“Tell me the whole plan! …one day that’ll work.”
We are now in the Awkward Doctor phase of this season – see especially “The Lodger.” So Eleven’s comically inept intervention in Rory’s bachelor party. Rory’s immensely jealous, feeding the ludicrous flashlight-envy scene later on. Matt Smith has the sort of enthusiasm that only a new guy can have, but he also does a nice fusion of Baker and Tennant as he goes all cheerful about Venice.
“I like the bit where someone says ‘It’s bigger on the inside.’ I always look forward to that.”
…Matt Smith doesn’t want to run into Casanova. Hilarious.
Well since Ezio Auditore da Firenze isn’t around (and has probably been dead for about 30-50 years), it’s up to the even more flamboyant Francesco to be Mr. Venice. Except he’s something of a mommy’s boy, isn’t he? Good grief, I thought the Edward Cullen School of Vampirism was a joke. The whole hand-or-cape-in-front-of-the-face deal doesn’t really say “fear,” more like “vaudeville.” Though there is a clever bit of foreshadowing when he disappears into the river, so yay.
The Doctor enters a crypt, finds a mirror, finds some people who don’t show up in the mirror, and whips out a library card with William Hartnell’s face on it. Because this is the second Reminder That This Is That Thing With William Hartnell In It that we get this season.
Our heroes assemble and find a convenient amount of gunpowder, but the Doctor has a thing about guns (despite his willingness to use one what, two weeks ago?) Also, they raise the possibility that the villains aren’t vampires, but are instead something worse. Rory has to do a ridiculous Arthur Dent-hapless attempt at subterfuge.
“I have a right to know! I’m getting married in 430 years!”
Well Amy gets herself kidnapped (deliberately) but it doesn’t go according to plan and the Doctor and Rory have to go get her. They have a whole debate about who Amy’s actually in love with – heeeeeeeeeey, guess what the next episode is gonna be about! The Doctor promises Rory that Amy will be fine, and since no companion has actually died since the series came back, we believe him. The new format doesn’t really lend itself to companion deaths anyway, and what we get later on this season is probably as close as we’ll ever come. Speaking of stuff that doesn’t happen often enough, we now finally have a villain who can see through psychic paper.
On another side note, KAREN GILLAN’S LEGS does “hypnotized” wonderfully. On a less encouraging note, that “not watertight” line was cringeworthy. Well they can’t all be winners. And the fake lightning that hits the Doctor near the end of the rescue scene is embarrassingly bad. And the scene after that, where a character has to basically narrate her own death, isn’t very promising either. So yeah, this is kind of polarizing; the premise is good and largely well done, but with one or two embarrassing details. In old-school Who, this wouldn’t have been a major issue, because those effects are always bad.
The scene between the Doctor and the villainess is great, surprisingly better than the one in “School Reunion.” That Matt Smith can hold his own against an actress, what, twenty years older than him is a good sign.
“They’re not vampires. They’re fish from space.”
So we get to our rip-roaring climax, but the weather-changing effect is terrible. Again, not something that would really matter to Old Who.
The Doctor techs the tech and the villainess strips down to her underwear (this is the 1580s, so it’s not exactly revealing) and the commits suicide. The end. There's some random stuff about silence, which is extra-strength foreshadowing, roll credits.
6 out of 10. Could be 7 if the ending wasn't teching the tech.
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