Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned (Xmas special)

[kerravonsen]

I gather that the reaction to this ranged from love to hate. I think I'll blather on a bit.

Yes, it was silly. Yes, there were plot-holes. Yes, it was fun.

I'm glad it wasn't the Actual Titanic.

Silly amusing things:
- "London Deserted"
- The Queen in her fuzzy slippers, and her waving and saying "Thank you, Doctor" (I'm glad that the Palace wasn't destroyed)

Touching things:
- the red spiky guy (Bala-something-i-forget) giving his life
- the purple couple kissing and making up
- the old man delighting in the idea of having an actual House with a Kitchen and a Garden and all that.

Cool visuals:
- the Titanic itself, in orbit
- the Doctor being lifted by angels

Things That Were Supposed To Be Amusing That Weren't:
- all the wrong facts about Earth

Things That Were Supposed To Be Impressive That Weren't:
- the Doctor striding (with Stern Face on) through the flames; sorry, this is getting old

I'm certain there were homages to various things. Including the cast of the generic Disaster Movie; we had the Selfish Stockbroker, the Nice Old Man, the Spunky Girl, the Heroic Comic Relief, the Couple, the Officious Steward, the Plucky Junior Officer, and of course, the Hero. I went with the flow in this.

As soon as the Doctor said that Astrid could come with him, I knew she was toast. Mind you, the body count was pretty high on this one.

Some other things I liked:
- the initial conversation with Astrid about the Doctor being a stowaway
- the "three questions" thing (and how, the second time, he only had one question left) -- it was illogical from a programming point of view, but it was lovely from a mythic point of view
- The fact that he declared that he's a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey (is that the first time in New Who that he's been up for that?) -- and then later it's amusing that Astrid called him a "Time King" and gets the planet name wrong too.
- I enjoyed the OTT bwa-ha-ha of the villain. Though I suppose he still doesn't have half the charisma of Lumic "From Beyond The GRAVE".

A few of the plot holes:
- science, bah, who needs science?
- they seem to have an inconsistent value for credits
- there's no reason why the Host should have taken orders from the Doctor; he wasn't the next-highest authority
- the floor of the bridge is awfully flimsy


I'm sort of calm about the Special. I enjoyed it, but I'm not squeeing over it.


As for the Trailer, well, it looks like we're going to have lameness and prettiness -- and Ooooood! I suspect the Oood will be set up as villains again. I'm with lizbee here: why isn't the Doctor wanting to free this slave-race? (sigh)

I'm also somewhat hopeful about Donna; even though they say she's been "softened", she doesn't look as if she's been completely wimpified. I hope.

Comments

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

I saw a commercial for the Christmas special. I'll enjoy it, I'm sure. I like (modern) Doctor Who.

But the Titanic...I'm sorry, but Futurama has forever more cornered the market on spacegoing Titanics. All other spacegoing luxury liners with smokestacks and whatnot are but pale imitations.

[kerravonsen]

Actually, I think Douglas Adams was first with the Spaceship Titanic. But, what, did you expect Doctor Who to actually be original? 8-P

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

That was Starship Titanic. I actually own the game...

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I pretty much agree with all of that.

science, bah, who needs science?

I was a bit annoyed by the presumption that, if in orbit above the atmosphere, the engines would be needed to avoid descending from that orbit.

[kerravonsen]

I was a bit annoyed by the presumption that, if in orbit above the atmosphere, the engines would be needed to avoid descending from that orbit.

Yep. And it wouldn't have taken much for them to have gotten that right -- just make the Captain give the ship some thrust to de-orbit the ship just before the disaster, then shut down the engines; the race then wouldn't be to keep the ship in orbit, but to get it back into orbit from a decaying orbit.

Oh well.

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

Did the Host remind you of the weeping angels in "Blink"? Because the second I saw them, I knew they were going to be trouble.

And while the stockbroker was indeed mostly annoying, I quite agreed with him when he was angry at that steward for opening that door that he got sucked out of. That was totally Darwin in action. The Doctor is usually of that opinion as well, so I was a bit surprised at his reaction.

Astrid saving everyone's asses while the doctor was in no position to do anything. Me like very much. And yes, I didn't expect her to make it into the Tardis, either.

The London scenes were, IMO, absolutely wonderful.

[kerravonsen]

Did the Host remind you of the weeping angels in "Blink"? Because the second I saw them, I knew they were going to be trouble.

They actually reminded me of the Santas, actually -- so I likewise knew that they were going to be trouble.

The Doctor is usually of that opinion as well, so I was a bit surprised at his reaction.

Maybe he's the only one allowed to call people idiots? 8-P

The London scenes were, IMO, absolutely wonderful.

I loved Astrid's reaction to being on an alien planet. Everything was wonderful, even the pollution.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Did the Host remind you of the weeping angels in "Blink"?

Actually, I thought "Ood". Well, actually I thought "Pak'ma'ra", because the Ood still look like Pak'ma'ra to me, but my reasoning was that polite and helpful servant species are always liable to turn nasty.

[infiniteviking]

Oooooooood? *suspects half the fun of this alien species is that its name is so much fun to say* Yes, I was wondering about that too; human-centric as this Doctor is, he should have at least been interested in their situation.

..Time King. *chuckles* Well, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it!