Skip to content
TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Production Code

1.6

Written by

Toby Whithouse

Directed by

Jonny Campbell

Runtime

50 minutes

Time Travel

Past

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Vampires, First TARDIS trip, Earth Invasion, Shape Shifting

Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!)

Crack in time, Silence Will Fall

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, England, Italy, Leadworth, Venice

UK Viewers

7.68 million

Appreciation Index

86

Synopsis

The Eleventh Doctor takes Amy and Rory, soon to be married, on a romantic trip to Venice, 1580 to make Amy focus on her relationship with her fiancé. However, things in Venice aren't quite what they seem. Warnings of the plague are spreading about despite it having died out years before, and pale, creepy girls who don't like sunlight are lurking around. Could it have something to do with the school run by the mysterious Rosanna Calvierri?

Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat

Characters

How to watch The Vampires of Venice:

Reviews

Add Review Edit Review

1 review

This review contains spoilers!

This is the closest to a meh or indistinct story we have had in the 11th Doctor's era so far. A few likable features pull it into the show's mid-table. I do generally feel Toby Whithouse stories (with the exception of his first, School Reunion) lack a "big pull".

Easily the best part of the story is Rory and Amy's romance. Over the first four stories The Doctor and Amy have built up a strong onscreen connection (perhaps too strong?) so it is sincerely funny and sweet seeing bumbling, fusty, funny Rory interrupt this settled dynamic. Seeing someone reduced to third wheeling with their fiancée and a polite, alien stranger is inherently hilarious! I am glad that the show put the inappropriate kiss from the episode before behind it - even if it was the starting point for this story. They style it out well.

My wife loves anything even tangentially connected to vampires (she's from Transylvania) so was a lot warmer on the baddie of the week than I was. I felt I had very little to grab onto. The fact they are almost but not quite vampires makes them a bit muddled in my view.

So the story has to rely on the characters... which luckily for Toby Whithouse make for compelling, charming company.


Open in new window

Statistics

AVG. Rating571 members
3.11 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating1,161 votes
3.75 / 5

The Time Scales

AVG. Rating193 votes
3.35 / 5

Member Statistics

Watched

1256

Favourited

37

Reviewed

1

Saved

2

Skipped

1

Owned

9

Quotes

Add Quote

Submit a Quote

Transcript Needs checking

[Throne room]

(Venice, 1580. In a large, otherwise empty chamber, a woman sits on a throne under a canopy, with her son standing at her side. Her Steward leads in a man and his young daughter.)

GUIDO: Signora, your school offers a chance for betterment, escape. My daughter. Isabella is seventeen now, but what prospects are there for the daughter of a boat builder? There's no future for us. No future but you.
ROSANNA: I am moved by your concern for your daughter. I believe protecting the future of one's own is a sacred duty.
GUIDO: Signora, she is my world.
ROSANNA: Then we will take your world.

(This makes Guido and his daughter very happy.)

GUIDO: I knew it.
ROSANNA: Say goodbye to your daughter.
GUIDO: Now, signora?
ROSANNA: Why wait? Time ticks.
GUIDO: Be brave, my girl. Make me proud.


Open in new window