Voyage of The Damned (Doctor Who) - Synopsis

Synopsis

The episode opens immediately following the events of "Time Crash", with the bow of the Titanic crashing into the TARDIS. The Doctor manages to reverse time and repair the damage before landing the TARDIS on the ship. He discovers it's not the famed RMS Titanic, but instead is a starliner hailing from the planet Sto.

The Titanic is orbiting present day Earth to observe the traditions of primitive cultures, specifically Christmas. The Doctor dons a tuxedo and joins the reception on board, meeting waitress Astrid Peth. The Doctor convinces Astrid to join him on a brief excursion to the surface of Earth. They are accompanied by married couple Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, a Zocci named Bannakaffalatta, and historian and guide Mr. Copper. While on Earth the Doctor notes that London is seems abandoned, and questions a man in a newspaper stand about it. The man, Wilfred Mott, tells the Doctor that most people have left London because of the previous two years of alien activity in London on Christmas.

Back on the Titanic, Captain Hardaker dismisses the ship's officers from the bridge. Citing regulations, Midshipman Alonso Frame remains on the bridge. After the group returns from their excursion, Hardaker drops the vessel's protective shielding and magnetises the hull. This causes nearby meteors to be pulled toward the ship on a collision course. Midshipman Frame attempts to reactivate the shields but is shot by Hardaker as the meteors collide with the ship. The collision kills most of the 2,000 passengers and staff on board and causes the vessel to begin plunging toward the Earth. The Doctor makes contact with the wounded Midshipman Frame, who stabilises and maintains the power from the damaged engines.

The Doctor and the rest of the excursion party attempt to reach the bridge but are repeatedly attacked by the ship's Angel Hosts, androids resembling angels who were programmed to supply information. Morvin falls off of a ledge into the ship's engine, and the rest of the group are surrounded by Angel Hosts. Bannakaffalatta reveals that he is a cyborg, and uses his internal EMP device to disable the Hosts. The EMP burst drains the Zocci's power cells and he dies. Mr. Copper takes the EMP device in the hopes that it can be recharged and used again. A lone Angel Host attacks them again, and Foon ties herself to it and throws them both into the ship's engine. The Doctor separates from the rest and attempts to reach Deck 31, where he hopes to find the controls for the Angel Hosts. He convinces the Hosts that he is a stowaway and the confused androids take him to see their operator, Max Capricorn. Max explains that he planned the Titanic's inevitable collision with Earth to bankrupt the company that voted him out. To save the Doctor, Astrid uses a forklift to ram Max Capricorn and push him into the ship's engine. The forklift falls on top of him, seemingly killing Astrid as well.

With the Angel Hosts' help, the Doctor quickly reaches the bridge. Together with Midshipman Frame, he uses the heat from the entry into the Earth's atmosphere to restart the ship's auxiliary engines. The ship stabilises and narrowly avoids a collision with Buckingham Palace. The Doctor then realizes that Astrid was wearing a teleport bracelet when she fell into the engine. In an emergency, the teleport bracelets were programmed to hold a person's molecular pattern in stasis until it can be recovered. The Doctor frantically attempts to retrieve Astrid'a pattern, but the machine is too badly damaged. The Doctor reluctantly allows the ghostly remains of Astrid'a atoms to dissipate into space. The Doctor and Mr. Copper teleport to Earth and find that the TARDIS landed unharmed. An estatic Mr. Copper is left to live on Earth with a credit card he preloaded.