Just as I promised – two Who reviews in one day! Aren’t you the lucky readers?
In our latest adventure of the sci-fi series, the Doctor brings Amy and Rory to Venice as Amy and Rory are brought out on a date in the Doctor’s odd form of “fixing” their relationship (see: the previous episode where Amy snogged the Doctor). Of course, as luck would have it the TARDIS brings them to Venice when there is a mystery afoot, and vampires in the shadows. This is also the second episode of this season not to be written by show runner Steven Moffat, and the last time we had one of those we were left with iDaleks.
So how did your fearless and faithful reviewer enjoy the latest trip overseas with the Doctor and company? Click behind the jump for some thoughts.
As always, beware of spoilers. They won’t suck your blood, but they will kill your enjoyment of the show if you haven’t seen it yet!
I’m not going to lie and play around the fact – I thought this episode was a dud. I was already a bit weary going into it because I don’t like and have never liked the concept of vampires. I knew that Doctor Who would take it’s own obvious spin on the lore and turn it into something alien, and what we got was an alien race of fish like creatures from Saturn using perception filters. I basically shrugged my shoulders at that, as it – like the rest of the episode – just was not very compelling.
I suppose the problem with the episode is that where other episodes had an obvious flow, a give and take to the audience even, this episode was mostly at a stand still. The new actors who portray this week’s villains weren’t very good, and the obvious sense of danger and dismay that is usually present in a Doctor Who episode just wasn’t here. As much as Who is a sci-fi show, it also greatly incorporates large elements of horror into it’s stories. This should be perfect for vampires, especially in the 1850’s in Venice, but with really goofy looking teeth (how could one honestly close their mouths with those?) and Matt Smith really downplaying his craziness as the Doctor, there just was not a lot to get into in this episode.
It did start off well, though. Bringing Rory into the TARDIS to join the travels is an interesting move, and it’s similar to how Mickey joined in the adventures back in first two seasons. The episode also has some interesting moments, like when the villainous angle of the vampire fish aliens is converted to one of a more sympathetic plight as the Doctor sits in the “queen’s” chair and interrogates her as she floats around the room. This was possibly the best written moment of the episode, and it was rather fitting to the overall feel that Doctor Who quite often has – that he is the Time Lord and has to make immense decisions of life and death to entire species, yet he always falls back on Earth as their sole protector for whatever reason. This is something that’s always been big in Doctor Who, yet hasn’t really been touched on with Matt Smith’s Doctor, so with Rossana Calvierri basically calling him out at the end of the episode… well, it’s about time!
The episode is largely just filler though, I feel. The aliens are all wiped out at the end, and they weren’t really a big presence to begin with so it doesn’t “matter.” The crack in the wall is very lightly touched on, but isn’t really elaborated on in any way we haven’t seen yet… so it’s basically just there to be there. I suppose there’s no one to blame really but the writer, Toby Whithouse. The last time he wrote Doctor Who was in season 2 where he brought back Sarah Jane and K-9, which was another example of a “just ok” episode, though it did spin-off the Sarah Jane Adventures. I can’t see this episode doing much more for the series, and it will be one that when I eventually get this season on DVD, I’ll just skip over this episode. There’s just not much to get excited about here.
