Series 4 (2008)
Episode title: Voyage of the DamnedFeaturing: Tenth Doctor
Companions: Astrid Peth
First shown: 25th December 2007
Related articles: Max Capricorn, Hosts
Guide: As the TARDIS shakes, the lifebelt with the name "Titanic" lands at the Doctor's feet, stunning the Doctor momentarily before he rectifies the problem by pushing a few buttons on the TARDIS console to repair the walls of the TARDIS and pushing the ship out, before making the TARDIS materialise on board the ship itself. The Doctor discovers that it isn't the cruise liner Titanic from 1912, but a spaceship cruiser of the same name and modelled after the Earth equivalent that is orbiting Earth to observe the cultures of primitive beings, namely Christmas, as the spaceship orbits round on Christmas Eve. The Doctor decides to stow away to enjoy the party celebrations, revealing his status only to the waitress, Astrid Peth. Astrid has a desire to travel to stars, hence why she chose to work on the spaceship cruiser, but she has found the job disappointing as she isn't allowed off the ship to visit destination planets, though the Doctor cheers her up by sneaking her onto an excursion to London, organised by the historian and guide, Mr. Cooper. Mr. Cooper takes a group comprising of himself, the Doctor, Astrid, the couple Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, and a small, red-skinned alien named Bannakaffalatta. On Earth however, following the alien attacks in The Christmas Invasion (2005 Christmas Special) and The Runaway Bride (2006 Christmas Special), most of London has fled to spend Christmas elsewhere, with only a few notable people remaining, including Wilfred Mott and Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Cooper, despite claiming to be an expert on the ways of Earth, gives a very inaccurate description of Earth to the excursion party, though the Doctor doesn't make any comment.
The party return to the spaceship cruiser due to a power failure in the teleports system. The Doctor decides to find out what caused it and discovers that the shields are offline with meteors approaching the ship. The Doctor tries to warn the Captain and the guests but is forcibly removed, though some believe him and attempt to help him. Meanwhile, Midshipman Alonso Frame struggles to get the shields back online after remaining on the bridge after the Captain ordered everyone to remove themselves, citing regulations that he should stay. However, the Captain non-fatally shoots Alonso before he can get the shields back online and the three meteors crash into the side of the ship, killing the Captain, and most of the crew and passengers. The TARDIS is left to float through space after falling out of the storage hold it materialised in previously, before homing in and landing on Earth, while the engines of the Titanic lose power, and heading for an extinction-level collision course with Earth. The Doctor makes contact with Alonso, and leads a small group of survivors through the vessel of the ship to try and reach him. Along the way, the groups progress is hindered by the Host's, android servants who's purposes have become to kill any remaining survivors of the incident and repeatedly attempt to kill the Doctor and his group, with the Sonic Screwdriver proving useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals that he is actually a cyborg, something considered shameful in the society of Sto, the planet from which the spaceship had come from, but he uses his cybernetic implants to transmit an electromagnetic pulse and destroy the Host. During the attack however, Morvin falls into the nuclear engines that they were about to cross over, and Foon commits suicide, jumping in after him and taking one of the surviving Host with her.
The remaining people take Bannakaffalatta's EMP unit with them as a weapon against the Host. The Doctor sends the group onwards without him, as he intends to travel to Deck 31 and find out what is controlling the Host. On his way, he finds three Host, and initiates a security protocol that results in them taking him to their leader, Max Capricorn. The Doctor meets Max, who himself is a cybernetic being resembling a small wheeled machine. Max tells the Doctor how he was forced out of the company by the board of directors, mainly due to their prejudice against cyborgs, and intends to seek revenge by causing the Titanic to crash onto Earth, resulting in the board of directors being charged with mass murder and break the company completely. The Doctor, outnumbered by Host prepares to face his death when Astrid arrives, hijacking a fork-lift truck and announcing her resignation from the company, drives into Max, forcing him off a precipice into the fiery engine of the ship. Unfortunately, Astrid also falls into the engines and both her and Max are killed. With Max dead, the Host defer to the next highest authority, the Doctor, who orders he be taken to the bridge as the ship enters the Earth's atmosphere. Working with Alonso, the Doctor uses the heat from the entry to the planet to kick start the ship's auxiliary engines, though he realises that the ship is likely to crash on Buckingham Palace, one of the few places in London currently inhabited. With a phone call, the Doctor manages to evacuate the palace, but just before the spaceship collides with the building it pulls up, now back under control as the Queen is heard thanking the Doctor as he pilots the ship back into space.
After securing the ships position in space, the Doctor rushes back to the main room to try and rescue Astrid, realising that she was wearing a teleportation bracelet, which has security protocols protecting the wearers should they enter any trouble by automatically holding in stasis the molecules of the affected wearer. The Doctor tries to bring Astrid back as her pattern should still be stored in its buffers, but because of the damage done to the systems, only a shadow of Astrid is able to be restored. After a farewell, she dissolves into atoms that float free into space, where she can live her dream of exploring the universe forever. Sadly, the Doctor teleports back to Earth with Mr. Cooper, who reveals that he was actually a former salesman who lied his way onto the spaceship to travel the stars and wasn't ever an expert of Earth at all. Mr. Cooper asks the Doctor if he can travel with him, but the Doctor declines his request, instead leaving him on Earth to build a new life with one of the spaceships credit cards containing a million pounds, intending to buy gifts on the previous excursion. Mr. Cooper leaves to start his life as the Doctor, alone, departs in the TARDIS.