Dr. Who Christmas Special: Voyage of the Dammed
Of the three Christmas Specials, I still like The Runaway Bride best (Donna! Gallifrey! Darkest Ten Moment ever except for end of Family of Blood! Season 3 foreshadowing in miniature! Inspired Lunacy!) , and The Christmas Invasion least (no Doctor at all until the last ten minutes or so, swordfight as grand climax (which I'm only fond of in DW if it's between the Doctor and the Master), Harriet Jones re"tired"). Voyage of the Dammed is somewhere between the two; I liked it, a lot, but I didn't love it the way I do The Runaway Bride, which, having gotten the s3 DVDs for Christmas, I just have rewatched.
RTD is still contending with JMS for the title of Self Declared Atheist TV Writer Most Fond of Religious Imagery. Someone should really make a clip show where G'Kar's flogging, walk complete with cross and near cruxificion compete with Nine's crucifixion pose from Dalek, Jack's three days dead plus resurrection from End of Days and now Ten with the Killer Angels. Boys, boys, you just prove that no one is more obsessed with the imagery than an ex.
Anyway, from the moment we found out the Spaceship Titanic's crew had no idea what the name signified it was obvious the owner was behind it all, joining the long queue of Evil Capitalist Villains on DW (more recent entries would be Henry Van Statten and John Lumos), but that wasn't the point. The special both used the disaster movie formula and got some good unexpected twists in. For example, in both disaster movies and RTD scripts in general, the rules are that the rich bastard(s) bite the dust (or end up in unpleasant circumstances, or have a Scrooge-like Epiphany) while the nice salt of the earth working class characters survive and thrive. So the death of the nice couple and the survival of the rich bastard (minus epiphany and unpleasant circumstances, on the contrary, he is richer than before!) was a real surprise. Astrid's death was and wasn't; from the moment she asked the Doctor to travel with him, and he said yes, it was obvious something had to happen to prevent this, since we all know Kylie didn't sign on for season 4. But I thought the reason why Astrid would not go with the Doctor in the end would have something to do with her name (it's an anagram of "TARDIS" and in book & audio canon, there is a character who is basically a more advanced TARDIS model in human form), so the fact she died was a surprise, then the Doctor remembered the teleport and I thought, ah, now he'll bring her back and we'll see her true shape, but no such thing. Stardust or no, this makes Astrid the first New Who Companion who genuinenly died (though of course there are Old Who precedents!), and it underscores how dangerous this existence is. As with the whole special, I liked Astrid but did not love her the way I do Martha and Donna. But I thought her big moment of heroism, defeating the villain of the hour, was well done, and the two potentially sappy kiss scenes were respectively cute and moving instead by the way they were presented, with the first balanced by the humour of her having to climb on the medical aid kit to kiss the tall Doctor (is DT that big or Kylie Minogue that small?), and the second by the fact he kisses her back when she's nearly immaterial and basically a ghost, an echo, as another character puts it. Which is Ten in a nutshell. (Except with the Master.) Give him someone who is doomed and sure to die, and he'll make the big emotional gesture; if it's someone he'll actually have to live with for a while, not so much.
In this special, everyone of the featured characters contributed to the saving of Earth and the few survivors on board, from the Midshipman (no redshirt he, again a breaking of the disaster movie rules!) to the red little Cyborg, and they all came across as individuals, which is one of the endearing things about DW one shot characters (except when Chris Chipnall is writing). I really liked that, and I enjoyed most of the gags:
- London isn't Sunnydale: makes complete sense that after the last two Christmases (Christmasi?), everyone would stay the hell away from the city for the holidays!
- except for the Queen and the news vendor. Now that's stoicism and the advantage of the stiff upper lip for you. The corgies and the slippers were to die for. Also, this makes me wonder: did Harold Saxon get his initial audience with the Queen before taking over the world?
- "...and they're at war with the Ham-ericans" - "No - well, not yet"; no, RTD still no fan (see also: Sound of Drums, Christmas Invasion, World War Three)
- "no, Christmas is about peace and... you know, forget it; this is exactly what Christmas is about!"
Possible foreshadowing: the Doctor references his (involuntary) time on Earth, back when he was Three and exiled by the Time Lords - and working for UNIT. (Which, btw, is presumably where he got the evacuation of Buckingham Palace code from.) Given the pictures of Martha in UNIT uniform that was making the rounds, methinks that's yet another indication the old organization will be back next season, and not just referenced but on screen. It also strengthens my hope we'll actually see one of the old UNIT characters.
And of course: "But if you could decide who lives and who dies, if you did decide, that would make you a monster." Though you can also see it as a summing up and looking back on the edge the Doctor is always living on. The irony is, his unwillingness to let people die can be as horrible as killing them (as in Family of Blood) - but the fact is he's equally capable of going in the other direction, being willing to even help the Daleks survive on the one in a million chance that they can change, in Evolution of the Daleks). And sometimes he does make the living/dying decision in favour of death, as with the Racnoss last Christmas, and the horrible thing is that you can't say it would be better if he hadn't. (Given, you know, the whole destruction of the human race alternative.) And sometimes he tries everything to keep one person alive, and that person chooses death instead, to win just once.
Big question the special leaves us with: given that Donna declined the invitation to travel with the Doctor the last time, and he now is back to his "no more Companions, it's too dangerous for them" attitude, what will make the two team up for season 4?
Speaking of which: nice trailer. DONNA! MARTHA! And... Romans?
RTD is still contending with JMS for the title of Self Declared Atheist TV Writer Most Fond of Religious Imagery. Someone should really make a clip show where G'Kar's flogging, walk complete with cross and near cruxificion compete with Nine's crucifixion pose from Dalek, Jack's three days dead plus resurrection from End of Days and now Ten with the Killer Angels. Boys, boys, you just prove that no one is more obsessed with the imagery than an ex.
Anyway, from the moment we found out the Spaceship Titanic's crew had no idea what the name signified it was obvious the owner was behind it all, joining the long queue of Evil Capitalist Villains on DW (more recent entries would be Henry Van Statten and John Lumos), but that wasn't the point. The special both used the disaster movie formula and got some good unexpected twists in. For example, in both disaster movies and RTD scripts in general, the rules are that the rich bastard(s) bite the dust (or end up in unpleasant circumstances, or have a Scrooge-like Epiphany) while the nice salt of the earth working class characters survive and thrive. So the death of the nice couple and the survival of the rich bastard (minus epiphany and unpleasant circumstances, on the contrary, he is richer than before!) was a real surprise. Astrid's death was and wasn't; from the moment she asked the Doctor to travel with him, and he said yes, it was obvious something had to happen to prevent this, since we all know Kylie didn't sign on for season 4. But I thought the reason why Astrid would not go with the Doctor in the end would have something to do with her name (it's an anagram of "TARDIS" and in book & audio canon, there is a character who is basically a more advanced TARDIS model in human form), so the fact she died was a surprise, then the Doctor remembered the teleport and I thought, ah, now he'll bring her back and we'll see her true shape, but no such thing. Stardust or no, this makes Astrid the first New Who Companion who genuinenly died (though of course there are Old Who precedents!), and it underscores how dangerous this existence is. As with the whole special, I liked Astrid but did not love her the way I do Martha and Donna. But I thought her big moment of heroism, defeating the villain of the hour, was well done, and the two potentially sappy kiss scenes were respectively cute and moving instead by the way they were presented, with the first balanced by the humour of her having to climb on the medical aid kit to kiss the tall Doctor (is DT that big or Kylie Minogue that small?), and the second by the fact he kisses her back when she's nearly immaterial and basically a ghost, an echo, as another character puts it. Which is Ten in a nutshell. (Except with the Master.) Give him someone who is doomed and sure to die, and he'll make the big emotional gesture; if it's someone he'll actually have to live with for a while, not so much.
In this special, everyone of the featured characters contributed to the saving of Earth and the few survivors on board, from the Midshipman (no redshirt he, again a breaking of the disaster movie rules!) to the red little Cyborg, and they all came across as individuals, which is one of the endearing things about DW one shot characters (except when Chris Chipnall is writing). I really liked that, and I enjoyed most of the gags:
- London isn't Sunnydale: makes complete sense that after the last two Christmases (Christmasi?), everyone would stay the hell away from the city for the holidays!
- except for the Queen and the news vendor. Now that's stoicism and the advantage of the stiff upper lip for you. The corgies and the slippers were to die for. Also, this makes me wonder: did Harold Saxon get his initial audience with the Queen before taking over the world?
- "...and they're at war with the Ham-ericans" - "No - well, not yet"; no, RTD still no fan (see also: Sound of Drums, Christmas Invasion, World War Three)
- "no, Christmas is about peace and... you know, forget it; this is exactly what Christmas is about!"
Possible foreshadowing: the Doctor references his (involuntary) time on Earth, back when he was Three and exiled by the Time Lords - and working for UNIT. (Which, btw, is presumably where he got the evacuation of Buckingham Palace code from.) Given the pictures of Martha in UNIT uniform that was making the rounds, methinks that's yet another indication the old organization will be back next season, and not just referenced but on screen. It also strengthens my hope we'll actually see one of the old UNIT characters.
And of course: "But if you could decide who lives and who dies, if you did decide, that would make you a monster." Though you can also see it as a summing up and looking back on the edge the Doctor is always living on. The irony is, his unwillingness to let people die can be as horrible as killing them (as in Family of Blood) - but the fact is he's equally capable of going in the other direction, being willing to even help the Daleks survive on the one in a million chance that they can change, in Evolution of the Daleks). And sometimes he does make the living/dying decision in favour of death, as with the Racnoss last Christmas, and the horrible thing is that you can't say it would be better if he hadn't. (Given, you know, the whole destruction of the human race alternative.) And sometimes he tries everything to keep one person alive, and that person chooses death instead, to win just once.
Big question the special leaves us with: given that Donna declined the invitation to travel with the Doctor the last time, and he now is back to his "no more Companions, it's too dangerous for them" attitude, what will make the two team up for season 4?
Speaking of which: nice trailer. DONNA! MARTHA! And... Romans?