Doctor Who Series 5 Episode 6 - The Vampires Of Venice - Review
Starring: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill & Helen McCrory
Written By: Toby Whithouse
Directed By: Jonny Campbell
Even
though they should be a great and scary threat, vampires appear to
have lost their edge recently. Maybe it's because we're so familiar
with them, or how to defeat them … but personally I'd argue it's
down to the effect of franchises like Twilight.
Twilight and
other series such as The Vampire Diaries have
really reduced vampires to the level of schlock, and rather than
scaring us anymore, they've become a parody of themselves and are
little more than poorly-written fanfiction material. So in their
current state, could it really be down to Doctor Who to
make them scary again?
Looking
to give Amy and her fiancée Rory a proper honeymoon, the Doctor
brings them somewhere romantic: 16th Century Venice. However, all is not well in the picturesque city, and
the Doctor becomes intrigued by the Signora Rosanna Calvierri, who
runs a prestigious school for girls. Working with a man who wishes to
get his daughter out of the school, the TARDIS crew make a plan to
find out what is happening in the school, and discover that the girls
Rosanna takes are being converted into vampires. But this is too easy
a discovery – who or what could be so bad that it doesn't mind you
thinking it's a vampire?
The
vampires in The Vampires Of Venice make
for some of the best on-screen vampires we've seen in a while … and
they're not even real vampires. In line with Doctor Who's
previous ventures into the supernatural, there are plenty of sci-fi
explanations for why the “vampires” are allergic to sunlight, why
they don't show up in a mirror, and why we can see their big teeth,
and of course they are really aliens. However, these explanations
don't do anything to detract from the scares, and whether they're
taking the appearance of vampires, or are in their true alien form,
they still make an effective threat. While we don't see their full
aquatic form too often, whenever we do, it is still a brilliant CGI
creation.
The
vampires are led by Rosanna Calvierri, who is brought to life by a
terrific performance from Helen McCrory. Helen McCrory is great as
Rosanna, and is the standout among this week's guest cast. She also
appears to be having lots of fun during any scenes where she gets to
bring out the evil side of her character, and not only is her
confrontation with the Doctor the best scene of the episode, she
shares real chemistry with Matt Smith. It was also a nice touch to
see that the episode didn't go with the purely evil approach to the
vampires/Saturnynes – they're not on Earth just to kill or invade the
whole world, they're some of the last survivors of their species and
need a relatively small space to rebuild. Do the needs of a few
Saturnynes outweigh that of the people of Venice? The moral dilemma
may be fairly easy to answer, but I still appreciate the effort.
Helen McCrory isn't the only guest actor to leave an impression –
Lucian Msamati was great as Guido, and while he may not be the most
developed or interesting character, the performance feels like
something from a Shakespeare play and felt very appropriate to the
setting. Francesco and the girls in Rosanna's school were also great
as the snarly and at times, even animalistic vampires.
So,
the vampires in The Vampires Of Venice are
a hit, but what about the Venice part? Simply put, Venice looks
beautiful and is probably Doctor Who's
best-looking venture into history since The Fires Of
Pompeii. It's a combination
of things that brings Venice to life, the most obvious being the
location shooting in Croatia. New director Jonny Campbell makes the
most out of the architecture available, and definitely makes the
episode look lively visually. The location shooting is coupled with
use of green screen, particularly towards the end, and some strong
set and costume design, which truly immerses us in the past, and
makes the absolute most of the available budget.
The
Vampires Of Venice also
sees an addition to the TARDIS crew, with Amy's fiancée Rory coming
along for the trip. In The Eleventh Hour,
Arthur Darvill didn't really have enough time to make much of an
impact as Rory, but here he shows a lot of promise. He may not be the
most confident character to have graced the TARDIS, and he clearly
starts off uncomfortable with his new surroundings, but it makes a
change to see someone who isn't immediately swept away by the Doctor.
Rory quickly becomes a far more relatable and enduring presence than
Amy has managed to be over the previous five episodes combined. That
being said, it does feel as though we're missing some kind of
confrontation between him and the Doctor, especially after he learns
about what happened between the Doctor and Amy at the end of last
week's episode. Still, Rory makes a great start here, and seeing as
he properly joins the TARDIS at the end of the episode, I'm looking
forward to seeing where more development will take his character in
future weeks.
It
was a complete shame that The Vampires Of Venice
had
to end on an anticlimactic note after such a large amount of
build-up. (Skip
ahead now to the next paragraph to avoid spoilers!)
Having being rejected by the Doctor, Rosanna starts her plan to sink
Venice, the sky fills with dark clouds, rain starts pouring down,
earthquakes are triggered, and it basically becomes an apocalypse
scenario. To avert disaster, the Doctor climbs to the top of the
school's large tower and opens up the mechanism that's causing the
rain. To stop it... he simply flicks a switch, and the rain stops...
After all that build-up, this does come as a disappointment,
especially after the scene that immediately follows. Rosanna ends up
effectively committing suicide, and the Doctor has the blood of
another extinct species on his hands … because he simply flicked a
switch. It should be a powerful ending, but it's not and it sadly
lacks the impact it should have had.
On
the whole, The Vampires Of Venice is
still a solid story that goes beyond its catchy title to deliver
something even more than that. It's embarrassing for the current
state vampires hold in current popular culture that these are some of
the best on-screen vampires we've seen in some time … when they're
not even really vampires! Recreating the Venice setting allowed the
production team to make the most out of the available budget, and the
episode as a whole looks stunning. There's very little wrong with
what is here, though the episode may have benefited from another
couple of scenes and a revised ending.
The Vampires Of Venice
7/10