Note: The following review contains spoilers for all aired episodes of Doctor Who, including the most recent, “The Vampires of Venice.”
I’d been looking forward to this episode of Doctor Who, “The Vampires of Venice,” for a long time, because it was penned by the creator of one of my other favorite shows, the brilliant, supernatural comedy-drama, Being Human and features a guest appearance by Alex Price, who had a very memorable one-episode role as a ghost, Gilbert, on that show. While it may lack the epic sweep, mindbending twistiness, and tumultuous events of the previous two-parter, that is also a bit of a relief, particularly considering how extremely complex next week’s episode, “Amy’s Choice,” looks like it’s going to be. ”The Vampires of Venice” is a nice, brief respite from the tension of its surrounding episodes, but one that at the same time furthers the arc along, while continuing to offer some tantalizing clues as to where the series may be heading.
On its surface, “The Vampires of Venice” is a classic Doctor Who romp about things that seem to be vampires but are actually fish monsters from another dimension who want to pull an Atlantis on Venice by dragging it under the water, in order to make it a habitable environment for them. The plot is extremely silly when spoken aloud but, as usual, the show manages to completely sell it in the moment, because the characters take the situation seriously. Furthermore, Whithouse infuses the script with his strong knack for excellent character dialogue that makes Being Human so wonderful. His specialty, also on display in his previous Doctor Who script, is to juxtapose realistic character interactions and relationships with supernatural and/or outlandish goings-on.
And so, the Doctor’s attempt to reunite Amy and Rory both physically and emotionally is played out against the backdrop of the fish monsters from outer space. The script is full of moments that ground it in reality and the mundanities of modern day, however, from Rory’s stag party at the start to Amy posing for a photo on his iPhone. More importantly, of course, are the discussions between the Doctor, Rory, and Amy about their relationship entanglements, and the fun, little dance that occurs when the Doctor proposes pretending to be her father (it’s a nice detail that, for the moment, he forgets how young he looks), then her brother (also summarily rejected), and then her fiance, which hurts Rory’s feelings, only for Rory to end up playing her brother instead of her fiance. While the ironies being played with here are entertaining, it also says a great deal about the extent to which Amy is trying to avoid her future and adult responsibilities that a day before the wedding (sort of), she still isn’t ready to refer to him as her fiance.
Early on in the episode, it all seems like a bit of a game to her. At the start, she doesn’t seem particularly regretful about kissing the Doctor nor extremely happy to have Rory with them. At this point, it’s difficult to tell if it’s because she felt like she settled for Rory and doesn’t really love him, or she is simply afraid of settling down. This is fascinating character writing, however, because when Rose treated Mickey with the same level of apathy, the series never seemed to really ask us to question her as a character. It often felt like we were just supposed to understand that he wasn’t very bright and kind of dull, and, in short, just wasn’t really for her, which justified her breaking his heart over and over again. With Amy, however, there is a greater sense that we aren’t supposed to applaud her actions, evidenced by the show repeatedly referencing her “running away.” Interestingly, just as with the Doctor, having a life-threatening adventure with Rory leads her to be turned on by him again by the end, so it might simply be that she does love him but has felt a bit bored and constrained and that seeing him in heroic situations with her will lead to her feelings for him being reignited.
The dialogue between Amy and Rory in this episode is excellent, the dialogue between the Doctor and Rory even better. In another example of Whithouse’s fantastic writing, Rory scolds the Doctor, at one point, telling him that the reason he is dangerous isn’t because he puts his companions in harm’s way, but because he inspires them to do stupidly dangerous things in order to impress him. What makes this great writing is that when one looks at the situation in a certain way, one can almost think Rory is right, and it seems to be a new interpretation of the Doctor/companion relationship that was always staring us in the face but wasn’t ever quite articulated in that way in previous episodes. At the same time, Rory is missing out on a key factor–that the companions’ actions may be dangerous, but they are also courageous. Assuming that Amy can’t take care of herself is underestimating her, the very thing that the Doctor doesn’t do. He respects his companions and this respect inspires them to perform acts of bravery that they otherwise wouldn’t have done, something which Rory comes to learn himself by the end of the episode. Again, however, one can see exactly why he at first sees the Doctor in one light–not the least of which is due to jealousy over thinking he wants his girl–and how he comes to change his opinion. The Doctor comes to instill bravery in him, as well.
The other most important aspects of the episode, to me, revolve around the aliens. Firstly, there is, of course, the nuance that the reason they are in Venice now is because they ran away from the cracks that began to swallow up their world, what they call “The Silence”–interesting, considering the title of “The Silence in the Library.” And so, despite mostly having a “standalone” plot, the events of this episode are a direct outgrowth of the seasonal arc. Additionally, when the vampire fish queen, Rosanna, speaks to the Doctor about time ending, I couldn’t help but think of the title of the last Davies episode, “The End of Time,” and wonder if this is all more closely connected to its events than we realize at this point–a result of re-time-locking the Time Lords, perhaps? Whithouse wisely keeps Rosanna from being a scenery-chewing villain and instead makes her a desperate creature who just wants to save her people.
Of course, the Doctor must stop her, because in “just saving her people,” she has to kill and/or forcibly transform a large number of humans–another example of Whithouse’s beautiful writing is the Doctor’s assertion that the reason he can’t join her is that she hadn’t even learned the name of Isabella, the girl she killed, indicating that he would have more sympathy for her had she shown remorse for her actions, that she was ending lives to further her own–but it is to the episode’s credit that there is no showdown between the two at the end. Rosanna’s attempt fails and she feeds herself to her sons, accusing the Doctor of once again causing the end of an entire race. We have had similar scenes on the show before, but really struck me this time was that this was an episode after the Doctor said that time could be rewritten. Will one of these “rewrites” in the future be restoring this race? Or is the indication simply that this race being ended is an example of a “rewrite” that has already happened, due to the cracks? Could it be both?
By the way, when I was a kid, I would have nightmares about fish, so once again, it seems that Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who has peered into my soul and made television out of my childhood fears (this is the fourth time this year now, I believe). Thank you for potentially interrupting my sleep yet again, Mr. Moffat! And Mr. Whithouse, please come back to Doctor Who again soon!
Related posts:
- Doctor Who 5.07: “Amy’s Choice”
- Doctor Who 5.11: “The Lodger”
- Doctor Who 5.12: “The Pandorica Opens”
- Doctor Who 5.08-5.09: “The Hungry Earth”; “Cold Blood”
- Doctor Who 5.13: “The Big Bang”
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent and thoughtful review which gives me even more points to ponder! I do hope you’re not a lone voice in the wilderness, as you deserve to be read by a wide audience.
No gargantuan reply from me this week, except to say that I love how well this episode stood up on its own while still managing to tie itself into the seasonal arc. I like the fact that the episode ended with an actual Silence falling over the whole of Venice – were the Doctor, Amy, and Rory escaping some sort of horrific fate just in time? And if the Silence is the result of the cracks, why was there none during Flesh And Stone? I had worries that they were covering the arcs too early (with the Crack Of Doom [or if it unwrites time, is that Crack Of mooD?] taking centre stage last episode,) but they just keep raising more and more questions, and that’s one of the best things about Doctor Who; the questions, not the answers.
(And speaking of nightmares, The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone was the first story to actually give me nightmares, so you’re not alone on that front!)
David H, thank you, that’s one of the nicest compliments I’ve received in a long time. My audience has been growing exponentially over the last year.
Dylan, yes, I actually forgot to discuss the fact that the Silence occurs at the end of this episode, which was also very creepy. If it is caused by the Crack (and my assumption is that it is, because after the Crack swallows everyone up, that’s what would be left, silence), I really wonder again where they’re going with the Crack plot. Is everything that happens this year being erased? And if Keith’s (crossoverman) theory about the jacket is correct, is that Doctor in the future causing it or just working his way around it? So much more to think about than any of the previous season arcs.
Hi there, just wanted to say that this is an excellent review and I agree with David H, you’ve opened up some “oh yea… I never thought of that but it makes sense” moments while reading it. This is, for me, the only Who series where watching it twice is a must.. simply because you try to take too much in on first viewing… and you catch up with the finer points on second time around. My one complaint is that sometimes it jumps, as in one minute the Doctor is ‘jumping out of a cake’ (and wouldn’t a lot of fans like THAT for a treat :o) the next they’re are on the Tardis. It took me a while to warm to Matt Smith as I’m a big David Tennant fan… first couple of episodes he was a little too much like David’s Doctor but he’s developing his own quirky style. Looking forward to the next episode.
Hi, I wrote a review for this episode in my native language (I’m Romanian) and now, reading yours, I saw we have lots of common points. Happy to find you. :) (Errr… YOU find our small blog via tweeter, but this is just a detail… :D )
I’m not so sure The Silence and The Crack are connected, I think is just a plot to hide the real story for us. I can tell you, in all this time watching “Doctor Who” I learned it’s almost imposible to guess the final story. And the real hints are very well hidden, not so obvious. They show us The Crack in all episodes, they spoke too often about The Silence… I’m pretty sure it’s just a secondary plot…
Nice take on yesterday’s episode of Doctor Who. I have read a few other reviews before stumbling upon yours and just when you think youve read almost the same stuff, you will always find something new to ponder on. Keep it up.
Out of interest, who is your Doctor?
Ten, now and forever. But I do adore Eleven.
This marks the first time I’ve ever disagreed with you about an episode. I LOVE Whithouse, but I thought this was possibly the worst episode of the year (either this or “Victory of the Daleks”). So I’m going to complain about it quite a lot. Sorry.
I thought the line about Isabella’s name was incredibly poignant and well-written; then the Doctor repeated it, and I think that’s the biggest cringe I’ve ever cringed in my cringeful, cringeworthy life. That pretty much sums up the whole episode for me. Great concept, great lines, deplorable execution. A bunch of good elements strung together badly.
I felt the genocide theme, which has been explored wonderfully in New Who, was handled boorishly by this episode. Rosanna dies, the Doctor has a bit of a shout, and that’s that.
The resolution to this episode was way too hasty. All of the ladies conveniently converge on the gunpowder room. Amy kills the Signor with, what, a mirror? The Venice-sinking whatsit is disabled by ripping out wires and (after a “Daleks in Manhattan”-esque climb) flipping an off switch. Why was this episode 50 minutes long? So we could enjoy 45 minutes of one-liners instead of 40?
Summarily, boo-hoo. Pun very much intended.
“We are her boys.” – Loved it!