Voyage of the Damned

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED

EPISODE: 192
AIR DATE: Decmber 25, 2007
VILLIANS: Max Capricorn, Heavenly Hosts, Capt. Hardaker
MONSTERS/ALIENS: Bannakaffalatta, The Host
OTHER CHARACTERS: Astrid Peth, Mr. Copper, Rickston Slade, Midshipman Alonzo Frame, Foon Van Hoff, Morvin Van Hoff, and Wilfred Mott
LOCATION: London, 2008, Titanic
PLOT:

The bow of a ship crashes through the wall of the Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor is momentarily stunned, especially after learning the ship is the Titanic. Pressing some buttons, he repairs the TARDIS walls, pushing the ship out. The TARDIS then materialises aboard the ship. The Doctor soon learns the Titanic is a large luxury spaceship cruiser from the planet Sto, orbiting Earth and finds out the date: Christmas Eve. He decides to stow away to enjoy the party, only confessing his unauthorized status to lively waitress Astrid Peth, who reveals her own desire to travel the stars.

The Titanic's replica
Astrid has found her new job disappointing, as she is not allowed off the ship to visit destination planets. The Doctor cheers her up by sneaking her onto an excursion to London via teleport, along with Morvin and Foon Van Hoff and a small red-skinned alien, Bannakaffalatta. Following alien attacks on London on the previous two Christmases, however, London is deserted apart from the Queen, Nicholas Witchell, and newspaper seller Wilfred Mott. The rest of the population has decided to spend Christmas in the countryside. Ship's historian and guide Mr. Copper gives the excursion party a bizarrely inaccurate explanation of human society, especially Christmas, despite the fact that he claims to be an expert on the planet.

The Main Room of the Titanic
The party returns to the ship because of a power failure in the teleports system. The Doctor attempts to find out what caused it, and discovers that the shields are offline with meteors approaching. The Doctor warns the Captain of the ship, but is forced away from the computer by a Steward, as he is unauthorised to use the system. The Doctor breaks free and tries to warn everyone, but is forcibly taken away from the singer's microphone and taken away from the main party. The Doctor gasps to a guest to look out of the window. He sees the meteors and finds out the shields are off. He tries to tell the staff, but they will not listen, so he follows the Doctor. Also trying to help the Doctor now are Astrid, Foon and Morvin Ban Hoff. Midshipman Frame tries to get the shields back online, but is (non-fatally) shot by the Captain. Three meteors slam into the side of the Starship Titanic.

The Captain is killed in the resulting collision, as are the bulk of the crew and passengers. The Titanic's hull holed in several places, and the TARDIS is left drifting in space before automatically homing in for a landing on Earth. With the teleport system offline and the engines losing power, the Titanic is heading for an extinction-level collision with the Earth. The Doctor makes contact with the injured Midshipman Frame, and leads a small group of survivors in a climb through the shattered vessel to reach him.

Complicating matters are the Host, android servitors that were seen malfunctioning earlier. Now their sole function is to kill the survivors scattered throughout he ship. The Doctor's party is harassed by Host all the way, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver proves to be useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals to Astrid that he is actually a cyborg, something considered shameful in the society on Sto. Bravely, he saves the party from a Host attack by transmitting an electromagnetic pulse from his cybernetic implants, killing himself in the process. The Van Hoffs also die during this attack: Morvin falls from the ledge into the nuclear engines, while Foon commits suicide while pulling a surviving Host down with her. At this, the Doctor makes a grim promise that "no more" will die. The survivors take Bannakaffalatta's EMP unit with them as their only effective weapon against the Host.

The Doctor sends the remaining survivors, including Astrid, on ahead with the EMP unit and the sonic screwdriver, while he attempts to reach Deck 31, the place from which the Host seem to be controlled. Using a security protocol, he convinces the Host to take them to their leader. This turns out to be the cruise line's owner, Max Capricorn, who is hiding in an indestructible "impact chamber" on Deck 31. Capricorn is also revealed to be a cyborg, resembling a small wheeled vehicle. Having been forced out by the company's board of directors (due to their prejudice against cyborgs), he is seeking revenge. The collision of the Titanic into a heavily-populated world will not only break the company, but see the board charged with murder, giving Capricorn his ultimate revenge. Outnumbered by Host and faced with death, the Doctor is saved by Astrid, who has made a short range teleport to his position. She rams Capricorn with a fork-lift truck, and in the struggle both are forced off a precipice and fall into the fiery engine of the ship.
With the Host no longer under Capricorn's control, the Doctor grimly makes his way to the bridge just as the ship plunges into Earth's atmosphere. Working with Frame, he uses the heat from the re-entry to try to re-start the ship's engines, but discovers that they are headed straight for one of the few places in London currently inhabited: Buckingham Palace. Calling through with a security code, he manages to get the Queen out of the building, which the Titanic narrowly misses as the ship pulls up, now back under control. The Queen, in her dressing gown, is heard thanking the Doctor as he pilots the ship back into space.

With the danger over, the Doctor suddenly realises that there might be hope for Astrid after all. A safety feature of the ship's teleport system is that in case of accident, it automatically holds in stasis the molecules of the affected passenger. As she was wearing a teleport bracelet at the time of her death, her pattern might still be stored in its buffers. Despite desperate efforts, only a shadow of Astrid can be generated due to extensive damage to the teleport system. The Doctor watches her dissipate into motes of light that float free into space. This way, she can at least fulfill her dream of exploring the universe, forever.

Sadly, the Doctor teleports back to earth with Mr Copper, who is no expert on Earth, but a former salesman who lied his way onto the ship to explore the stars. Impressed by his heroism on the Titanic, the Doctor leaves him on the planet to build a new life, with the ship's expenses card, which contains £1,000,000. The Doctor then heads off in the TARDIS, alone.

New Smilies......

I have upgraded my smilies on my c-box...check them out they are all DW related...hopefully it will make it a bit more fun for everyone to chat on there wiether it be to me or eachother...have some fun!! I am...lmao!!!

Site Info.....

While there is not as much info and the news in the whoniverse has been slow I will be doing my best to work on my coming soon links/info as well as updating my site. This is going to take a while but I will let everyone know when there has been changes made so as to make it easy for everyone who enjoys this site. Even though I will be busy doing all of this , do not fret, I will still be keeping up with the news, info and what nots of Doctor Who; Torchwood; and Sarah Jane Adventures......If anyone has any ideas, comments, news, or suggestions please let me know!!! I am open to them!!

TY

Jennie AKA JMCTIMELORD (OWNER)

2008 Comic Con San Diego.......

The San Diego Comic Con had a few guest everyone may know and recognize! Julie Gardner(Exec Producer of Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Sara Jane Adventures), Steven Moffet (New Head Writer for Doctor Who starting in 2010), John Barrowman (Capt. Jack Harkness), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), and Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato).



Here are a few pics from the convention of the Torchwood Panel thanks to Anna Altheide: (click to view larger image)























Here is the 1st 1/2 of the interview of the Torchwood Panel, once I find the 2nd part I will add it on to here:



Here is the Doctor Who Panel Interview with Julie Gardner and Steven Moffet:



Steven Moffat, who is set to take over the job of executive producer of the BBC's Doctor Who from current show runner Russell T. Davies, told SCI FI Wire that he is currently planning the fifth season of the new incarnation, due to air in 2010 following a series of five specials next year.

"It's all happening in this head," Moffat said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 23. "I know where I want it to start. I don't mean to make it sound very grand. It's very simple, just where I want it to be when it takes off. So [Russell's] arranged for that." Moffat, who has written some of the most popular episodes of the new series so far, said that his new role as executive producer will require him to approach writing from an entirely different perspective. "There are a bunch of things I've always wanted to see in Doctor Who, yes, but now it's slightly different--it's very different in my new position," Moffat said. "Obviously, I only turned up once a year, and practically my brief was to write, in effect, the Moffat episode--the one that's very different, the one that's a bit timey-wimey or a bit scary. And that's all they were expecting. And they would just tell me, 'Go, and do your thing.' So I would do my Moffat-y thing--whatever the f--k that is--in a very, very pronounced way. But you couldn't have a whole series like that. If you started a series with 'Silence of the Library' or 'Blink,' people would turn off.

You can't have that as the first episode. It's just too grim. So it's different contemplating it from this position, very, very different." The series will also continue to embrace a wide range of tones and genres, Moffat said. Rather than adapting the show to his particular writing style, he looks forward to experimenting with different voices to maintain the show's variety. "That's not what the show's about," Moffat said. "Kids aren't rushing to their television sets to see how much of the Moffat voice will get through. All you can do is make exciting television episodes and experiment with different voices. I've quite deliberately and purposefully--it's not been an accident--had a very consistent voice in Doctor Who, because that enables Russell to manage me.

He knows what he's going to get. He knew it was going to be dark before [he] got it, because that's what he said it was. 'You'll be doing a dark one.' Whereas Russell in Doctor Who will write everything from 'Partners in Crime' to 'Midnight,' and those two have nothing in common as far as voice is concerned. It's two totally different takes on the same show. And that's quite exciting for me, too, because I get to write episodes that I wouldn't normally write, that wouldn't be expected of me." Moffat hopes that the long wait between seasons, punctuated by the specials, will make the audience more excited for its return. "Part of the reason behind the gap year was thinking, 'Starve them for a year. Make them want it back. Return it to event status.'"

2008 Christmas Special Trailer......

The Doctor Who panel at Comic-Con debuted a much longer version of the trailer for the upcoming Christmas special, which included some dialog and a few tantalizing hints. And new showrunner Steven Moffat and executive producer Julie Gardner gave a few more ideas about how the show may look when Moffat takes over full time in 2010. Among the interesting bits: why the Doctor's daughter didn't die, and whether River Song has met David Tennant before. Minor spoilers ahead.

In the longer version of the 2008 Christmas special trailer, we saw the Doctor asking a small boy what day it was. The little boy replies, with disarming specificity, that it's Christmas Eve 1851. And then Velile Tshabalala, playing temporary companion "Rosita," says that a "creature came out of the shadows, a man made of metal." And later we hear Rosita calling out for the Doctor. We also glimpse Dervla Kerwin's sinister Miss Hartigan, who's at a funeral when a man asks what manner of men these metal figures are. Miss Hartigan replies, "Cybermen," with obvious satisfaction. And then we see Miss Hartigan say "Merry Christmas" in a totally evil way.

Other exciting revelations at the Doctor Who and Torchwood panels:

• Moffat says his famous catch phrase "wibbly wobbly timey whimey" isn't a "get-out clause," because the time travel and manipulation still has to make sense in the story.
  
• There were very vague hints about Neil Gaiman writing for Moffat's Who. At his reading, Gaiman said it would be okay to mention to Moffat that it would be nice. And Moffat agreed that it would be nice.
  
• People kept asking John Barrowman if he'd read the end of the script for the season three finale, where it's revealed Captain Jack is the Face of Boe, and he hadn't read it yet. Finally, he did read it, and screamed and freaked out with glee.
  
• Moffat said you have to give the Doctor credit for "dumping a sligthly clingy girlfriend" by sticking her with a clone.
  
• Gardner and Moffat disagreed about whether to bring back Donna's kids at the end of "The Forest Of The Dead." Moffat didn't want to kill off kids in a kids' show, and Gardner thought it was a mistake to bring them back as River Song's kids at the end, because it would be confusing. But now Moffat's changed his mind and thinks it "was a loss of clarity and it makes no sense." Now, when he watches the episode he can't stand watching it after the moment where the TARDIS door closes. But Gardner has changed her mind too, and thinks it makes sense to keep the kids around.
  
• It's deliberately vague as to whether River Song recognizes the "essence of the Doctor" or specifically the David Tennant Doctor. But in Moffat's mind, she's met the Tennant Doctor before, and that's not the only Doctor she's met.
  
• Moffat thinks the "stunt value" of two Doctors meeting only lasts about eight minutes, and any plot just gets in the way of the wish fulfillment of seeing them chatting. He wouldn't do a longer story involving two Doctors, unless he had a way to get some energy from the fact that the same adventure was happening to this man at two different times in his life.
  
• Asked about bringing back random old characters from the classic show, Moffat said it's most important to tailor the show for the new eight-year-old viewers. "We're not in the business of doing nostalgia, we're makking nostalgia for the future."
  
• Also, asked whether his Who would be too frightening, he responded: "If your concern is that with me taking over Doctor Who, it's going to be really really frightening every week, then tough." (But Moffat also told Sci Fi Wire that we shouldn't expect all of his episodes to be the same as "Blink," because he'll have to vary his style more when he's overseeing a whole season.)
  
• The Doctor's daughter didn't die, as originally planned, because Moffat made an off-hand comment to Russell T. Davies that introducing the character and killing her in the same episode would be "what Star Trek would do."
  
• BBC America officially announced that it's picking up the third season of Torchwood to air in the U.S. And the new Torchwood season starts shooting soon. Davies is working on scripts for it right now.

Pegg Rules himself out.....

Simon Pegg has ruled out taking the lead role in Doctor Who, reports Wired.

The Hot Fuzz actor, who appeared in the sci-fi show as a guest star in 2005, admitted that he would not want to replace David Tennant for fear of ruining the series.

He said: "Being the Doctor? I don't think I'd do it for two reasons. One, I'm really loving doing movies. I'm really enjoying working in the US. Second, I really love Doctor Who and I'd hate to have to sit down every Saturday night and have it be me. "

"David's done such an incredible job, he's gonna be a tough act to follow. It would feel awful if I just went and balled up the franchise by just being rubbish."

Pegg's next film How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, in which he co-stars with Gillian Anderson and Megan Fox, is scheduled for release in the UK on October 3.

Moffet thinking Who will be Stressful??

Steven Moffat has confessed that working on Doctor Who will be a "stressful" experience.

Speaking to Coming Soon at the San Diego Comic Con, Moffat also discussed his excitement at taking over showrunning duties from Russell T. Davies.Moffat said: "Well, I suppose it's daunting, but I've run television shows before so that's alright. I always say I'm daunted but I'm not really. I'm just terribly excited. It's just such a fantastic job to have. It's a very exciting job so what's the point in wasting time stressing about it?"

"Of course it'll be stressful! Whatever I do next will be stressful. Doctor Who will probably be more stressful than anything else but it'll be more fun. And it's probably the biggest job in, certainly, British television. I think it is. It really is. So why waste time being frightened of it?"

Moffat was cagey when quizzed about speculation that Tom Baker would make a cameo appearance during his tenure and that Neil Gaiman would write an episode, giving a "no comment" response for both rumours.

2009 Specials: The Writer's.....

Russell T. Davies has revealed his co-writers for the forthcoming Doctor Who specials in 2009.

"I can confirm that after Christmas 2008 there are a total of four more specials to come before the Steven Moffat era begins in 2010," Davies told Doctor Who Magazine. "Two of next year's four will be written by me, One will be written by me and Gareth Roberts and one will be co-written by me and Phil Ford."

Roberts has previously written episodes 'The Shakespeare Code' and 'The Unicorn And The Wasp' for Doctor Who, in addition to co-writing 'Invasion Of The Bane' with Davies for The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Ford has never scripted an episode of Doctor Who before, but is responsible for 'The Eye Of The Gorgon' and 'The Lost Boy' for Sarah Jane and 'Something Borrowed' for Torchwood.

Agyeman chooses ITV over 'Torchwood'?

Torchwood's third season will not feature Freema Agyeman after she landed a role in an ITV drama, according to a report.

An article in The Sun states that Agyeman was "ditched" from the Doctor Who spinoff after signing up to ITV's UK version of Law & Order.

It was previously believed that she would reprise her role as medic Martha Jones in Torchwood's five-part mini-season following a stint in the show earlier in the year.

A source told the tabloid: "This has really mucked things about. We’ve had to go back and re-edit loads of scripts because she’s not going to be in it. "[ITV is] the Beeb's bitter rival, so the fact she's going over there to star in a big new project has not gone down well at all."

*Way to bite the hand that feeds you there Freema!!!

Vote for your favourite Doctor Who story!

What was YOUR favourite Doctor Who episode this year? Doctor Who Adventures wants to know!

In this week’s issue of Doctor Who Adventures you can vote for your favourite story from the latest series of Doctor Who.

Also, meet the Doctor’s secret army – and find out about the Children of Time in a fact file about the Doctor’s friends.

The issue comes with a FREE monster stationery set!

PLUS:

• Three brilliant posters: Rose and the TARDIS, Silence in the Library, Dalek Caan.
• Tales from the TARDIS: A trip to the Shadow Proclamation.
• Potato people: Jackie Tyler gets the spud treatment.
• Quiz: How much do you know about the Cybermen?
• Who’s where?: Find pieces of the Osterhagen Key aboard the Crucible!
• Secrets: Discover more about the Time Beetle on Donna’s back.
• Dalek designs: We announce the winner of our hugely popular design a brand-new Dalek competition.
• Doctor's Data: Peck the bubbling Hath.
• Comic strip: The Doctor and Donna arrive in London in the 1950s…
• Time Teasers: Scrambled Donna and Time Line!
• Wovenwordsearch!: Find the missing word and win a great Doctor Who CD.
• Win: Loads on offer!
• Subscription offer: Subscribe and you’ll get a FREE Doctor Who –Creatures and Demons book!
• Find out... How to become a Time Agent.
• ALL THIS AND LOTS MORE!

Doctor Who Adventures issue 74, priced £2.10, is out now!

Don’t miss it!