Every Doctor Who Christmas Special Ranked From Worst To Best

Voyage Of The Damned is Doctor Who's attempt at a disaster movie, and as such, it takes many of the genre's tropes and gives them a sci-fi spin. There's a ticking clock (space-Titanic will soon collide with the Earth) cannon-fodder characters (some alien, some human), and, of course, a sequence set in an elevator shaft.

It's incredibly campy, fun, and silly; the episode's sub-villains are angels that use their halos as death frisbees, and if Max Capricorn had arms, he'd absolutely be twirling his moustache. On the downside, sometimes it goes too far and ventures into cringey territory: the shot of a po-faced Doctor being lifted into the air by two angels is so on the nose that it's embarrassing. Kylie Minogue also doesn't help, delivering a wooden, unconvincing performance that drags the episode down.

The plot is also thinner than a corn flake, and occasionally makes the Doctor a bumbling idiot just to keep things moving - at one point, he starts randomly yelling out numbers to try and save his life, and later, accidentally uses up two of his three questions all because he can't calm down and focus. Both moments feel uncharacteristically not clever, almost like the script had to make him a little dumber so he'd fit within its B-movie tone.

Ultimately, Voyage Of The Damned is a loud, silly episode without much substance, but its charming characters and fast-paced action give it plenty of merit.