After
an exhilarating two-part adventure with the Weeping Angels,
Steven Moffat takes a break until the end of this series,
allowing other talented writers to have their little bit
of fun with Doctor Who. And with a title like “Vampires
of Venice”, you just know you’re in for some
silly and scary stuff.
Toby
Whithouse (creator of another popular BBC sci-fi show, Being
Human) takes viewers on a fun romp through history
as the Doctor discovers that a romantic vacation to 16th
century Venice might not be the best wedding present for
Amy and her fiancé Rory after all.
After Amy’s amusing attempt to seduce
the Doctor, the Doctor decides that the most important thing
in the world is to bring Amy back to solid ground by sorting
out her relationship with her fiancé Rory. “The
life out there, it dazzles. It blinds you to the things
that are important. I’ve seen it devour relationships
and plans.”
In what must be one of his most hilarious entrances ever,
the Doctor literally bursts (out of a cake) into Rory’s
bachelor party with some news about Amy—only the whole
“your girlfriend’s a great kisser” thing
doesn’t go over so well with Rory, and the Doctor
demonstrates that he clearly hasn’t learned the meaning
of don’t kiss and tell: “Funny how you can say
something in your head, and it sounds fine.”
Luckily
the Doctor has no intention of stealing Rory’s bride
away, and instead plays Cupid as he takes Rory and Amy on
an excursion to historical Venice so the couple can rekindle
their romance.
However
since this Doctor Who, there is something not quite
right about Venice in the 1500s, and Amy and Rory’s
date night turns into a confrontation with mysterious vampiric
schoolgirls and their fanged patron Señora Rosanna
Calvierri. But as the Doctor soon finds out, even these
vampires have something fishy about them: “Makes you
wonder what could be so bad that it doesn’t mind you
thinking it’s a vampire.”
Having been absent from the series since “The Eleventh
Hour”, Rory has a lot to catch up on in the lives
of the Doctor and Amy. Or does he know more than we think
he does? It turns out Rory has been doing quite a bit of
research on the Doctor, and isn’t too astounded when
he first steps into the TARDIS, much to the Timelord’s
chagrin.
In an obvious parallel to the Doctor-Rose-Mickey
love triangle, Rory spends much of the episode being jealous
of the Doctor; fortunately this issue is resolved by the
end of the hour, and Rory proves to be surprisingly perceptive
about the lives the Doctor and Amy have. He acts as a sort
of voice of reason for the Doctor, at one point even disapproving
of the Doctor’s hazardous effect on Amy. “You
have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves,”
he says, claiming the Doctor makes people take harmful risks
just to impress him.
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The Doctor’s conscience suffers some
grief in this adventure, and Matt Smith carries those many
burdens, acting every one of the Doctor’s 900-plus
years as he takes in Rory’s accusation and assumes
responsibility for yet another death of an entire species.
Helen McCrory as Rosanna Calvierri adds some depth to the
matriarch pseudo-vampire, appealing to the Doctor’s
sympathy as she recounts the loss of her home planet Saturnyne
and pleads with him to let her save her race from extinction.
“Vampires
in Venice” functions as more than an entertaining
standalone episode, for Whithouse includes a lot of ties
into the overall story arc. Through Rosanna Calvierri, he
provides viewers with an eyewitness to the effects of those
ominous, glowing cracks we’ve been seeing in every
episode so far.
“There
were cracks. Some were tiny. Some were as big as the sky,”
says Rosanna when the Doctor inquires about the destruction
of her home planet. Looks like these cracks are not just
chasing after Amy and the Doctor, but destroying worlds
throughout time and throughout the universe as well.
Overall,
despite a bizarre resolution that seems to recycle the Doctor’s
tower-climbing scenes from “Idiot’s Lantern”
and “Evolution of the Daleks”, Whithouse’s
clever writing makes for a traditional and enjoyable Doctor
Who story. Just have fun with it because the next episode
“Amy’s Choice” looks like a painful, mind-bending,
and insane escapade for the Doctor, Amy, and Rory as they
teeter on the line between dreams and reality.
