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The thrilling conclusion!

Impressions:

The part after Astrid’s death was just awful. Overblown, dramatic, and cheesy as all hell. Pretty much all of the rest was rather good though. The scene with Queen Elizabeth and her corgis scampering out of Buckingham (and then waving to the Titanic and thanking The Doctor) was priceless. British royalty is always good for a laugh and corgis are one of the best breeds of dogs to boot. Getting back on track… Max Capricorn was a pretty silly and petty villain for all that was going on, and his being beat by Astrid forklift was also kind of lame, especially since there was a small army of Hosts floating nearby. I also question how the Hosts defaulted to The Doctor as the highest authority on the ship only five minutes after he made the argument that he didn’t exist in their eyes. Oh well, as least it wasn’t a cellular psychic network. You’re never going to live that one down, Doctor.

I think this is probably my favorite of the three Christmas specials so far. The first one had entirely too much Rose and Mickey while The Doctor lay catatonic, and I didn’t care all that much for the end of the second one, though Donna grew on me through that a lot more than Astrid did here. Astrid just seemed to be a weak character all around. I guess they didn’t have much time to work with her before killing her off, but like I said before, I am really really tired of the female companions ready to drop their skirts at the blink of an eye for our time travelling protagonist.

It’ll be a while until Season 4 proper starts up (Spring I believe), but I’m really looking forward to Donna as his new companion. The Doctor could use a little more snarkiness and a lot fewer girlish sighs. Plus, there are giant bees and the Sontarans will make their grand return. It was a little weird to not see the Daleks or the Cybermen anywhere in the promo, but I’m sure at least one will make a token appearance somewhere. It also looks like they may be bringing bac Rani (an evil female Time Lord) after denying it previously. If they make her as crazy as Simm’s Master, then you’ll get no complaints from me.

Season 4 Promo

• The Host start breaking into the room, so the doctor sends everybody across. Foon refuses to move, but Rickston needs the sonic screwdriver to open the door, so The Doctor leaves her, saying that he’ll be back.
• The Host stop attacking, but then appear from above them and attack by throwing their halos. The group grabs debris to knock the halos away, but the Doctor and Mr Copper are injured.
• Bannakaffalatta tears open his shirt and uses all his energy to emit an EMP that sends the Host crashing to the ground or into the engine. His energy used up, he dies in Astrid’s arms.

• Copper removes Bannakaffalatta’s EMP device to use as a weapon against the Host (but it needs to be recharged).
• One of the Host recovers and attacks The Doctor. He starts yelling out random things to try to get it to stop. "Secuirty Protocal Override #1" makes it relent.
• He learns from it that they’re killing because they were ordered to leave no witnesses, but after it answers three questions, it starts attacking him again.
• Foon appears behind it, ties herself to it, and then jumps into the engine, dragging both to their deaths.
• They come to another junction, charge the EMP device and decide to split up. The Doctor will head for deck 31 while the rest try to escape.
• Astrid asks The Doctor if she can travel with him, and he accepts.

• The Doctor hands his sonic screwdriver to Rickston and Astrid kisses him for good luck (while standing on a medkit… Kylie is really really short).
• Astrid’s group makes their way onward, shorting out the Host as they go.
• The Doctor ends up trapped in the kitchen, but uses Security Override #1 to make them stop. His first question is "I get three questions to save my life, right?" His second is "Can I start again?"
• His third is demanding that they scan him and check the registry. Since he’s not a passenger or staff, he’s not a witness, but a stowaway, and stowaways must be taken to the leader, right? They accept and cart him off to deck 31.

• Astrid’s group reaches the party deck and reestablishes contact with Frame.
• She finds the teleporters and convinces Frame to teleport her to deck 31 to help The Doctor.
• The Doctor meets what is hidden inside the completely sealed deck 31 chamber… the cyborg owner of the ship, Max Capricorn.

• Capricorn orders the host to kill The Doctor, but The Doctor stops him and proceeds to work out Max’s entire scheme.
• Max was outsted from his company by his board and this is all a plot to ruin their careers while letting him richly retire.
• His scheme revealed, Max wonders why the ship hasn’t crashed yet. He taps directly into the computer and disables the engines.

• Astrid comes driving up in a forklift and uses it to pull Max off the ledge and into the engines. Both fall to their deaths while The Doctor watches helplessly.
• The ship is coming apart as it starts falling towards the Earth.
• Two Host grab the Doctors arms and fly upwards, straight into the Bridge.

• The Doctor takes the helm from Frame and steers the ship towards the Earth.
• He looks at the projected impact point… Buckingham Palace and desperately sends a signal on an emergency line.
• The queen, complete with her corgis, desperately evacuates.
• The Titanic keeps falling, but the engines eventually catch and it sails just above Buckingham.

• The Doctor explains to Frame that he used the heat of re-entry to jumpstart the engines and the two head for the party deck.
• Once there, the Doctor sees the teleporters and remembers that they have an emergency backup that teleports the wearer in case of trauma.
• He tries to call Astrid back and she appears in a ghostly form, thinking that she’s still falling.
• There’s not enough power to pull her back, so The Doctor opens the window, gives her a kiss, and tells her that she’s flying, not falling and watches as her molecules stream into space.

• Later, Frame has reported everything and sent an SOS. Help is on the way.
• Rickston thanks The Doctor for saving his life and admits that he sold all his shares in Capricorn’s company right before the disaster. This has made him filthy rich.
• Copper remarks to The Doctor that Rickston wouldn’t be the one he’d have chosen to survive this… but if you did decide who lived and who died, then you’d be a monster.
• The Doctor takes two teleporters, and offers to bring Copper to the surface. Frame salutes them as they teleport to Earth.

• They land nearby the TARDIS. Copper asks The Doctor if he can join him, but The Doctor tells him that he travels alone.
• The snow is falling, but Copper and The Doctor know that it’s really just the debris from The Titanic. The Doctor remarks that maybe it’ll snow for real on Christmas one day.
• Copper doesn’t know what to do, he knows almost nothing about Earth. The Doctor asks for the little debit card that Copper was using for tourist purchases and asks how much is on it.
• Confused, Copper tells him 1,000,000 pounds, thinking that’s barely pocket changes. The Doctor explains the currency and Copper is overwhelmed.
• He starts happily rattling off all the things he’s going to buy, a house… with a garden… and a door! and a kitchen with chairs! etc etc
• The Doctor leaves in the TARDIS as one last sparkly bit of Astrid flashes overhead.