Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who) opinion about the episode was divided; the writing and Minogue's performance were both praised and criticised. The episode continues from the end of the third series finale "Last of the Time Lords", when the TARDIS collided with the "Titanic". To investigate further, the Doctor runs the TARDIS's self-repair programme and boards the "Titanic", where he discovers that the "ship" is an interstellar cruiser from the planet Sto. Modelled after the Earth ocean liner of the same name, the ship is orbiting present-day Earth to observe "primitive cultures"–specifically, Christmas. He decides to stow away, only telling waitress Astrid Peth (Kylie Minogue)
Astrid Peth Damned" featuring Astrid is shown as part of a montage. The BBC officially announced that Minogue was to feature as Astrid in the episode "Voyage of the Damned" on 3 July 2007. The official announcement followed rumours regarding Minogue's casting having already circulated in the press, although the episode's writer Russell T Davies had denied these rumours in in-house BBC publication "Ariel" in an attempt to keep the news secret for longer. Furthermore, Minogue herself had confirmed that she would be appearing in the episode in "InStyle" magazine, whilst the London paper "Standard Lite" published a photograph of Minogue's creative