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Voyage of the Damned Format Reviewed: TV Review When the details for Voyage of the Damned started to emerge, there was fevered debate amongst the Who fan community, as well as in other quarters, concerning the choice of the main guest star. The decision to cast Kylie Minogue opposite David Tennant was a brave one, but not entirely unpredictable as the show is a camp classic, and Kylie is a gay icon. On the face of it though, two of my favoutite things, Kylie and Doctor Who on screen at the same time cannot be a bad thing, surely? After leaving Martha, The Doctor flies off and finds the Titanic crashing through the TARDIS. This is self reaired, and the TARDIS materialises onboard the space ship Titanic, where The Doctor meets waitress Astrid. On the bridge meanwhile, the Captain dismisses all the staff except one, Mishipman Frame who says and notices that there are inbound asteroids and the shields are down. The asteroids hit, and the ship is badly damaged. Most of the rest of the survivors are then killed by the robotic hosts. The Doctor and a small party try to get to the bridge, as the engines are failing and the ship wil crash into the Earth, killing the entire population. Eventually, The Doctor discovers that former owner Max Capricorn is staging everything and has a high impact chamber on board to survive and have a rich retirement. He is foiled by Astrid who sacrifices herself killing Max, and The Doctor manages to stop the ship hitting the Earth, just. The opening to this story is possibly the biggest anomaly, how can a ship crash through the TARDIS and have both survive? I don't know, and I feel it is another Russel T Davies piece of poetic license. The other major complaint I have about Voyage of the Damned is that once again the direct companion of The Doctor in in love with him. Russel T Davies continues to try to put romance into every part of Doctor Who where it is not neccessarily warranted. Given the will they-won't they romance between The Doctor and Rose, there seems to be too many other periphery romances that are used all to often as storylines when there is a universe of creatures and stories to discover instead. The cast is as usual headed by David Tennant, who really does appear to be finally settling into his role as The Doctor. I am still probably of the opinion that Tennant isn't old enough to effectively play The Doctor, but he certainly does have his moments. The guest cast is very impressive, principally featuring Kylie Minogue as Astrid Peth, who for this story csn largely be seen as The Doctors companion for this story. Minogue has a chequered acting past, having had some great and many forgettable moments. Irrespective of this, she deoes well and plays admirably alongside Tennant. In the rest of the guest cast, Jimmy Vee does excellently as Bannakaffalatta, Geoffrey Palmer is magnificent as Captain Hardaker and Bernard Cribbins pops up for an interesting cameo as Wilfred Mott. Russell Tovey is slightly wooden as Midshipman Frame, but this fits the character and situation well enough not to distract from the story. Given the criticisms levelled at Voyage of the Damned above, one could guess this review is likely to be negative overall. That impression would be wrong, and it would be wrong for one very simple reason: Voyage of the Damned is a very good fun romp. The main reason for this is some very tight direction and the great cast performances, and the way the plot unfolds is positive. Voyage op the Damned genuinely does take the viewer with it from beginning to end and entertains along the way. This makes for good viewing, and will stand up to repeated viewing. Overall, Voyage of the Damned is a good fun romp in the Earth's orbit. There are certainly some issues with the story, and they should rightly be discussed alongside the positive parts of the show. However, the overriding sense of this story will be one of fun, and that is what it's all about isn't it?  |