Doctor Who: The Vampires of Venice - Thoughts (S.5 E.6)

Doctor Who: Vampires of Venice
Season Five - Episode 6

"The unexpected, unadvertised solution which kisses it all better is known as a deus ex machina - literally, a god from the machine. And a god from the machine is what the Doctor is now.

A decent detective story provides you with enough tantalising information to allow you to make a stab at a solution before the famous detective struts his stuff in the library. Doctor Who replaces this with speed, fast talking, and what appears to be that wonderful element 'makeitupasyougoalongeum'.
 
The Doctor himself has in recent years been built up into an amalgam of Mother Teresa, Jesus Christ... and Tinkerbell. There is nothing he doesn't know and nothing he can't do... Perhaps they should start transmitting the programme on Sundays.

After all, when you've had your moan you have to admit that it is very, very entertaining, with its heart in the right place, even if its head is often in orbit around Jupiter," he said. "I might shout at the screen again, but I will be watching on Saturday." ~ Terry Pratchett 

 

 I think Pratchett is spot on...but more than 'makeitupasyougoalong-ism' being a recent curse of Doctor Who - I think it's been a problem for quite some years.

He makes a very persuasive case for the Doctor 'being God'. When you think about it like that; the propensity for the Doctor to fail vanishes. There is no conflict because the Doctor can never be stumped. Conflict drives drama - ergo; drama ceases to exist.

I did laugh when the angel 'got him' in Flesh And Stone.  We know the Doctor's never going to be 'got'; there'd be no shows without him.  Atleast they killed Buffy (although it was both in terms of plot and tv series).

anyway.. *cough*

Alas, if anything, The Vampires Of Venice is cookie-cutter Doctor Who. Yes, sumptuously lovely to look at, entertaining and witty, but it's just rehearsing any number of rather tired scenarios from the previous series and not really bringing anything new to the table.

 

 

Yes, it's difficult to try and be original after 47 years and the series is bound to keep offering up traditional stories every year but this just smacked too much of repetition. 

 

 

And for once couldn't we just have a Doctor Who story where the vampires actually are the supernatural bloodsuckers of legend and myth, maybe even tying in with the Great Vampires of State Of Decay? 

 

Why do they automatically have to be space-fish aliens? 

 

Either go for the vampires or go for the marauding space-fish because in the end it'll help avoid all the contrivances chucked into the script to explain why the space-fish are pretending to be vampires and the silly inconsistencies of having creatures that react badly to sunlight romping through the episode in broad daylight only for one of them to be vaporised by a quick flash of sunlight from Amy's Boots No 7 make up mirror.

  

Next Week: How Do You Want Amy?

 

 

Stephanie xx