Reaction Post: Voyage of the Damned
Well, I, and many of you out there, have now seen this year’s Doctor Who Christmas episode, Voyage of the Damned. May I just say, it wasn’t quite what I expected. I’m still processing the episode, which was slightly longer than last year’s, but I already have a few opinions on the subject.. If you would like more of my thoughts on the subject, click past the spoiler barrier.
You know you want to.
Okay, I can see bucking convention as far as the standard list of “who always survives/dies” in these sort of things, but really. I have to agree with Mr. Copper, though. If the Doctor could decide who lives and dies, perhaps he would be a monster. As it is, he keeps losing the ones he would rather save. As a viewer, I would rather he saved them, too. (Did anyone else notice the parallels between Astrid and Rose? They both fell when he didn’t want them too, for example. Just me? Alright. Moving on.)
Also, The Doctor should really avoid Christmas on Earth altogether…and maybe burn that tuxedo.
Things I liked:
* The Doctor’s slow hero walk through the flames.
* Mr. Copper starting a new life.
* London getting the hint and leaving on Christmas.
* The Queen waving and thanking The Doctor as he flew by.
* The Doctor listing his qualifications.
* Astrid getting The Doctor’s planet and title wrong.
* The door is deadlock sealed? That’s nice. How strong is the floor?
* The Doctor saving the Earth. Again.
* The song that was being sung during the episode.
* Alonzo! (…who survived. Yay!)
* Bannakaffalatta. Little guy, Big name.
Things that saddened me:
* The mean guy surviving.
* The mean guy in general.
* The loss of the folks we liked.
* The need for a show such as this to remind us that all sorts of innocent bystanders die in tragedies.
* Astrid mostly dying after going to try and help The Doctor.
On the whole, there were enough good moments that I didn’t hate the episode. I just wish that it hadn’t been quite so depressing. I like my Christmas episodes to be a bit lighter, but then they haven’t asked me my opinion. Yet.
What did you think?
Doctor Who, Voyage of the Damned
December 26th, 2007 at 5:11 am
After all the hoopla that we’ve had building up to this one, I must admit to being rather underwhelmed.
The entire premise of an obscenely rich man forced into hiding because his society hates cyborgs seems absurd when he could easily relocate to another planet with different values.
I won’t even go into the subject of a ship (spaceship or otherwise) the size of the Titanic being capable of atmospheric flight.
Even in sci-fi there has to be some ring of plausibility to the story-line to make it believable and interesting. This one just did not have that for me.
December 26th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Spot on.
I liked the fact that this is a post first contact era Earth where people are getting the hint that London might not be safe on Earth. Guess the days of hitting that reset switch is finally over.
Guess it goes to show that not all the wild speculation about the episode was true. Astrid was not a TARDIS in human form.
I liked the fact that not only did the TARDIS fall to Earth it went strait for England. Of yes that only Britan was Great.
December 26th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Wow, the Spam filter seems to have gone into overdrive lately. Sorry folks.
Anyway, maybe he just liked Stow(e), Elisa. Who knows. *shrug*
Oh Yeah. They were all from Stow(?) and the Doctor was a Stow(away). Sorry, I just got that one.
The Vig, yeah. I had some minor hopes in that direction, too.
December 27th, 2007 at 2:19 am
[...] is the trailer for Series Four of Doctor Who. It appeared at the end of Voyage of the Damned. The first thing you will notice is the music. It’s designed for running. And that is what [...]
December 27th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Why couldn’t Kylie jump out of the damn forklift as soon as she had lifted the dude? That was dumb.
Obviously the character had to die to fit in with how they wrote the episode, but the plot was pretty banal. I expect better.
December 27th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
I was confused thoughout the entire episode about what year this was taking place. There are human-like beings in space that plan a trip to earth?
Are the peopl on the ship even human? Or do they just happen to look human?
Was anyone else confused by that bit? / Have an explanation?
December 31st, 2007 at 12:17 am
[...] year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special, Voyage of the Damned did really well in the ratings. It was watched by 12.2 million people in the UK, according to the [...]
January 1st, 2008 at 11:10 am
Ben, I did think that she might jump at the last minute. Sigh.
Dan, I believe that they were all from the planet Stow(sp?) and therefore only looked human, like The Doctor does. Don’t quote me on that, though.
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:15 am
There were some fun bits, but overall, it just felt sloppily written (kind of like old-school Doctor Who, papering over plot deficiencies because they figure no one will notice.) For example, mid-way through the episode the lower-class wife said she spent 5000 credits to win the trip, and that would put them in debt for life. Then at the end, the Doctor tells the professor that 1,000,000 Pounds is worth 50 Million credits. So the couple was worried about a debt of a couple hundred dollars?
Not to mention the various narrow escapes from the Angels, and Max’s monologuing while the Angels stand around not killing The Doctor…
Overall, it was just okay. I won’t be watching it again on Sci-Fi. Looking forward to Torchwood in a couple of weeks (and enjoying Torchwood in HD on HDNet! Thank you FIOS!)John Barrowman definitely has a face for HD.
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 am
The pound has quite the exchange rate, it would seem.