Voyage of the Damned (TV story): Difference between revisions

The bow of a ship crashes through the wall of [[the Doctor's TARDIS]]. [[Tenth Doctor|The Doctor]] is momentarily stunned, especially after seeing the ship is the ''Titanic''. Pressing some buttons, he repairs the TARDIS walls, pushing the ship out. The TARDIS materialises aboard the ship. The Doctor soon learns the ''Titanic'' is a large luxury spaceship cruiser from the [[planet]] [[Sto]], orbiting Earth. He 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; 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 Van Hoff|Morvin]] and [[Foon Van Hoff]] and a small red-skinned alien, [[Bannakaffalatta]]. Following alien attacks on London on the two previous 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 [[Bayldon Copper|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:

The party returns to the ship because of a power failure in the teleport system. The Doctor tries to find out what caused it. He discovers he shields are offline and meteors approaching. The Doctor warns the [[Hardaker|Captain]], 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 removed from theparty. The Doctor gasps to a guest to look out 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. Trying to help the Doctor now are Astrid, Foon and Morvin Van Hoff. Midshipman Frame tries to get the shields back online, but is 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 is 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'' heads 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 [[Heavenly Host|Host]], android servitors that started malfunctioning earlier. Now their sole function is to kill the survivors scattered throughout he ship. The Doctor's party is harassed by Host and his [[sonic screwdriver]] is useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals to Astrid he is actually a [[cyborg]], something thought shameful on Sto. Bravely, he saves the party from a Host attack by transmitting an [[electromagnetic pulse]] from his cybernetic implants, killing himself. The Van Hoffs also die during this attack: Morvin falls from the ledge into the [[Nuclear storm drive|nuclear engines]], while Foon commits suicide while pulling a surviving Host down with her. 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 survivors, including Astrid (who kisses him to follow an old tradition) on ahead with the EMP unit and the sonic screwdriver. He tries to reach [[Deck 31]], from where the Host seem to be controlled. He convinces the Host to take him, a stowaway, to their leader. This turns out to be the cruise line's owner, [[Max Capricorn]], hiding in an indestructible "[[impact chamber]]" on Deck 31. Capricorn is also a cyborg in a small wheeled vehicle. 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. 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 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.

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 heads off in the TARDIS, alone.