Absolutely brilliant

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Create a world out of near-boundless imagination, fuse real history with fantasy quite seamlessly; make it wacky, silly and ridiculous; add in an impending disaster that takes the lives of people we really care about in an entirely serious and moving manner; make sure you've got actors who do their work with utter conviction; and what have you got? The greatest of all time "Christmas Episode" of Dr Who, that's what.One (most especially, but not only, a British "one") could watch this ten times and still not get all the jokes, or pick up all the allusions; still not fully appreciate the wonder that allows us to move from absurdity to sadness, to comedy, to pithy social comment, to an appreciative recognition of meaningful moments of history, all with utter ease.In short, a cosmos-roaming version of the Titanic - which pays considerable tribute to its original model - is sabotaged and is going down fast, not of course to the sea bottom, but towards Earth, and most especially to a very well-known bit of central London. Every ship-based disaster movie you've ever seen is pastiched here, yet also honoured, with the typical motley crew of survivors trying to get through the vessel to some kind of safety.Seen it before? Not like this you haven't. It's brilliant, witty, yet with a surprisingly high body count among people who skilfully establish themselves as major, multifaceted (and mostly very sympathetic) characters through 5-10 lines of dialogue each. It's truly miraculous how it's all squeezed in, in a storyline that has a great many threads and yet hangs together brilliantly and in a way that offers full satisfaction in just 72 minutes.The establishment of David Tennant's Doctor as a particular kind of superhero (even a "John Wayne of the stars") is complete here, but as ever the greatest episodes of this series are made so by the supporting cast. Here Kylie Minogue does well (without even having to try too hard) as one-off companion Astrid Peth, but there are greater stars even than her, with Clive Swift giving some kind of performance of his life as "Mr Copper" (haters of "Keeping Up Appearances" may now be inclined to forgive all, as did I). Jimmy Vee is great as Bannakaffalatta, but Debbie Chazen and Clive Rowe come over marvellously as the Van Hoff couple. In each case a key message subtle but clear to be picked up by viewers young and old, is that a randomly-selected group of people can gel into a mutually-supporting team with a surprising array of special skills, notwithstanding the (flawed) conviction of pathetic ineffectuality and underachievement they may harbour individually. This may be the episode's most powerful take-home message, but there are a great many more - all worthwhile, and none rammed down our throats in any way at all - this is the least syrupy, least preachy and most worthwhile TV Christmas episode we have seen in a long while.Among the ship's crew - and hence perhaps of secondary importance - we also get fine cameos from accomplished actors Geoffrey Palmer and Andrew Havill, as well as a role that holds the whole thing together from Russell Tovey, as Mr Midshipman Alonso Frame.It's tremendous fun, but also leaves a lasting impression that it has all meant something (this is all the more reinforced by a simply stupendous follow-up in this series's 11th Episode "Turn Left") To sum up, brilliance, brilliance and more brilliance.

The 2007 Christmas Special had to get it right. After the 2006 offering "The Runaway Bride" went for half-hearted comedy it was necessary to give a festive outing that would keep viewers interested. It's a shame it had to resort to the 'stunt casting' of Kylie Minogue but that did draw in a crowd and helped make the episode the most viewed episode in the history of the show, not even "The Day Of The Doctor" outperforms it on ratings. Minogue swiftly reminds us though that her previous acting experience is limited solely to soaps and she seems to be phoning it in. Credit is due to David Tennant as the 10th Doctor for supporting her helping her look like a better actress than she actually is but her performance doesn't hold up to closer scrutiny as you realise she's merely on screen with the amazing Mr Tennant.RTD had to redeem himself with his script after a so-so series finale (Remember the bit with Dobby the House-Elf Doctor ??) prior to this episode and he just about manages it with a story about the Titanic threatening to crash and burn destroying Earth. It's a clever idea and makes for a unique experience but it's not too long before the whole thing becomes an extended obstacle course which is disappointing. Still, the Heavenly Host of killer angels make for one of NuWho's more deadly villains and create most of the sense of dread throughout the story.The supporting characters are not particularly interesting either. RTD seems to think that they all need some sort of back story but none of the characters are fleshed out enough to make us care. The same is true of the villain Max Capricorn with his plot being hard to truly buy into as a credible motivation for his actions (Complete with a plot-hole: Why not choose a planet closer than Earth? Why travel so far from home?). His character gives us some overacting, as with many Sci-Fi villains, but it's another opportunity for David Tennant to support his costars with his own incredible performance.To conclude: Average episode, 'meh' script, uninteresting supporting cast, worthy of 5/10. To be fair though, David Tennant is wonderful here and this may not be the best 10th Doctor story but it is one of Tennant's best performances and raises the score to 6/10 instead.Also, Bernard Cribbens makes his debut as Wilfred Mott ahead of his recurring status in series four. So that's good. Bernard Cribbens makes everything better.

It's time once again for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, in this one The Doctor, recently companion-less, finds himself inboards the Titanic, an interstellar cruiser orbiting Earth to observe how they celebrate Christmas (which in London isn't festively on account of the previous years' fiascoes) The Doctor also must deal with the Titanic 'crashing' into asteroids.Pretty much "the Posieden Andventure" set in space with killer robots. This was a little bit of fun fluff, nothing that substantial to think about. The one strike this special has going against it is Kylie Minogue, who can't act her way out of a plastic bag. The other thing going against it is seldom lapses into cheap sappy sentimentality. Neither of those totally ruins the episode, but they do keep it from being on the same caliber as "The Christmas Invasion" My Grade: C+

These holiday specials can be pretty over the top, this one not so much. I know it was widely viewed by a captive holiday audience in Britain. By the time they air in the states, these eps have usually had all the fun bits edited out of them to accommodate ads. It rendered this particular ep choppy, confusing, and messing up what was a mess already. So you get to see Kylie Minogue in a French maid's getup. I guess it beats waiting for her to wear same in one of her videos. The whole affair left me cold, but I have great hopes for the Tate logs. She's abrasive, sure, but the doe-eyed girlie thing has pretty much run it's course. Viva Who!