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howard stateman ([personal profile] howeird) wrote2008-05-16 11:15 am
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Dr. Who 2007 Christmas Special, briefly

They named it Voyage of the Damned. Has this aired in the US yet? I buy the PAL DVDs from amazon.co.uk as they are released - a couple of months after they air on BBC. This one has been sitting on my TV table forever, finally got around to watching it Wednesday night. Or was it Saturday? I forget.

No spoilers here. The action is set on a space cruise ship named Titanic, and the cruise is to Earth in modern day, but the ship is decked out as a replica of the original Titanic, with all the guests and staff in period dress. The set is entirely too small to carry off the illusion, but they make a valiant effort.

David Tennant is The Doctor, he is companionless, but Kylie Minogue plays the part of a cocktail waitress who acts in that capacity for the duration. She's a good actress, I was impressed. The chemistry between her and Tennant is remarkable. Also remarkable is veteran actor Geoffrey Palmer as the captain of the ship. You may not know the name, but you'll recognize his face as soon as you see him.

From the name of the ship, you can guess this will be a disaster story, and it is, but it's not of the innocent "oops, we hit a patch of ice" variety. Written by Russel Davies, it features cardboard characters, a plot which seems to have been written on napkins at several different liquid power lunches, and gratuitous mocking of fat people (a short step away from his usual fart jokes).

Not one of the better episodes, but still worth buying the DVD.

[identity profile] smallship1.livejournal.com 2008-05-16 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Nicely summed up.

If it's in the box set at the end of the year, I'll probably get it. (I've got all the other sets so far. I tell myself it's so that in future years I can point at one of them and say "And this was the exact point where it suddenly got good again!") But I'm not in any hurry.

[identity profile] bovil.livejournal.com 2008-05-16 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
It ran as the beginning of the current series on SciFi, I believe.

[identity profile] scendan.livejournal.com 2008-05-17 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I would agree. I wasn't overly impressed by this one, frankly, although Kylie did a good job.

Frankly, as fun as Tennant is, I am getting somewhat tired of the "all women fall for him" thing, as well.