Voyage of the Damned (TV story)

Voyage of the Damned (TV story)

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Voyage of the Damned
Doctor:	[[doctor::Tenth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Astrid Peth (guest, dies)
Main enemy:	Max Capricorn Heavenly Host
Main setting:	The Titanic; 2008 London; 2008
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T Davies
Director:	James Strong
Producer:	Phil Collinson
Release details
Story number:	188
Release number:	Series 4
Premiere broadcast:	25th December 2007
Format:	1 71-minute episode
Production code:	4.X
Confidential:	[[confidential::Kylie Special|Kylie Special]]

Voyage of the Damned was the third Christmas episode of BBC Wales Doctor Who. Kylie Minogue starred as one-off companion Astrid Peth. Peth's death at the conclusion of the episode was the first time a companion of the Doctor had died in the revived series.

For a few months, Voyage of the Damned was the highest-charting episode in Doctor Who history. The 2nd-most-watched programme of its week, Damned took the crown from part two of The Ark in Space. However, it would be displaced about 7 months later by Journey's End, which was the first episode of Doctor Who ever to win its week of original transmission.

Synopsis

A spacecraft set on an apocalyptic collision course with Earth, a host of killer robot angels and an evil severed-headed mastermind - it's just another Christmas for the Doctor...

Plot

The bow of a ship crashes through the wall of the Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor is momentarily stunned, especially after learning the ship is the Titanic. Pressing some buttons, he repairs the TARDIS walls, pushing the ship out. The TARDIS then materialises aboard the ship. The Doctor soon learns the Titanic is a large luxury spaceship cruiser from the planet Sto, orbiting Earth and finds out the date: Christmas Eve. He decides to stow away to enjoy the party, only confessing his unauthorized status to lively waitress Astrid Peth, who reveals her own desire to travel the stars.

Astrid has found her new job disappointing, as she is not allowed off the ship to visit destination planets. The Doctor cheers her up by sneaking her onto an excursion to London via teleport, along with Morvin and Foon Van Hoff and a small red-skinned alien, Bannakaffalatta. Following alien attacks on London on the previous two Christmases, however, London is deserted apart from the Queen, Nicholas Witchell, and newspaper seller Wilfred Mott. The rest of the population has decided to spend Christmas in the countryside. Ship's historian and guide Mr. Copper gives the excursion party a bizarrely inaccurate explanation of human society, especially Christmas, despite the fact that he claims to be an expert on the planet. His description of earth is as follows:

"I will be taking you to Old London Town, in the country of Yoo Kay. Ruled over by good King Wenseslis. Now human beings worship the great god 'Santa', a creature with fearsome claws and his wife Mary. Every year, the people of Yoo Kay go to war with the country of Turkey. They then eat the turkey people for Christmas Dinner, like savages!"

The Main Room of the Titanic.

The party returns to the ship because of a power failure in the teleports system. The Doctor attempts to find out what caused it, and discovers that the shields are offline with meteors approaching. The Doctor warns the Captain of the ship, but is forced away from the computer by a Steward, as he is unauthorised to use the system. The Doctor breaks free and tries to warn everyone, but is forcibly taken away from the singer's microphone and taken away from the main party. The Doctor gasps to a guest to look out of the window. He sees the meteors and finds out the shields are off. He tries to tell the staff, but they will not listen, so he follows the Doctor. Also trying to help the Doctor now are Astrid, Foon and Morvin Van Hoff. Midshipman Frame tries to get the shields back online, but is (non-fatally) shot by the Captain. Three meteors slam into the side of the Starship Titanic.

The Captain is killed in the resulting collision, as are the bulk of the crew and passengers. The Titanic's hull holed in several places, and the TARDIS is left drifting in space before automatically homing in for a landing on Earth. With the teleport system offline and the engines losing power, the Titanic is heading for an extinction-level collision with the Earth. The Doctor makes contact with the injured Midshipman Frame, and leads a small group of survivors in a climb through the shattered vessel to reach him.

Complicating matters are the Host, android servitors that were seen malfunctioning earlier. Now their sole function is to kill the survivors scattered throughout he ship. The Doctor's party is harassed by Host all the way, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver proves to be useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals to Astrid that he is actually a cyborg, something considered shameful in the society on Sto. Bravely, he saves the party from a Host attack by transmitting an electromagnetic pulse from his cybernetic implants, killing himself in the process. The Van Hoffs also die during this attack: Morvin falls from the ledge into the nuclear engines, while Foon commits suicide while pulling a surviving Host down with her. At this, the Doctor makes a grim promise that "no more" will die. The survivors take Bannakaffalatta's EMP unit with them as their only effective weapon against the Host.

The Doctor sends the remaining survivors, including Astrid (who gives him a kiss to follow an old tradition,) on ahead with the EMP unit and the sonic screwdriver, while he attempts to reach Deck 31, the place from which the Host seem to be controlled. Using a security protocol, he convinces the Host to take them to their leader. This turns out to be the cruise line's owner, Max Capricorn, who is hiding in an indestructible "impact chamber" on Deck 31. Capricorn is also revealed to be a cyborg, resembling a small wheeled vehicle. Having been forced out by the company's board of directors (due to their prejudice against cyborgs), he is seeking revenge. The collision of the Titanic into a heavily-populated world will not only break the company, but see the board charged with murder, giving Capricorn his ultimate revenge. Outnumbered by Host and faced with death, the Doctor is saved by Astrid, who has made a short range teleport to his position. She rams Capricorn with a fork-lift truck, and in the struggle both are forced off a precipice and fall into the fiery engine of the ship, killing both.

With the Host no longer under Capricorn's control, the Doctor grimly makes his way to the bridge with their help just as the ship plunges into Earth's atmosphere. Working with Frame, he uses the heat from the re-entry to try to start the ship's auxilary engines, but discovers that they are headed straight for one of the few places in London currently inhabited: Buckingham Palace. Calling through with a security code, he manages to get the Queen out of the building, which the Titanic narrowly misses as the ship pulls up, now back under control. The Queen, in her dressing gown, is heard thanking the Doctor as he pilots the ship back into the sky.

With the danger over, the Doctor suddenly realises that there might be hope for Astrid after all. A safety feature of the ship's teleport system is that in case of accident, it automatically holds in stasis the molecules of the affected passenger. As she was wearing a teleport bracelet at the time of her death, her pattern might still be stored in its buffers. Despite desperate efforts, only a shadow of Astrid can be generated due to extensive damage to the teleport system, despite the Doctor's claims, "I can fix it, I can do anything!" After a kiss to follow an old tradition, the Doctor watches her dissipate into motes of light that float free into space. This way, she can at least fulfill her dream of exploring the universe, forever.

Sadly, the Doctor teleports back to earth with Mr. Copper, who is no expert on Earth, but a former salesman who lied his way onto the ship to explore the stars. Impressed by his heroism on the Titanic, the Doctor declines Copper's request to travel with him, and instead leaves him on the planet to build a new life, with the ship's expenses card, which contains £1,000,000. The Doctor then heads off in the TARDIS, alone.

Cast

• The Doctor - David Tennant
• Astrid Peth - Kylie Minogue
• Captain Hardaker - Geoffrey Palmer
• Midshipman Alonso Frame - Russell Tovey
• Max Capricorn - George Costigan
• Rickston Slade - Gray O'Brien
• Chief Steward - Andrew Havill
• Engineer - Bruce Lawrence
• Foon Van Hoff - Debbie Chazen
• Morvin Van Hoff - Clive Rowe
• Bayldon Copper - Clive Swift
• Bannakaffalatta - Jimmy Vee
• Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
• Himself - Nicholas Witchell
• The Host - Paul Kasey
• Kitchen Hand — Stefan Davis
• Newsreader — Jason Mohammad
• Alien Voices — Colin McFarlane, Ewan Bailey
• Voice of the Queen — Jessica Martin

Uncredited

• Singer - Yamit Mamo
• Guitarist - Murray Gold

Crew

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Production Manager - Tracie Simpson Location Manager - Gareth Skelding Unit Manager - Rhys Griffiths Production Co-ordinator - Jess van Niekerk Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Debi Griffiths Production/Script Secretary - Kevin Myers Production Runner - Nicola Brown Drivers - Wayne Humphreys, Darren Leen Production Accountant - Oliver Ager Contracts Assistant - Beth Britton Finance Manager - Chris Rogers Script department Script Editor - Brian Minchin Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Peter Bennett 2nd Assistant Director - Jennie Fava 3rd Assistant Director - Sarah Davies Floor Runner - Heddi Joy Taylor Continuity - Sheila Johnston Camera Operator - Julian Barber Focus Puller - Steve Rees Grip - John Robinson Boom Operator - Jeff Welch Gaffer - Mark Hutchings Best Boy - Peter Chester	Art department Chief Supervising Art Director - Stephen Nicholas Supervising Art Director - Arwel Wyn Jones Art Department Production Manager - Jonathan Marquand Allison Art Department Co-ordinator - Anna Coote Associate Designer - James North Set Decorator - Tristan Peatfield Props Buyer - Joelle Rumbelow Storyboard Artist - Shaun Williams Design Assistant - Peter McKinstry Standby Props - Phill Shellard, Patrick Deacy Standby Carpenter - Will Pope Standby Art Director - Rebecca Hemy Standby Rigger - Keith Freeman Standby Painter - Ellen Woods Property Master - Phil Lyons Senior Props Maker - Barry Jones Props Maker - Penny Howarth Construction Manager - Matthew Hywel-Davies Scenic Artists - John Whalley, Allen Jones Graphics - BBC Wales Graphics Costume department Costume Supervisor - Lindsay Bonaccorsi Assistant Costume Designer - Rose Goodhart Costume Assistants - Barbara Harrington, Louise Martin	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Artists - Pam Mullins, Morag Smith, John Munro Prosthetics - Millennium FX Prosthetics Designer - Neill Gorton Prosthetics Supervisor - Rob Mayor Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Tom Lucy Stunt Performers - Jason Hunjan, Stephanie Carey, Danielle da Costa Choreographer - Ailsa Berk Casting Casting Associate - Andy Brierley General post-production staff Post-production Supervisors - Samantha Hall, Chris Blatchford Assistant Editor - Carmen Roberts On-line Editor - Matthew Clarke Special and visual effects Visual FX Producers - Will Cohen, Marie Jones Visual FX Supervisor - Dave Houghton VFX Editor - Ceres Doyle VFX Co-ordinators - Jenna Powell, Rebecca Johnson VFX Production Assistant - Marianne Paton On-set VFX Supervisor - Tim Barter SFX Co-ordinator - Ben Ashmore SFX Supervisor - Danny Hargreaves 3D Artists - Jean Claude Deguara, Nicholas Hernandez, Nick Webber, Neil Roche, Andy Guest, Bruce Magroune, Matt McKinney, Mark Wallman, Jeff North 2D Artists - Sara Bennett, Russell Horth, Bryan Bartlett, Greg Spencer, Arianna Lago, Simon Holden, Isobel Barber Colourist - Mark Vincent Matte Painter - Simon Wicker Sound Sound Recordist - Julian Howarth Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Supervising Sound Editor - Paul McFadden Sound Effects Editor - Paul Jefferies Foley Editor - Kelly-Marie Angell

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

References

• The Doctor refers to Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. This is the first time that Kasterborous has been mentioned in the new series.
• Bannakaffalatta is a cyborg, as is Max Capricorn. The episode's backstory establishes that cyborgs have been historically discriminated against on Sto, living in cyborg caravans and only recently being allowed to marry.
• When the Doctor is shouting out random numbers (to try to stop the Heavenly Host), he says 666, the Devil's number, and 42, the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books by former Doctor Who writer Douglas Adams. Douglas Adams wrote a story titled Starship Titanic with a very similar plot line. 42 is also a name of a previous episode.
• The Teleport system on the Titanic is very reminiscent of the one used on the Liberator in the 70's series Blake's 7 in that it uses similarly styled bracelets.
• The Doctor says, "take me to your leader" to the Host, a classic alien remark from early science fiction
• The use of a starship incarnation of the Titanic has been featured in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the television series Futurama, and the video game and novel Starship Titanic, also authored by Douglas Adams.
• The Doctor states he was present at the start of Christmas, though it's not made clear whether he is referring to the actual establishment of the festival, or, in the traditional sense, that he was present at the Nativity. However, since he states that he got the last room, it can be assumed that he was referring to the Nativity and that he was the reason for there being no room in the inn.
• The Doctor introduces himself as "Passenger 57", a reference to the film of the same name.

Story notes

• The working title for this story was Starship Titanic. As Davies writes in The Writer's Tale, it was changed when it was pointed out that Douglas Adams had created a video game and novel by that title, with an extremely similar concept, years earlier.
• Also according to The Writer's Tale, American actor Dennis Hopper was approached about playing Mr. Copper and, later, Max Capricorn, but plans fell through.
• Astrid Peth was originally named simply "Peth."
• Composer Murray Gold and arranger Ben Foster both cameo as members of the Titanic's band, along with singer Yamit Mamo who performs the original song, "The Stowaway." Mamo also performs "Winter Wonderland". An instrumental version of "Jingle Bells" is also heard when the Doctor first arrives.
• The theme tune was revamped for Voyage Of The Damned and was a few seconds longer than the previous versions. "I think I just decided to spruce it up - new drums, new rhythm section, new bass line, new little bit of piano," says Murray Gold.
• The episode is dedicated to the late Verity Lambert, the very first producer of Doctor Who and a legend in the TV industry. Verity died on 22 November 2007, one day before Doctor Who's 44th anniversary, and (per The Writer's Tale), Davies immediately requested a tribute card be inserted into the episode. The TARDIS sound effect is heard softly in the background as the tribute is shown.
• Angels seem to be a recurring theme throughout the new series. The Doctor has been referred to as a Lonely Angel, faced The Weeping Angels and made use of the Master's mesmeric communication network, Archangel.
• The Doctor agrees to let Astrid travel with him, but she dies before she gets the chance to. This also happened to Reinette in The Girl in the Fireplace and Lynda Moss in The Parting of the Ways.
• The scene where the Doctor is lifted into the air by Angels was heavily criticized by Catholic audiences.
• This was Kylie Minogue's first major acting appearance since her diagnosis and survival from breast cancer two years earlier. Minogue was actually a film and TV actor before she became a singer, and had made occasional film appearances since launching her musical career.
• David Tennant's mother died near the start of production of the episode, forcing the crew to shoot around him during his subsequent absence.
• A specific special effects shot is repeated several times in the episode: someone falling while looking up towards the camera. This occurs at least four times in the episode: when the steward is sucked into space (although he's technically not falling), and when Foon and Astrid fall to their deaths; a fourth occasion can just be glimpsed when Morvin falls.
• In his first draft of the episode, Davies had Buckingham Palace destroyed by the Titanic (the Doctor stops the ship from crashing but not before it smashes through the palace). In this version, instead of wishing the Doctor a Happy Christmas, the Queen is heard to curse the Doctor. This same early draft also featured a hoped-for cameo by Prince Charles. Davies spared the Palace as he felt it was too negative an ending for a holiday episode.
• It was originally planned for the Judoon to return at the end to arrest the villain.
• At 71 minutes long, Voyage of the Damned holds the record for the second longest 'single episode' of Doctor Who since the series revival and the fourth longest single episode of all (the third longest episode ever is The End of Time Part Two, which was 75 minutes long, the second longest episode ever is the 1996 movie, which was 85 minutes long, and the longest was the special The Five Doctors, which was 90 minutes long ).
• Voyage of the Damned has the distinction of being the only episode of the revived Doctor Who not to be shown by the series' original Canadian broadcast network, the CBC. The network skipped the episode when it began showing Series 4 in the fall of 2008. Perhaps coincidentally, beginning with Voyage of the Damned, the CBC no longer received an on-screen credit for its participation in funding the series, although it continued to do so for the remainder of Series 4. Although the CBC retained the rights to air the special until April 2010, it never did so, though a French-language broadcaster in Canada did show it at some point. In April 2010 the series' new home broadcaster, Space, took over the rights to air Voyage of the Damned, and will do so for the first time on 24 July 2010, which is being promoted as the English-language Canadian premiere of the episode.[1] The CBC subsidiary network, CBC Bold, which as of mid-2010 continued to air reruns, announced it would host the "CBC premiere" of the special on 28th July, but at the last minute the broadcast was cancelled in favor of highlights from a comedy festival, meaning Voyage of the Damned continues to be unbroadcast by the CBC close to three years after it aired in the UK.[2]
• Mr. Copper implies that he wants to travel with the Doctor, but the Doctor declines, stating he travels alone. This is the same rationale given when he refuses Christina de Souza's request to join him in Planet of the Dead.
• An online comic strip, WC: Escape to Penhaxico, takes place two months after the events of this story and reveals details involving Capricorn's "exit strategy" after destroying the Titanic.
• A shortened version of this story was broadcast, at least on BBC America. This version skipped quite a bit of material, including the trip to deserted London, the attempt to revive Astrid, and the closing conversation with Mr. Cooper. This version was broadcast at least in 2009, and fitted into a 60-minute timeslot, including commercials.

Ratings

• Overnight - 12.2 million viewers. (At times the ratings peaked at 13.8 million.)
• Final ratings - 13.31 million, making this the most-watched Doctor Who story since its 2005 return, and one of the highest in franchise history.

Myths and rumours

• A lot was made of the fact that Astrid is an anagram of TARDIS. This however, turned out to be a red herring and not at all significant to the story.
• When publicity photos for this episode were first released, some fans noted the resemblance of the Hosts to the Humanoid Axons, giving rise to the rumours (soon disproven) that the episode featured the Axons.
• As the producers intended, the cliff hanger leading into this story raised the question as to whether the TARDIS had collided with the real Titanic, which gave rise to fan speculation in the interim as to how this episode would reconcile with previous references to the Doctor's involvement with the ill-fated vessel (DW: Rose, et al).
• The British tabloid press published reports that Minogue's character was going to be a Cyberwoman; this was disproven once publicity photos of her in Astrid's serving girl outfit were released. (According to The Writer's Tale, the tabloid reports of Kylie-as-Cybermen not only went out before she'd actually been cast in the special, but Davies hadn't even completed writing it yet.
• The meaning of the lyrics in the original song "The Stowaway" (heard only briefly on screen, but released in full on the Series 3 soundtrack album prior to broadcast) have given rise to some speculation. The general consensus is that they are from Astrid's point of view (reflecting in part their first meeting where the Doctor identifies himself to her as a stowaway, supported by the fact they're sung in a female voice), but comments by production team have been interpreted to suggest they might be from the captain's point of view (implying a same-sex interest, but not coinciding with anything that occurs in the episode - the Doctor and the captain never even meet each other). In either case, it was widely speculated that Rose Tyler is the lost love referenced in the lyrics, with the line "lying with his love that's where he'll be" in particular foreshadowing her later return in Series 4, and the events at the conclusion of DW: The Stolen Earth.
• Newspaper, The Sun released a report claiming Albert Einstein would be in this episode played by Woody Allen.
• Minogue was reportedly mistaken for a waitress outside a hotel due to her costume.
• The nature of Astrid's fate led to rumors that she might reappear in Series 4, particularly in the finale. This did not happen other than a brief flashback appearance in Journey's End. It was rumoured that she might have appeared in one of the 2009 specials, but this did not occur.

Filming locations

Studio

• Upper Boat Studios, Treforrest
• BBC Broadcasting House, Llandaff

Location

• Exchange Building, Swansea
• The Coal Exchange, Cardiff Bay
• Johnsey Estates, Pontypool
• St John's Street, Cardiff
• WDA Compound, Cardiff Docks
• City Hall, Cardiff

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• As the Doctor was flying with the Hosts towards the bridge of the Titanic, his hair was going upwards instead of downwards.

Continuity

• It is explained in the final scenes of DW: Time Crash that the Titanic collided with the TARDIS because the Doctor left its shields down. Time Crash occurs immediately before the collision, which means the very first shot of the Doctor walking around the TARDIS (before the crash) occurs within moments of the Fifth Doctor's departure (however we do not hear the earlier Doctor's admonition to the Tenth Doctor to "Put your shields up").
• This episode marks the last of the continuous arc (the end of one episode immediately leading into another) that starts in the Torchwood episode Captain Jack Harkness and switches over to Doctor Who in Utopia.
• Reference is made to the two previous Christmas specials, DW: The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride, with brief clips from both shown.
• The Doctor meets someone named Alonso, allowing him to use the phrase "Allons-y Alonso", which he stated in DW: Army of Ghosts he'd like to try.
• The Doctor mentions that his tuxedo is unlucky, referring to the fact he wore the same outfit in DW: The Lazarus Experiment and Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel, both of which resulted in life-and-death struggles.
• Alonso Frame appears again in The End of Time in a bar with Captain Jack.
• The Doctor is known to Queen Elizabeth (she is heard referring to him as Doctor), and utters a code word to evacuate the Palace and the Queen. This is quite a contrast from his relationship with her ancestor Victoria in DW: Tooth and Claw, however quite consistent with previous references that the Doctor and QE2 have a friendly relationship (DW: Silver Nemesis). The Doctor later parks the TARDIS in her garden and tells UNIT that the Queen doesn't mind, further reinforcing this. (DW: Planet of the Dead)
• There are more than a few references to DW: The Robots of Death, the robots chanting "Kill, Kill, Kill" in monotone and the hand of the robot being stuck in the bridge's door and being subsequently cut off. The Hosts also play a similar subserviant role to the robots in the earlier story.
• Earth was first referred to as Sol 3 in DW: The Deadly Assassin (and last referred to as in DW: Last of the Time Lords).
• Earth was next referred as a Level 5 planet in DW: Partners in Crime, and later in SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen and DW: The Eleventh Hour.
• The television on which the Doctor, Astrid and Wilf view the news is clearly branded with a Magpie logo, as a reference to the Magpie's televisions company in DW: The Idiot's Lantern.
• In the episode DW: Turn Left, the Titanic crashes down onto Buckingham Palace, which destroys London and floods Southern England with nuclear radiation (and not the entire world as the Doctor fears).
• Max Capricorn's parting words to the Doctor, 'this interview is terminated', is the exact phrase used by The Collector to end a conversation with The Gatherer in DW: The Sun Makers. The Collector is also a character of a corporation concerned only with profit, and bears some resemblance to Max.
• The Doctor mentions himself being homeless and staying on Earth, referencing his exile from Gallifrey in his Third incarnation.
• This is the third time the Doctor has uttered the phrase "take me to your leader". Strangely, in this episode he then remarks "I've always wanted to say that", implying he has not done so before.

Timeline

• This story takes place after DW: Last of the Time Lords
• This story takes place before WC: The Frozen

Home video releases

Voyage of the Damned DVD Cover

• Released in the Series 4 DVD boxset.
• Released on Region 2 (UK) DVD on 10th March 2008. Unlike most single-disc Region 2 DVD releases from the revived series, this was not a "vanilla" edition (program only, no extras), but included the mini-episode Time Crash, as well as an edition of the cutdown version of Doctor Who Confidential.

External links

• Official BBC Website - Episode Guide: Voyage of the Damned
• Original script, posted online by Russell T Davies in conjunction with the release of his book REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale.