Our take
Doctor Who does a full disaster movie for Christmas, complete with a doomed liner, killer angels and a pop star in a waitress's uniform. It is big, noisy and often moving. The body count is high for a festive special, but Kylie Minogue's Astrid gives it a heart, and her fate lands hard. A Christmas Day audience of more than 13 million agreed.
What happens
Moments after a starship called the Titanic crashes through the wall of the TARDIS, the result of the Doctor leaving its shields down, he finds himself aboard the alien cruise liner as a stowaway, in orbit above Earth at Christmas. There he befriends Astrid Peth, a waitress who works on board. When disaster hits, the liner is left doomed to crash into the Earth, and the Host, robot angels armed with killer halos, turn on the people they were built to serve. Leading a ragtag band of passengers and crew who are trying to survive, the Doctor uncovers sabotage and a plot driven by corporate greed and insurance fraud that threatens the whole human race. Many of the survivors do not make it, and there is even a brush with the royal family. With Astrid's help the Doctor saves the day and stops the Christmas inferno, but he cannot save Astrid herself.
Can the kids watch it?
Best from about nine or ten; lots of characters die, and the robot angels are genuinely menacing for younger viewers.