Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned

LABEL: BBC/2Entertain
RUNNING TIME: 75 mins approx.
RATING: PG
VIDEO FORMAT: 16:9 Anamorphic
AUDIO FORMAT: English 2.0
SUBTITLES: English HOH
DVD REGION: 2
AVAILABLE: Out Now!


Synopsis
The Doctor finds himself on board a space-faring replica of the infamous sea liner Titanic, which has locked itself into orbit around the Earth in order for its alien passengers to witness the human festivities. As the frivolities reach a high, however, disaster strikes, leaving the Doctor and a group of survivors to fight their way up from the lower decks of the now-wrecked ship. Was the damaged merely an accident, or did it have some more insidious cause?

Review
You have to wonder who Russell T Davies thinks he's kidding, recycling the same Christmas-themed pap for the third year in a row. Murderous seasonal icons, an alien attack on the Earth and a cheesy final scene that brings snow-that-isn't-snow to London on Christmas day... it's would be totally surprising to discover that Davies has a script template loaded into Microsoft Word and simply fills in the blanks as necessary each year. By all accounts this special was the second-most watched broadcast in Britain on Christmas Day, pulling in at peak 3.9 million viewers, but whilst the production team were gathered around slapping one another's back perhaps they should have considered this; how many of those people would go out of their way to sit through it again? How many of those people would purchase the episode on DVD, if it was put out on its own without any other episodes and not as part of a boxed set? How many could honestly say that it was the highlight of Christmas day's television?

Whilst there are a couple of neat ideas -- amongst them the amusing revelation that after two years under fire, Londoners evacuate the city every Christmas -- the whole affair ultimately feels like a wasted effort. The supporting characters are stereotyped and unlikeable, to the point that the viewer feels relieved rather than moved whenever one of them is bumped off (which happens with monotonous regularity); the big names in the guest cast are shamelessly squandered on roles that are either short, banal or both; the dialogue is horrendously stilted, with David Tennant's usually-effervescent Doctor being the worst casualty; the main villain is best described as the love-child of Davros and HOT FUZZ's Simon Skinner; the romance elements are one again shoe-horned in and uncomfortable to watch; and the climax manages to be even more gut-churningly messianic than "Last of the Time Lords". Yes, really.

So, with such an uninspiring main feature is there really any reason to recommend this DVD? The answer, rather unsurprisingly, is no. Whilst the special features make for interesting viewing, there's no way that thirty-five minutes of DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL and a CHILDREN IN NEED special make up for an irritating and stilted episode, especially at an RRP of almost twenty quid. One to avoid.


Picture
Captures the broadcast quality perfectly.

Audio
As usual, the 5.1 soundtrack that will inevitably appear as part of the season four box set is conspicuous by its absence. The stereo track included, however, does the job.

Special Features
This single-episode release also includes the accompanying Christmas episode of DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL and the frankly excellent CHIDLREN IN NEED special, “Time Crash” (also starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor).



Matt Dillon