The third writer to contribute to this season was Toby Whithouse, who previously penned the Tenth Doctor episode "School Reunion." As a viewer, I can't be certain if it was Whithouse's writing or the executive decisions of Russell T Davies that turned that episode into such a flop, but under the reign of Steven Moffat, Whithouse's contribution to Doctor Who seems to be singing a different tune. Following in the footsteps of Moffat with the title, Whithouse follows the traditional Doctor Who "The ____ of ____" format.
As I recall, this episode was aired relatively the same time as the Twilight craze was in full swing, so it was great to have a vampire story that didn't get wrapped up in all the hype caused by those films and books.
Rory Williams joins the TARDIS crew at the start of this one, showing even further evidence that Moffat was playing the opposite card against the Davies era. He may not have intended it to be the opposite of the Mickey/Rose duo, but it certainly resulted that way. Rather than have Rory volunteer to "see what's out there" at the dismay of Amy, Whithouse and Moffat chose to have The Doctor invite Rory along on his travels as companion to Amy, to keep the two of them together and to permanently cut ties with any Doctor/Amy romance possibilities.
The show once again takes advantage of location shooting in Croatia, standing in here of course for 1580 Venice. This makes for a fantastic classic Who feel. By this time, it was impossible to not see the changes Moffat had made with the series, with "The Vampires Of Venice" being the sixth consecutive episode in the season to score no less than a 7 on the Whoscale.
This episode probably would have tied the previous one with a 9 if not for the CGI overload in the final ten minutes. Flumes of clouds come billowing out of the tower, filling the skies with ominous CGI overcast. The CGI used for the vampires in aquatic form was enough for me. Also, a technical oversight was the fact that the skies were covered in thick overcast, yet Amy was able to reflect a narrow beam of sunlight onto Francesco in alien form to destroy him.
The music was a bit more frequent in this one than some of the previous episodes, but there were times when it sounded much like a piece from Dudley Simpson, namely the scene where The Doctor enters the room and glances into a mirror.
Although I approved of Whithouse writing The Doctor as the hero of the hour and not one of his companions, the final scenes got a little ridiculous - The Doctor climbing the steep rooftop of the tower in the rain to open the steeple and flip a toggle switch.
There were a lot of nods to the original series in this one, some subtle, some obvious. An obvious one was The Doctor flashing his out of date library card, with a mug shot of the First Doctor on it. A more subtle
one was how The Doctor befriends a Venetian local, Guido. As the episode progresses, Guido's home serves as a temporary meeting place for The Doctor, Amy, Rory and Guido to discuss further action. For some reason, the Fifth Doctor story "The Visitation" comes to mind. Perhaps it's the mention of plague in this episode.
There was some terrific dialogue in this episode, particularly from The Doctor.
It was also nice to be six episodes into the season and not having set foot in downtown London or Cardiff.
Most of the things I didn't like throughout the first 35 minutes were so insignificant and irrelevant that they don't really need mentioning. The main minus was the CGI-fest near the end. That aside, it was an extremely enjoyable episode, and for the most part felt like solid Doctor Who.
As I recall, this episode was aired relatively the same time as the Twilight craze was in full swing, so it was great to have a vampire story that didn't get wrapped up in all the hype caused by those films and books.Rory Williams joins the TARDIS crew at the start of this one, showing even further evidence that Moffat was playing the opposite card against the Davies era. He may not have intended it to be the opposite of the Mickey/Rose duo, but it certainly resulted that way. Rather than have Rory volunteer to "see what's out there" at the dismay of Amy, Whithouse and Moffat chose to have The Doctor invite Rory along on his travels as companion to Amy, to keep the two of them together and to permanently cut ties with any Doctor/Amy romance possibilities.
The show once again takes advantage of location shooting in Croatia, standing in here of course for 1580 Venice. This makes for a fantastic classic Who feel. By this time, it was impossible to not see the changes Moffat had made with the series, with "The Vampires Of Venice" being the sixth consecutive episode in the season to score no less than a 7 on the Whoscale.
This episode probably would have tied the previous one with a 9 if not for the CGI overload in the final ten minutes. Flumes of clouds come billowing out of the tower, filling the skies with ominous CGI overcast. The CGI used for the vampires in aquatic form was enough for me. Also, a technical oversight was the fact that the skies were covered in thick overcast, yet Amy was able to reflect a narrow beam of sunlight onto Francesco in alien form to destroy him.
The music was a bit more frequent in this one than some of the previous episodes, but there were times when it sounded much like a piece from Dudley Simpson, namely the scene where The Doctor enters the room and glances into a mirror.
Although I approved of Whithouse writing The Doctor as the hero of the hour and not one of his companions, the final scenes got a little ridiculous - The Doctor climbing the steep rooftop of the tower in the rain to open the steeple and flip a toggle switch.
There were a lot of nods to the original series in this one, some subtle, some obvious. An obvious one was The Doctor flashing his out of date library card, with a mug shot of the First Doctor on it. A more subtle
one was how The Doctor befriends a Venetian local, Guido. As the episode progresses, Guido's home serves as a temporary meeting place for The Doctor, Amy, Rory and Guido to discuss further action. For some reason, the Fifth Doctor story "The Visitation" comes to mind. Perhaps it's the mention of plague in this episode.There was some terrific dialogue in this episode, particularly from The Doctor.
It was also nice to be six episodes into the season and not having set foot in downtown London or Cardiff.
Most of the things I didn't like throughout the first 35 minutes were so insignificant and irrelevant that they don't really need mentioning. The main minus was the CGI-fest near the end. That aside, it was an extremely enjoyable episode, and for the most part felt like solid Doctor Who.
I thought more of State of Decay and The Talons of Weng-Chiang while watching The Vampires of Venice, as well as Rose and School Reunion.
ReplyDeleteI gave it a 2/10 due to "the Doctor being bigger than Rory" and a lousy (and predictable) bachelor party. However, Helen McCrory was brilliant as Lady Calvierri.