'Doctor Who' - 'Vampires of Venice': Stags, hens and fish
The Doctor takes Amy and Rory on a romantic getaway that turns deadly.
Amy and Rory's Venice vacation turns sour on "Doctor Who."
A very quick review of tonight's "Doctor Who" coming up just as soon as I owe Casanova a chicken...
I'm too wiped from Upfront Week to write much about "Vampires of Venice," but I'm not sure I'd have much to say even at full strength. Not only did it feature one of the easiest episode conclusions I can remember (with The Doctor conveniently finding the weather machine's off switch), but the Rory/Amy stuff felt jarring, like large chunks of characterization (like, say, Amy's feelings about her fiance joining her on the TARDIS) got cut to make room for the plot.
Keeping in mind that we are not in any way going to discuss, or even hint at, episodes that have yet to air in America, what did everybody else think?
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May 22, 2010 at 10:39PM EST Reply to CommentI'm interested to see how Moffat writes Rory into future stories. Given the chemistry between Matt Smith and Karen Gillan it seemed pretty obvious to develop their relationship like Tenant/Piper, in which case the Doctor continually tore down Rose's fiance as he joined them. Having the Doctor welcome a second companion in the TARDIS seems odd, but could be fun.
As far as this episode goes, I was hoping there was something bigger (from a cosmic standpoint) about the Doctor trying to reunite Amy with Rory. Based on how the last episode ended I thought there would be something more than, Amy's horny and vulnerable, Rory should be here and not me.
May 23, 2010 at 4:57PM ESTnic919
May 22, 2010 at 11:07PM EST Reply to CommentWrite a comment...
nic919 Sometimes this commenting system drives me nuts.
May 22, 2010 at 11:15PM ESTAnyway, while this episode was not as good as the last two, I still liked it. Helen McCrory is a great character actress in the UK (also married to Damian Lewis) and she made the Vampire/Insect Queen a far better character than it should have been. Her scenes with Matt Smith were great and Smith is showing that for someone still under 30, he can more than hold his own with a seasoned actress.
Even from this episode, you can see that Moffat is not going to treat Rory like Mickey, and more is explored in the upcoming episodes. Eleven is certainly making it a point to include Rory and perhaps based on what happened with Rose and Mickey, he is making an effort to not ignore him and treat him like a joke.
Moffat in the Confidential for last week's episode was pretty clear that Amy's attempt to kiss the Doctor was not a hint of a grand romance, but just an attempt to burn off some sexual energy. I don't see him changing gears for this season.
Tim
May 22, 2010 at 11:11PM EST Reply to CommentThis was a very sad episode. I had hoped the acting and writing would get better with time but it just seems intent on becoming pop schlock tv.
Kayvan
May 22, 2010 at 11:53PM EST Reply to CommentI enjoyed it, and I actually really like Rory. I actually hope he sticks around and gets to be with Amy.
J
May 23, 2010 at 12:04AM EST Reply to CommentI actually enjoyed the first half of this one a lot more than most anything in the 2nd part of the Weeping Angels story (which I thought was frantic without being involving -- overstuffed, clumsily plotted and executed, not just the polar opposite of "Blink" but almost smug about how unsatisfactory it was).
"Vampires" was light fun for a bit. The sort of villain I could see Tom Baker having campy back-and-forths with. Whole episode seemed to fall asleep for its second half, though.
Kensington
May 23, 2010 at 12:08AM EST Reply to CommentYou know, I think that there were cuts, actually. I'm not 100% sure of that, but if I remember correctly, this episode actually clocked in at about 48 minutes when it first aired in the UK, which is roughly 6 minutes longer than most of the previous episodes this season, yet I don't think they had fewer commercials than usual.
I know that BBC America had said they wouldn't cut the initial broadcasts, but the math just doesn't add up otherwise.
I just don't see how you fit a 48 minute episode in a one hour timeslot without making cuts.
May 24, 2010 at 1:00AM ESTthought the ep was okay, but probably weakest of season so far.
shara says
May 23, 2010 at 12:09AM EST Reply to CommentThat was a very disappointing episode. As with a few other episodes this season the pace was too frantic with everyone talking so quickly that I miss half of what's being said. David Tennant could pull that off but Matt Smith can't. It's a bit irritating. This is one of my top two LEAST favorite Doctor episodes ever (the other being the ones where he cured all the patients instantly by combining all the medicines in a sprinkler system). It seemed inconsistent for Amy to reflect the sunlight and blow up the alien after the sun had already been blacked out, and sometimes the aliens were hurt by the sun and othertimes it wasn't even a thing. Nothing was explained well and the characters were all one step too goofy. Plus the resolution was unsatisfying. I feel like we are missing out on the quieter character moments that the show used to deliver regularly. I rarely complain about shows I like, but this one just couldn't pass without comment.
Biff
May 23, 2010 at 12:28AM EST Reply to CommentI liked that William Hartnell was the picture on the "library card". Nice call back for old school fans.
Jason Potapoff I loved that. Glad i'm not the only one who noticed that.
May 30, 2010 at 10:09PM ESTAnthony Foglia
May 23, 2010 at 1:17AM EST Reply to CommentWeak episode. Nothing special. But the worst part, was after last week's episode, you'd think the Doctor would want to figure out what caused the crack. He already knows it's created on Amy's wedding day. Shouldn't he be trying to stop it before trying to mend Amy's relationship?
May 23, 2010 at 2:45AM ESTTom Galloway
May 23, 2010 at 2:54AM EST Reply to CommentVery weak episode. Also wondered what popping in on Rory's bachelor party had to do with figuring out how Amy is central to everything.
And lots just didn't make sense; how did the fish queen suddenly know to call the Doctor by name? How did her school get such a fantastic reputation, given that none of the girls would ever communicate with their parents? Why did they need to sink Venice? Just to have some convenient pre-built buildings? After she fails to sink Venice, why does the queen need to suicide instead of just jumping in the canal and living underwater with her other sons for a while? Why do said other sons die? Etc.
daveawayfromhome She was the only female. It didnt kill them right away, but it would eventually.
May 24, 2010 at 5:39PM ESTOvid
May 23, 2010 at 4:00AM EST Reply to CommentThe Brit fans were describing this as a 'romp', and I think that describes it well. There were some really fun parts of it (the cake, the sight gag with Isabella's father in the stag T-shirt), but they meant the other aspects of the episode didn't work quite as strongly as they might have (the bathetic ending wasn't lazy so much as supposed to be funny, I think, but it didn't play that way).
But there were still great individual elements, even if they didn't hang together: the interplay between the Doctor and the matriarch, Rory stopping to help the bitten woman while Amy rushes after the Doctor, Rory calling out the Doctor for putting people in danger, Rory fighting the prince, etc. Actually, pretty much anything involving Rory.
All-in-all, this offered a fun, light break from the previous two-parter.
jon88
May 23, 2010 at 10:05AM EST Reply to CommentEpisodes like this one serve to remind me that "Doctor Who" is intended to be a children's show.
May 23, 2010 at 5:03PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, do you ever watch Doctor Who Confidential? I only recently (about a month ago) got into the "new" Doctor Who and went back and watched all the seasons from the 2005 series on, but about halfway through I started watching the accompanying Confidential episodes and I haven't been able to go back since. They're the perfect pair: an episode of story and an episode of synopsis and making-of breakdown.
Also, a recent episode of confidential did in fact show some Rory/Amy relationship building/discussion that was left on the cutting room floor, since they end up cutting about fifteen minutes per episode, this kind of thing happens fairly often. Hopefully they can edit that stuff a little better next time, to help build characters instead of focusing so much on the main episode plot/monsters.
Hwat
May 23, 2010 at 6:06PM EST Reply to Comment"Keeping in mind that we are not in any way going to discuss, or even hint at, episodes that have yet to air in America,"
Aww, why not. Only fair warning *G*
May 23, 2010 at 10:36PM EST