DW 5x06 - Vampires in Venice
May. 8th, 2010 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caz963There has already been speculation as to why Eleven wasn't keen on the idea of running into Casanova.
Heh. I do like a good in-joke.
Reminds me - I really must finish that bloody crack!fic I started ages ago. *waits for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zinke to slap me about a bit!*
Anyway. On to this week's episode.
Vampires in Venice was a lot of fun. Although I'm waiting for the complaints to start pouring into the BBC about showing something that scary at 6pm. The complaints about last week's episode (which I think started at 6.25?) were about the scare factor and about the Amy-tries-to-jump-the-Doctor scene at the end being unsuitable for the timeslot. But hang on a minute. The BBC can't pick a timeslot and bloody stick to it, so it's not the the programme's fault! It's not that the material is inapprioriate for the timeslot, it's the other way around! The timeslot, when it's this early, isn't appropriate for the material! My youngest (she's 7) was pretty upset by the scene in which Amy is strapped to the chair and about to be bitten by the 'vampires' - she couldn't get behind the sofa, so instead buried her head in cushions!
That was probably the funniest episode of series 5 so far - written by the guy behind one of my all time favourite nu-Who episodes, School Reunion(and, of course Being Human.) Eleven jumping out of the cake and babbling about someone needing to give Lucy a jumper, the stuff about the bigger torch ("let's not go there") and the "the only thing I've seen uglier than you... is your mum!" moment ... It was a pretty ordinary episode in plot terms, but there was some dialogue there to die for!
Eleven and Amy's excitement over the 'vampires' reminded me of Ten and Rose squeeing over the warewolf in Tooth and Claw.
No visual cracks this week, but instead, a crack-story and a reminder about "the silence", which I don't think has been referenced since the first episode. And that little bit at the end - where all they can hear is silence. Nice. If a little obvious.
Rory is a fantastic addition to team-TARDIS. He starts out a bit bewildered - although he's done his homework since Prisoner Zero - and is obviously a bit threatened by the Doctor, but I get the sense that by the end they've bonded a bit, and the Doctor is obviously delighted to have him along for the ride. I hope he's not going to get the Mickey treatment - I think he's got more of a chance of not being so trodden on actually, because I got the sense that while this trip might not have turned out to be the romantic getaway the Doctor intended, Amy has started to remember why she agreed to marry Rory in the first place. And after all, unlike Mickey, who had to invite himself along (even though Ten didn't object), it was Amy who asked him to stick around. I like the idea of Eleven being an avuncular figure to those two.
And the relationship between 'Amy's boys' has real potential, too. Rory can see he doesn't have a rival for Amy's affections - the scene where the Doctor told her off - "I tell you to go, you go" and Rory thanks him quietly was very effective, as were most of their exchanges.
I think that Matt Smith finally seemed to have settled in this episode. He's been doing a good job so far, but I got more of a sense of a 900+ year-old and sometimes weary Time Lord coming through this week - especially in the scenes with Helen McRory. Her character did seem to suddenly know a lot about the Doctor - she called him "Doctor" but I don't remember his telling her that, and she also spoke about his having let a civilisation turn to ash (can't remember the exact words), which I took as a reference to Pompeii - although I suppose it could also apply to Gallifrey, which of course, he did mention.
I have to say that usually, I can live with below-par special effects - it's television on a limited budget; not everything is going to be perfect. But this week's 'storm' was pretty ropey, I have to admit. And turning the weather off was a pretty anti-climactic...er... climax. But still, the rest of the episode was good, and I liked the writing and the way that the relationship between the Doctor, Amy and Rory is working, so I can roll my eyes at the denouement with a shrug and a nod back to the wobbly sets of old.
Next week's episode looks pretty damn awesome. And they've moved it back to 6.25. Honestly, BBC, you don't piss about like this with any of your other top drama shows, so why do it with DW? You're getting terrific viewing figures (considering) and making a decent amount of money out of merchandising and overseas sales, (I assume) so start treating it with the respect it deserves, okay?
Heh. I do like a good in-joke.
Reminds me - I really must finish that bloody crack!fic I started ages ago. *waits for
zinke to slap me about a bit!*Anyway. On to this week's episode.
Vampires in Venice was a lot of fun. Although I'm waiting for the complaints to start pouring into the BBC about showing something that scary at 6pm. The complaints about last week's episode (which I think started at 6.25?) were about the scare factor and about the Amy-tries-to-jump-the-Doctor scene at the end being unsuitable for the timeslot. But hang on a minute. The BBC can't pick a timeslot and bloody stick to it, so it's not the the programme's fault! It's not that the material is inapprioriate for the timeslot, it's the other way around! The timeslot, when it's this early, isn't appropriate for the material! My youngest (she's 7) was pretty upset by the scene in which Amy is strapped to the chair and about to be bitten by the 'vampires' - she couldn't get behind the sofa, so instead buried her head in cushions!
That was probably the funniest episode of series 5 so far - written by the guy behind one of my all time favourite nu-Who episodes, School Reunion(and, of course Being Human.) Eleven jumping out of the cake and babbling about someone needing to give Lucy a jumper, the stuff about the bigger torch ("let's not go there") and the "the only thing I've seen uglier than you... is your mum!" moment ... It was a pretty ordinary episode in plot terms, but there was some dialogue there to die for!
Eleven and Amy's excitement over the 'vampires' reminded me of Ten and Rose squeeing over the warewolf in Tooth and Claw.
No visual cracks this week, but instead, a crack-story and a reminder about "the silence", which I don't think has been referenced since the first episode. And that little bit at the end - where all they can hear is silence. Nice. If a little obvious.
Rory is a fantastic addition to team-TARDIS. He starts out a bit bewildered - although he's done his homework since Prisoner Zero - and is obviously a bit threatened by the Doctor, but I get the sense that by the end they've bonded a bit, and the Doctor is obviously delighted to have him along for the ride. I hope he's not going to get the Mickey treatment - I think he's got more of a chance of not being so trodden on actually, because I got the sense that while this trip might not have turned out to be the romantic getaway the Doctor intended, Amy has started to remember why she agreed to marry Rory in the first place. And after all, unlike Mickey, who had to invite himself along (even though Ten didn't object), it was Amy who asked him to stick around. I like the idea of Eleven being an avuncular figure to those two.
And the relationship between 'Amy's boys' has real potential, too. Rory can see he doesn't have a rival for Amy's affections - the scene where the Doctor told her off - "I tell you to go, you go" and Rory thanks him quietly was very effective, as were most of their exchanges.
I think that Matt Smith finally seemed to have settled in this episode. He's been doing a good job so far, but I got more of a sense of a 900+ year-old and sometimes weary Time Lord coming through this week - especially in the scenes with Helen McRory. Her character did seem to suddenly know a lot about the Doctor - she called him "Doctor" but I don't remember his telling her that, and she also spoke about his having let a civilisation turn to ash (can't remember the exact words), which I took as a reference to Pompeii - although I suppose it could also apply to Gallifrey, which of course, he did mention.
I have to say that usually, I can live with below-par special effects - it's television on a limited budget; not everything is going to be perfect. But this week's 'storm' was pretty ropey, I have to admit. And turning the weather off was a pretty anti-climactic...er... climax. But still, the rest of the episode was good, and I liked the writing and the way that the relationship between the Doctor, Amy and Rory is working, so I can roll my eyes at the denouement with a shrug and a nod back to the wobbly sets of old.
Next week's episode looks pretty damn awesome. And they've moved it back to 6.25. Honestly, BBC, you don't piss about like this with any of your other top drama shows, so why do it with DW? You're getting terrific viewing figures (considering) and making a decent amount of money out of merchandising and overseas sales, (I assume) so start treating it with the respect it deserves, okay?
