Voyage of the Damned

“I’m The Doctor.  I’m A Time Lord.   I’m from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous.  I’m nine hundred and three years old and I’m the man who’s going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below.  You have a problem with that?”

The Doctor is finishing off some repairs to the Tardis when without warning what appears to be the prow of an old fashioned cruise liner penetrates one wall of the Tardis.  Amongst the debris is a lifebelt which identifies the ship as the RMS TITANIC! 
Repairing the damage to the Tardis The Doctor materialises aboard the Titanic where he finds that a Christmas party is taking place.  Strolling to a window he looks out and sees…the Earth below.

Once in orbit above the Earth the captain of the Titanic allows the rest of his bridge crew the night off.   They all leave except for a young midshipman called Frame who reminds him that the regulations state that the bridge must always be manned by two officers.

The Doctor has joined the party and is mingling amongst the crew and guests. He finds a telecast screen that tells him that the ship is one of the fleet of Max Capricorn Cruise Liners.  He finds out from the robot Hosts that the cruise originated from the planet STOW and that the purpose of the voyage is to observe ‘primitive’ cultures.  The robot Host then seems to suffer some form of malfunction and is taken away by crew members.  It appears to not be the first Host to suffer such a breakdown although the reason for the breakdowns is unclear.

At the party one of the guests has bumped into a waitress causing her to spill her drinks over him and drop her tray.  The Doctor goes over to help her pick up the broken glass.  She tells him her name is Astrid Peth and she had joined the cruise liner to see what space travel was like and for the possibility of visiting other worlds.

A large couple are sat at a table, trying hard to ignore the laughter of others as they tuck into the buffet.  They are Morvin and Foon Van Hoff who had won their tickets in a competition.  They are determined to make the most of everything the ship has to offer and can’t wait to get the chance to go down to Earth.   The Doctor uses his psychic paper to convince the ships’ historian that he has shore leave tickets and takes a teleport bracelet for himself and for Astrid.  The historian, Mr Copper, seems to have a shaky grasp of Earth history and especially of Christmas traditions.

Amongst the party going to Earth is a small red spiky faced alien called Bannakaffalatta and as The Doctor is trying to explain to Mr Copper about how much panic his arrival on a packed Christmas Eve shopping night would cause they are transported down to London…where the streets are deserted!   Astrid is amazed and enthralled to be on another world full of alien shops and alien smells, The Doctor is worried by the emptiness.  They find a lone news seller who tells them that after the last couple of years people had decided that London wasn’t a safe place to be at Christmas. 

Midshipman Frame sees a power fluctuation on Deck 31 and a meteor storm on his radar.  The Captain tells him that neither of them are anything to worry about, but Frame is not convinced.  He sees the meteor storm change course and start heading directly for the ship.  As he goes to put the shields up he sees that the Captain has magnetised the hull attracting the meteors.  The captain is a sick old man who has been paid a lot of money to destroy the ship. He shoots Frame and then sets the ship on its destructive path.

Unaware of the potential danger the party continues and The Doctor takes advantage of this to slip away and hack into the ships systems.  He sees both the oncoming meteor storm and the fact that the ship has no shields and tries to warn the captain only to be dragged away by members of the crew.  He briefly escapes and grabs the band’s microphone warning the passengers of the upcoming danger but once again he is silenced and dragged away.  Several of the passengers follow him, including the Von Hoff’s, Astrid and Bannakaffalatta. Along the way Mr Copper and the man who Astrid spilt the drink over, Rickston Slade, join the Doctor, demanding to know what is going on.

The meteors hit the ship causing massive devastation and huge loss of life.

The Doctor and his group are deep within the ship when the meteors strike and survive the initial impact.  The Chief Steward opens a door to go and investigate what caused the crash and is sucked into space.  Having repaired the damage caused by the Steward The Doctor plans to use the Tardis to help them all escape until he sees it floating freely in space before locking onto the gravitational pull of the Earth and disappearing.
Making contact with the bridge the Doctor discovers that the engines are shutting down and he knows that if that happens the ship will fall from orbit and plummet to Earth.  The resultant nuclear explosion from the engines would wipe out all life on the planet.  He gives Frame a way to keep the engines running and then tells his group that it is up to them to save the Titanic.

They start to climb through the ship until they reach a narrow staircase blocked with rubble.  Clearing the rubble they find a damaged Host which The Doctor thinks could be used to help them get to the bridge, if it can be fixed.   The Van Hoff’s get to work on fixing the Host, whilst Astrid and Bannakaffalatta force their way through a small gap to try and clear the debris from the other side.  In doing so Bannakaffalatta becomes exhausted and when Astrid goes to help him she discovers that he is in fact a cyborg.

On the bridge Frame is contacted by a group of staff trapped by damaged doors in the kitchen.  He can’t help them from where he is and it seems they will stay trapped until the door is opened by Hosts.  Frame then watches and listens in horror as the Hosts turn on the kitchen staff killing them all.  He gets a message to The Doctor about the Hosts just as the Van Hoff’s get the one they found working.  It immediately tries to kill Morvin and it is with some difficulty that they all eventually escape through the small gap in the rubble.  Before the Host is finally destroyed The Doctor learns that it is being controlled from Deck 31.

Continuing on through the ship they come to what would have been a large room above the engines.  The floor has been destroyed except for one beam which is now their only escape route.  Morvin is worried that the beam won’t take his and Foon’s weight and steps closer to the edge to have a better look.  The edge gives way and Morvin plunges into the engines to his death.  Although the group are all shocked by his death they are spurred into action by the arrival of the Hosts. They have to get across the beam.  Rickston goes first but when he reaches the far side he discovers that the door is locked and he needs the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver to open it.

The Doctor sends the others across the beam and then tries to convince Foon to come as well.  She is lost without Morvin and with the Hosts threatening to break through the Doctor has no choice but to leave her and join the others on the beam.  The Hosts have the ability to fly and begin an attack on the stranded group who defend themselves with whatever they can find.   Eventually Bannakaffalatta uses his cyborg EMP transmitter to disable all the Hosts. However this action drains him of power and he dies having just reached safety. Mr Copper takes the EMP transmitter knowing that if it can be recharged then it can be used to defeat the Hosts.

One of the Hosts survived the EMP pulse and using a loophole in its programming The Doctor discovers that the destruction of the Titanic and the murder of the population of the earth are all part of ‘the plan’.  As the Host is about to attack The Doctor Foon ties the Hosts arms with rope and throws herself off the beam taking the Host with her.

Safe once again The Doctor organises the three remaining survivors.  He gives Rickston his sonic screwdriver preset to allow him to open the doors and shows Astrid how to recharge and use the EMP transmitter.  He tells her that he is going to Deck 31.  She asks him if, when this is all over, she can travel with him and he agrees.  They kiss for luck and go their separate ways.
 On his way to Deck 31 The Doctor is cornered by several Hosts.  Using the security protocol override he manages to convince the Hosts that because he isn’t a member of the crew or a passenger they can’t kill him and that they should in fact take him to their leader.  On Deck 31 he discovers an Impact Chamber which would protect anything inside it from the destruction of The Titanic.  Inside the chamber is Max Capricorn who is a cyborg and reliant on a movable life support machine.  He tells The Doctor that he is no longer in charge of the company having been voted off by his own board and his plan is survive the destruction and retire in luxury whilst his company is destroyed and the board thrown in jail.
Tired of toying with The Doctor he cancels the engines and orders the Hosts to kill The Doctor

Astrid convinces Frame to divert enough power to the teleport system to allow her one trip to help The Doctor on Deck 31 where she overhears Max Capricorn’s plans and takes the opportunity to stop him by pushing his life support machine over the edge of the deck and into the engines.  The Hosts in trying to protect their leader manage to cut the brake cable on the truck Astrid is driving and with The Doctor captured by the Hosts and powerless to act he can do little more than watch as Astrid and Max Capricorn both plunge to their deaths.

With Capricorn now dead the Hosts respond to The Doctors’ orders and fly him through the ruined ship breaking through the floor of the bridge to finally come to the rescue of Midshipman Frame.  The Titanic is now falling to Earth; its final destination seems to be Buckingham Palace!  However using the heat of re-entry to fire up the secondary engines The Doctor manages to pull the Titanic up enough to save London…again!

The Titanic is now once more in a stable orbit above the Earth when The Doctor remembers Astrid had been wearing a teleport bracelet.  Rushing to the main dining room he tries using the emergency settings on the teleport to revive her but the system is too badly damaged and all he can do is allow the stardust particles of Astrid’s being to float freely throughout the universe.

With help now on the way Rickston is back to making deals happy in the knowledge that selling his shares in Max Capricorn cruise liners just before the crash has made him a very wealthy man.  The Doctor and Mr Copper quietly teleport themselves to Earth where on discovering that his company credit card means that he is a wealthy man, Mr Copper goes off to have the kind of life he had always dreamt of.  The Doctor once more alone enters the Tardis and vanishes.

Written by Deryn Corner