The Vampires Of Venice
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Oh Flying Spaghetti Monster, this episode was really annoying. I'm afraid that, after a terrific start, we're in another of those mid-season slumps.
I can't really find much to say about Vampires, although I'll do my best.
The Doctor's reasons for dragging Rory along on a date with Amy seem a little stupid - if it's a date, why does he go with them? I mean, three's a crowd, right? The current BBC love of crowbarring modern English colloquialisms and language structure into drama-pieces set centuries ago and in other countries is here in spades (especially in the scene with that guy who checked the Doctor's papers), while Rosanna is just another of those slightly over-intense-but-civilised villainesses who enjoy wearing low-cut dresses/figure-hugging tops. The series keeps coming up with ladies like that, just ask Dervla Kirwan and Sarah Lancashire. And the concept of vampire fish is... well, it's just plain silly. Why not call them piranhas instead of vampires, and then avoid all contact with Hammer Horror parodies? It's not like the series is especially good at them is it?
Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are both at their absolute worst here, irritating like a tropical skin disease. Rory meanwhile is just a personality-clone of Mickey Smith, as he had been in Rose; a stereotype feckless, hanger-on boyfriend. Like Mickey before him, Rory has been made to look so tedious and cowardly that the audience comes to think it's perfectly fine that Amy has decided to run off on her wedding night and have adventures and a night of getting jiggy with a strange man. No doubt, also like Mickey, Rory will gradually transform into a dynamic, tough super-hero figure as he journeys in the TARDIS. No original ideas, please, we're British. The rest of the cast are largely in "we-know-this-is-rubbish-please-forgive-our-self-conscious-embarrassment" plank mode.
One major headache with watching NuWho that has carried on into this season is smugness. The rebooted series has always been - even back in the Eccleston season before the popular mania had started up - much too pleased with itself, with a suffocating air of, "We're brilliant all the time, and if you don't agree you're just watching us wrong, or you're too hetero to have a sense of humour!" This smugness has generally gotten worse year on year, and if anything, it's worse than ever this year, even in the really good episodes early on. With all the silly quips and "Oh-gosh-aren't-we-funny?!?" stagey delivery of lines, The Vampires Of Venice is possibly the worst episode of Dr Who I have ever seen for having too high an opinion of itself, all the more aggravating in that the usual answer is, "No, you're not funny, you're a bunch of smug tossers."
The plot itself is another of those aimless runarounds, while the resolution just made me go, "Uh?" I mean... what exactly happened? The Doctor messes around with a bit of clockwork gear and then... the storm turns off? Uh?
Ah well. I'll be kind and give it 4/10, although I'm not sure why, as I didn't enjoy it any more than last week's cock-up, and I gave that a 3.
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The whole plot for me was great, but it suffered in the 45-minute episode format, too much was crammed in, I think a two parter would have been much better for this story. I don't know what it is with New-Who, the whole layout of the series is always pretty much the same and it's getting a bit boring. The first Three episodes will be singles, episodes 4 and 5 will be a Two parter, 6 and 7 (singles), 8 and 9 (Two Parter), 10 and 11 (Back to singles), before finishing with the Two-Part Finale of 12 and 13. It would be great if they could swap that around a bit, maybe even do a Four-part story.
I don't know if anybody else picked up on this but did you see the terrible acting of the Extra's when the Tardis materialised in Venice. Not one Double-Take, shocked face or stunned look from anyone, they were exactly the same when The Doctor, Amy and Rory were walking the streets. Not one person looked back or stared at the way they were dressed. I went over exactly the same thing with Victory of the Daleks. I found that really bad and I'm surprised how no-one picked up on it during filming. The little-things do matter especially in Doctor Who, Directors take note.
But that said, it was an enjoyable episode and I loved the re-appearance of the First Doctor on the Library Card, Matt Smith gave us another layer to his Doctor and I'm loving the Dark, Serious Moments that come with him. The scene with him and the good-looking female vampires in the basement is probably his funniest peformance yet as The Doctor
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