Doctor Who since the 1979 serial City of Death. It was the second most-watched programme of 2007, beaten only by the episode of EastEnders which aired immediately after it. Critical opinion about the episode was divided; the writing and Minogue's performance were both praised and criticised


The episode was criticised by Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the 1912 Titanic sinking, who stated that it was "disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy." The organisation Christian Voice expressed offence at the religious imagery of a scene in which the Doctor is lifted through the ship by robot angels, believing the messianic portrayal of the Doctor as "inappropriate"; however, in April 2008, vicars were encouraged to use the same scene to "illustrate themes of resurrection, redemption and evil" to young people.

Gareth McLean, who reviewed a preview screening for The Guardian's TV and radio weblog, appreciated the episode's use of "the disaster movie template" and came to a favourable overall conclusion: "For the most part, The Voyage of the Damned is absolutely smashing." Its main flaw, in his view, was the "blank and insipid" acting of Kylie Minogue. James Walton of The Daily Telegraph gave the episode a positive review, summarising it as "a winning mixture of wild imagination and careful writerly calculation". Alex Clark of The Observer commented that the death toll was rather high, but he still thought the episode was "an oasis of cheeky nonsense and careless invention". Harry Venning of The Stage concluded his positive review of the episode by stating it "was well up to Doctor Who's impeccably high standards".[31] Doctor Who Magazine placed two of the deaths in the episode in its list of the top 100 deaths in the history of the show. Bannakaffalatta's death, a self-sacrifice to save the Doctor's party, was placed in the "top 20 tearjerkers" category. Astrid's death was given the title of "Doctor Who's all-time greatest death scene", commenting it "ticks boxes in all of our main categories [(gruesome, scary, self-sacrifice, tearjerking, surprising)]", and "her death would truly make a glass eye cry." Tim Teeman of The Times gave the episode a negative review, stating that "It was boring, despite the endless dashing about and CGI flimflam."[33] The Daily Mirror commented the episode had "some brilliant psychedelic Pink Floyd-esque imagery", "great baddies", and "neat jokes", but lamented that "the plot was a mess, consisting mostly of one hi-tech chase scene after another, and it descended into noise and bluster



  
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