S5E6: Vampires of Venice (Spoilers)

Looking good! I'd like to say the same for the female Vampires, but unfortunately they have inch long fangs!

Discuss!

Its actually got a the at the start.(how weird am I?!)

looks good- hope its' more like a hammer horror look- seems pretty creepy

beep wrote:

Its actually got a the at the start.(how weird am I?!)

Ah well lol.

i have a feeling this may be a bad episode. i'd rather not see the doctor play matchmaker.

I'm kind of looking forward to that, actually. The way #s 9 and 10 looked down on Mickey for being normal and unremarkable always sat poorly with me, even though I enjoyed the Rose/Doctor quasi-romance.* When one considers that Mickey eventually turned out to have plenty of "action hero" in his blood, the Doctor's dismissal of the poor guy is even more irksome. 11 is such a totally different animal, though; he was oblivious to Amy's feelings for him (which I personally think are being exacerbated by some external force), and he seems determined to get her "sorted out," though not in the way she'd like.

(*What I really love about this show is that, because of the format, it can do anything, and the character is continually reinvented. Horror, romance, sci-fi, comedy, suspense...Doctor Who works in just about every way possible, and I love seeing the formula twisted into new configurations. I also love hearing aging, set-in-their-ways fanboys snarl and gnash their teeth when the show zigs when they expect it to zag.)

i don't mind that he's going to be a matchmaker i just rather it not be drawn out for a whole episode. and i agree i like the fact the doctor is not looking down on normal people anymore. i'm probably worrying about nothing and the episode might end up being great.

Tomorrow, we shall see if this goes how I want it to go. I want it to go good, but lloads of people have put a dampner on it for me I'm still excited though!

Some of my favorite Doctor Who episodes drew major inspiration from Hammer (Talons of Weng Chiang and Stones of Blood to name two), and I'm excited to see how this plays out. Romanticized vampires are SO lame; it's nice to see them as monsters again.

Just getting ready now! Almost onn... here we go!

Going well so far! Very nice episode so far, indeed!

I was right! Fantastic episode! Brilliant! Molto benne! The 'baddy' of the next looks like he's gonna be as iconic as the Master. I bet that's where Moffat is trying to go with this.

It was fun, and a nice ride. Very awesome location really added to the story. I love the cake opening! The silence then was worse than the crack.

And Matt. Every episode, he impresses me. I can see why they knew he was The Doctor on the first audition.

A good episode! Lots to like in it...I voted OK, but only because I wasn't quite as amazingly excited as I was in the episodes preceding...maybe it's cause I'm sick today...cause as I think about it, I want to upgrade my vote! I enjoyed it a lot, though!

I enjoyed the heck out of this one; it was pretty much everything I hoped it would be.

GOOD
Matt was superb, as usual. I loved the way the Doctor interacted with Rory: totally the opposite of the condescending way Doctors 9 and 10 treated Mickey.

I'm not into vampire stories, really, but this one subverted the vampire paradigm wonderfully. The pseudoscientific explanation behind their lack of reflections and so forth? Great fun!

The actress who played the villainess really gave a wonderful performance. Sinister, but nuanced with sadness. I'm a sucker for a villain who is at least a little sympathetic.

Pre-20th century, finally! More trips into the past, please! I love a period piece, and WWII just isn't far enough back for me.

The opening bit with the cake was a scream. "Thought I'd jumped out of the wrong cake...again."

BAD
Some of the effects were pretty dodgy. Then again, this is Doctor Who...the sets weren't cardboard and the monsters weren't made of tinfoil, so we're better off than we used to be!

Stopping the device came off as a bit rushed. It might have been better if the Doctor had actually commented on the fact that it was rather easy to shut down. Minor quibble.

FINAL ANALYSIS
Not a perfect episode, but great nonetheless! All in all, I'm having a blast with this season!

i was wrong this turned out to be a great episode ..wow, and i voted fantastic. i loved the cake segment with very the david brent-ish awkward moment.
i think rory might turn out to be a good companion. it was great how rory was able to tell the doctor what he thought of him and how he unknowingly manipulates and influences people to doing things they really shouldn't. with that scene i know he won't just be the "comic relief" companion.
overall this episode was pretty solid, probably the best episode so far. and the library card with the first 1st doctor was a nice touch.
next week looks really good.

Yeah, I'm quite pleased with Rory too! I'm glad that the Doctor no longer looks down on people like him. I wonder if Mickey would come back? I have a feeling he'd like the Doctor more, now.

Good episode -- probably about the best we can expect from Doctor Who these days. I don't think it was especially fantastic, and I didn't find it as compelling or thought-provoking as it could have been, but I didn't notice any glaring faults.

Well, besides the Doctor's apparent excitement about encountering vampires... given that his previous encounters with bloodsucking fiends have seen him facing down ultimate evils in the truest sense of the word, you'd think he might have been a touch more worried. (I just watched "State of Decay" the other day in preparation for vampires in Doctor Who -- I found that one to be much more engaging than this one.)

ok, here i am once again(you have been warned). i didn't hate this episode.. also, i didn't love this episode. this episode was just sort of down the middle for me.

as wes crayon mentioned state of decay, i will bring that up as well. i loved state of decay, and thought that that is how you do a vampire story proper(not just for doctor who, but for any scifi show). this show started out that way, but about halfway through, took another turn(i won't spoil that for everyone). so while i really enjoyed the first half, when cg came into the picture(again?), i wasn't impressed, and the story went downhill for me.

as far as a comparison between mickey and rory. i really liked the evolution of mickey. from the first episode he's a guy who might be cheating on rose, a coward, and just rude, but then he grew into a hero, courageous, and brave. rory, is just a dork(sorry to all rory lovers out there). if he hadn't been in this episode, i dont' think it would have really affected much. i just ignored his lines(sort of like i do with jar jar binks). amy just likes rory, because the doctor kept disapearing. sorry, i just don't see a happy ending for this doofus.

i like matt smith as the doctor the more i see him, but i don't like amy, or rory. i'm kind of hoping they both have something to do with the crack thread, and he can start with new companions next year.

A very fun episode.
You can easily pick some holes and gaffes, but still a very good story.

since they weren't vampires should the episode be compared to other vampire stories. as for the episode itself i take it for what it was a fun light adventure with some laughs and thrills. it was a nice change of pace.
i agree i like how mickey turned out. it's after the scene with his grandmother (which was very touching) in rise of the cybermen that i started taking him more seriously. and in the end he got the girl. it just wasn't rose.

since it's called "vampires of venice", yes i think it's fair to compare it to other "vampire" shows. state of decay was a good episode, with a good title, that really didn't mislead you about what the story was.

bret_owen99 wrote:

rory, is just a dork(sorry to all rory lovers out there). if he hadn't been in this episode, i dont' think it would have really affected much. i just ignored his lines(sort of like i do with jar jar binks). amy just likes rory, because the doctor kept disapearing. sorry, i just don't see a happy ending for this doofus.

I haven't decided if I like Rory yet, but I do find him entertaining. I appreciate the Doctor's treatment of Rory not because I'm a big fan of Rory, but because it just reflects well on the Doctor's character. That said, I hope you're wrong aboout there being no happy ending for Rory: in fact, I'd actually like to see Amy and Rory gone at the end of the season, provided we see them getting a happy ending. That would be a big departure from the RTD era. No more tragedy for tragedy's sake, as RTD was wont to indulge in.

bret_owen99 wrote:

since it's called "vampires of venice", yes i think it's fair to compare it to other "vampire" shows. state of decay was a good episode, with a good title, that really didn't mislead you about what the story was.

It's a totally fair comparison, since--details aside--both stories rely on the myth of the vampire for their atmosphere, despite having different takes on things.

As far as the title of The Vampires of Venice being a "mislead," I would personally call it a "misdirect." There might not seem to be much difference there, but "mislead" sounds a tad nefarious, while "misdirect" sounds like a fun storytelling gambit, which seems to have been the writer's intent. That's pretty subjective, though: any misdirect that actually disappoints the viewer rather than amusing him, regardless of the writer's intent, is basically misleading! LOL

bret_owen99 wrote:

since it's called "vampires of venice", yes i think it's fair to compare it to other "vampire" shows. state of decay was a good episode, with a good title, that really didn't mislead you about what the story was.

title is one thing, but the story itself did not feature any vampires. so it wasn't a episode about vampires, and state of decay was a episode that did feature vampires. if you want to compare titles then you got me.