VAMPIRES OF VENICE

The anticipation of this story was enormous. The trailers promised a spectacular preternatural gothic romp in Venice. Just to let you know, I am a very big fan of Anne Rice and her brilliantly conceived vampire tales, thus I feel that I could comment with some breadth of knowledge regarding the subject matter, truth be told I was really looking forward to a real treat here! In anticipation, my mind began interlinking events in the Tom Baker story State of Decay and subsequent Vampire Doctor Who novels. Lots of exciting ‘what ifs’ exploding in my mind, supposed delicacies that were entrées for this new story ‘Vampires in Venice.’
Instead I got a wet fish, how disappointing this was, so please forgive me if I am not singing the virtues of this very lame and ill-conceived episode.
Quick Master-Class for Mr Whithouse, you’re script lacked depth as well as perceived anticipation and had no mystery or suspense woven into the seams of the scenes. To be fair this is to some extent the Director’s job, however there were fundamental errors made at the very start of conception starting with the basic outline of the script. The script and storyboard should have supported the process more fully; even Mr Moffat should have picked up on the shortfalls before production went too far and final editing really let you down.
Let’s just start with the basic concept, Dr Who arrives in Venice sees a vampire assault a local and follows his nose to gain access to a palazzo that is overrun by a convent of vampires who are in fact aliens disguised as humanoid vampires- who are really fish people planning to convert a group of young girls into a breeding colony because they lost their own female counterparts while escaping from a disaster on their planet – as the audience we know all this very early on because the teeser has shown it all before the opening credits went up – get the point! We have already lost the suspense/mystery element here because we know almost the entire concept. I know some will say, we only have 45 minutes, and I would remind you that other shows achieve it, lesson one don’t suppose the audience need to be told everything right at the start build up the story gradually and with seasoned mystery.
It would have been so much better for the Doctor and company to meet with the Vampires/Aliens and for the viewing audience to not initially know what or who these sinister and intriguing characters were.
Lesson two support the main concept with interesting sub-plots. Where were the intriguing and thought provoking puzzles for us to ponder?
The hapless companion was separated from the Doctor as is usual with this format, but the plot-line was empty because we did not find out anything that we did not already know. We only had the father/daughter scenario.
Lesson three support the main plot with a well thought out back story that brings out heartfelt emotions and helps the actors connect to the audience. We didn’t really believe or care about the story behind the alien characters, that were blown up or turned to dust, they didn’t connect to us and seemed like pawns in a computer game. We didn’t really understand or connect to who or what was under the water or feel for their predicament or their ultimate demise. Thinking about it, are they still there swimming around the backwaters of Venice.
Sorry to sound so critical there were some excellent highs in the show the leader of the vampire convent put on a fine performance and delivered well. The downside of this was that because she was so striking the cast and extras supporting her seemed even more wooden and dreadful.
The Doctor was ever developing playing both comic roles and serious, Amy was however a little lost and her boyfriend was given a poor uninspiring thread of narrative that never achieved it’s possible full potential.
The writer of the episode was seen in Doctor Who Confidential absorbing interesting research and stories of real vampires in Venice, with help from a Venetian – (I would have given him a part in the show, so much gravitas in his voice) who gave him some interesting tales that could have spun a wonderful intriguing plot line for this concept, Mr Whithouse appeared to ignore this folklore, what a shame!
The overall look of the show was also disappointing; it was not dark enough, very Casanova (BBC). Being like this made it look like a holiday show and not what I had hoped for – a vampiric lore full of sensuous, supernatural, gothic undertones a continuation of a myth, which Dr Who is usually so good at doing.

I find it disrespectful to liken this story to any film and prefer to notice similarities with Classic Who in particular the Sylvester Mcoy story The Curse of Fenric. Another story that was poorly conceived and developed. I think that the production team may have looked at this one for ideas for camera angles because similar ones pop up in this new production. Most of my disappointed stems from the commitment to real vampires and the use of the subterfuge idea with aliens.
Please also note that the CGI alien fishes were dreadful, when creating such a creature – refer to the film Hellboy in future. They were laughable and poorly executed. I so prefer it when these creatures are designed by the special effects team and created in latex with real actors.
I also noticed that on the BBC Website there are some excellent stills of this episode so something was going right somewhere, costume department excelling themselves and the Confidential film team once again getting some great shots from different angles – well done!
Also as a final note these historical based stories always seem to start with the Tardis landing in a Market place, it is so boring now to keep doing this, here is a challenge try to think of a new idea to introduce the Tardis crew in the scene, let me know what you think?
Many fans of the excellent Being Human (BBC) were probably expecting more from Toby Whithouse – he has produced a well thought out, sensitive and planned drama here.