DW: Voyage Of The Damned (Spoilers)

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2007-12-25 12:40pm

In just under an hour and a quarter, this year Doctor Who Christmas special begins, running for just under 71 minutes, with guest RTD obsession Kylie Minogue as the Doctors assistant aboard the Titanic. - No voting until it ends!

Happy Hogswatch, folks!

Crazedwraith · Post by **Crazedwraith** » 2007-12-25 01:03pm

Your poll options are silly. It can be the worst Xmas episode ever and still rate better than 1/5.

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2007-12-25 01:16pm

Crazedwraith wrote:Your poll options are silly. It can be the worst Xmas episode ever and still rate better than 1/5.

Lets not get technical here

Old Peculier · Post by **Old Peculier** » 2007-12-25 01:33pm

Dartzap wrote:
Crazedwraith wrote:Your poll options are silly. It can be the worst Xmas episode ever and still rate better than 1/5.
Lets not get technical here

Well technically (hah! what are you going to do about it?) it says worst Xmas episode ever, not worst Doctor Who Xmas episode ever, so the poll is fine.

Crazedwraith · Post by **Crazedwraith** » 2007-12-25 03:05pm

pfft. Those credits went by a bit fast and can't the Doctor usually use a recall key on the TARDIS? Or has that broken since Father's Day?

It was certainly excited and pulled me along for the ride and it was nice to see that Londoners have cottoned on to the chrismas special thing but I have the oddest feeling that as soon as I start to think about the episode it'll all fall apart in short order.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-12-25 03:12pm

Crazedwraith wrote:pfft. Those credits went by a bit fast and can't the Doctor usually use a recall key on the TARDIS?

No.

Or has that broken since Father's Day?

Father's Day was a point where it had activated the 'dump the exerior shell' mode. Normally he can't recall it. Only the Second Doctor (during his period working for the CIA, in the two doctors) and the Rani have used remote summoning devices.

And damnit. They could have at least clipped Buck Palace. Rather than the offensively cheesy bit we got.

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2007-12-25 03:26pm

I liked the new theme tune

Multiple companions getting maimed and/or killed = always good.
I
f anyone happens to care, its already on the BBC IPlayer, heh.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2007-12-25 03:41pm

GAH!
And stupid continentals have to wait until it becomes...available elsewhere.
I shit you not, this is one of the factors why I am considering moving to the UK...

DaveJB · Post by **DaveJB** » 2007-12-25 04:38pm

I thought it was pretty good. Not quite as good as the Christmas Invasion, but a big improvement over the one we had last year. The trailer for the next season didn't seem that inspiring, for whatever reason. (Neither did the Torchwood one, but hey, what else is new?)

Crazedwraith wrote:pfft. Those credits went by a bit fast

Seeing how they ballsed up and made the episode too long AGAIN, they had to make up the time somewhere.

Teebs · Post by **Teebs** » 2007-12-25 06:57pm

I didn't think it was good at all. It just didn't come together for me, too many bits that didn't seem to make sense and a few truly irritating bits, like the bit where the Doctor looked like he was in some kind of advert striding out of the fire.

Also, did anyone notice the screw up over exchange rates? £1 million = 50 million credits, that meant the 5000 credits the black couple seemed to think was a small fortune came out at around £100...

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-12-25 07:00pm

The OP lamed this thread too much for accurate commentary. No valid statistics can be gained.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-12-25 08:10pm

NecronLord wrote: And damnit. They could have at least clipped Buck Palace. Rather than the offensively cheesy bit we got.

Not as teeth grindingly awful as Queen Liz the Second's unconvincing stand in.

I mostly liked it, but it seemed too loud, flashy, and frantic for it's own good - Kylie was very easy on the eyes for a woman pushing 40. George Costigan looked like a cross between "Remembrance" Davros and a used car salesman. Clive Swift was sweet as the elderly faux tour guide who was totally wrong about most of Earth and it's customs. Geoffrey Palmer was very good as the fatalistic captain pushed into the corner to do terrible things.

Those android angels going gradually haywire in the corporate resort had overt shadings of Westworld, another iconic 1970s movie that inspired the semi-hack RTD, the other movie obviously being The Poseidon Adventure (why were they armed? Were they intended as onboard security units?).

I liked the smarmy businessman annoyingly surviving. London's streets being empty with people leaving or hiding indoors for Christmas after two annual alien attacks was a very good touch, hinting that the general public are not as dumb and delusional to the monthly supernatural/alien related disasters as the citizens of Sunnydale are from Buffy the Vampire Slayer for example (I liked the news vendor man yelling at the sky "Not this time! Don't you dare!", or something along those lines).

I really did not mind Max Capricorn, since his evil plan was so anti-climatically banal, mean, and petty (like the Slitheen really, indirectly killing billions for profit, insurance, or cost cutting, quite opposite to the Daleks, Cyberman or the Master who are more universally ambitious with their schemes in a cliche' kind of way), and it was a great performance from George Costigan, he was much better than Trigger and slightly better than John Simm (his gold tooth going *TING* was genuinely funny).

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2007-12-26 05:03am

Well, the "Poseidon Adventure" vibes were so blatant, I spotted it when I watched the trailer the first time...

Post by **NecronLord** » 2007-12-26 05:31am

Big Orange wrote:Not as teeth grindingly awful as Queen Liz the Second's unconvincing stand in.

I was reffering to that.

I mostly liked it, but it seemed too loud, flashy, and frantic for it's own good - Kylie was very easy on the eyes for a woman pushing 40. George Costigan looked like a cross between "Remembrance" Davros and a used car salesman. Clive Swift was sweet as the elderly faux tour guide who was totally wrong about most of Earth and it's customs. Geoffrey Palmer was very good as the fatalistic captain pushed into the corner to do terrible things.

The bit with the "Citizens of UK go to war, with Turkey..." was quite the best in it.

Those android angels going gradually haywire in the corporate resort had overt shadings of Westworld, another iconic 1970s movie that inspired the semi-hack RTD, the other movie obviously being The Poseidon Adventure (why were they armed? Were they intended as onboard security units?).

While it sucked ass, that bit made sense. The Host were programmed to kill all witnesses to prevent anyone revealing that the ship had been crashed deliberately.

I liked the smarmy businessman annoyingly surviving. London's streets being empty with people leaving or hiding indoors for Christmas after two annual alien attacks was a very good touch, hinting that the general public are not as dumb and delusional to the monthly supernatural/alien related disasters as the citizens of Sunnydale are from Buffy the Vampire Slayer for example (I liked the news vendor man yelling at the sky "Not this time! Don't you dare!", or something along those lines).

I really did not mind Max Capricorn, since his evil plan was so anti-climatically banal, mean, and petty (like the Slitheen really, indirectly killing billions for profit, insurance, or cost cutting, quite opposite to the Daleks, Cyberman or the Master who are more universally ambitious with their schemes in a cliche' kind of way),

Not everyone who wants to destroy a primative backwater is a galaxy-striding tyrant.

and it was a great performance from George Costigan, he was much better than Trigger and slightly better than John Simm (his gold tooth going *TING* was genuinely funny).

Better than Trig? Are you mad? John Lumic was hilariously deranged.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-12-26 06:08am

Why was Bond Villian Reject even ON the ship? He wanted a disaster to ruin the company... why did he have to BE there in an invincible room to be recovered later? Nobody even knew he was there.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-12-26 08:52am

I don't give one shit about the insane plot. This was Who as it should be: silly, over-the-top and epic. I loved it.

Did anyone else notice that the people behind the radar graphic can't tell port from starboard? Also, I never thought I'd see a Wesley Snipes reference on Who, but there you go...

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2007-12-26 10:58am

Big Orange wrote:
NecronLord wrote: And damnit. They could have at least clipped Buck Palace. Rather than the offensively cheesy bit we got.
Not as teeth grindingly awful as Queen Liz the Second's unconvincing stand in.

Still, it wasn't as bad as the bit where the Queen showed up in Silver Nemesis.

Oh, and Bounty, Wesley Snipes reference?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-12-26 11:03am

andrewgpaul wrote:Oh, and Bounty, Wesley Snipes reference?

Saying he was "passenger 57" to the Host. It probably wasn't intentional.

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2007-12-26 11:10am

Well, I did like the episode, mostly. The music as great, the villain's a total dick and I loved the way that London clears out at Christmas.

The least good thing about it was probably the Forklift duel. That hurt my brain a little.

"It really does that?"

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2007-12-26 11:11am

Ah, missed that bit.

Mind you, I did think that the slo-mo bit of him walking in front of the explosions at the end reminded me of Man on Fire (yes, I am aware that wasn't Wesley Snipes).

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2007-12-26 11:33am

I very much enjoyed it. The Titanic looked quite marvellous.

And the new theme tune seems to be a bit more upbeat,d ramatic than the former. I could get used to it.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2007-12-26 02:11pm

Is it me or is some of the music used pinched from the film version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-12-26 02:14pm

2000AD wrote:Is it me or is some of the music used pinched from the film version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Really? I got the OST for that mvoie and didn't really recognise anything. A lot of themes recycled from previous series, yes, but where did you get the H2G2 vibe?

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-12-26 02:27pm

The new metal-sounding theme sounds a bit odd, but I could get used to it.

I really wish the Doctor would stop lying about his age, though. He can't be 903 years old. He was already 953 years old three regenerations ago. He's got to be over 1000 by now.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2007-12-27 11:12pm

I really like Kylie, especially that duet with Nick Cave...

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