Doctor Who: The Vampires Of Venice - series 31, episode six

SPOILER ALERT: This weekly blog is for those who have been watching Doctor Who on BBC1. Don’t read ahead if you haven’t seen episode six. Dan Martin’s episode five blog “I will tear down the house of Calviera stone by stone and you know why? You didn’t know her name” Vampires. Toby Whithouse in the writer’s chair. A kooky girl with a big heart and wicked turn of phrase. A cute boy who doesn’t quite grasp the gravity of things going on around him. A youthful looking man with the weight of far more history on his shoulders. To all intents and purposes, The Vampires Of Venice is an episode of Being Human . Well, an episode of Being Human that’s actually an episode of Doctor Who. Set in 16th-century Venice. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. After the thrill of last week – I stand by everything I said – tonight’s episode should have felt a non-event. But if The Vampires Of Venice proved anything, it was that this series has significantly raised standards for Doctor Who. It was beautifully shot, and there was plenty to pick apart: the way every part of the vampire mythos was explained away by Who pseudo-science was delightful; the stand-off between the Doctor and Rosanna was beautifully played; the dialogue as cracking as you’d expect from Whithouse; the Doctor and Amy getting over-excited about there being vampires cute; and the climactic shot of the Doctor scaling the tower in the rain was just the correct level of broad brushstroke. Not “horse-jumping-out-of-a-mirror”, but good nonetheless. “You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves” The other point of this story was the introduction of Rory as a Tardis regular. Last week’s sexy-gate, you see, was merely a plot device for the Doctor to get him and Amy back together. It’s nice that they’re not playing the storyline out as a love triangle – while there’s fun stuff to play out with the “yours is bigger”, “let’s not go there,” sequence, by the closing credits the whole situation is resolved. Where do we go from here? Can the show support three lead characters – or is Rory heading for heartbreak? Amy still doesn’t sound like she’s in any hurry to get married. But hapless as he may be, Rory has earned his stripes and is, for now at least, full-time on the team. It’s also a nice touch that Rory is ‘the guy with the camera-phone. None of this is accidental, I’d wager. “Can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race? Remember us. Dream of us” Echoes of the Time War as the Doctor is forced to allow the extinction of one race to save not even the whole of another one. Rosanna’s final watery suicide brings a nice gravitas to what might otherwise have felt like a fluffy filler episode. “There were cracks. Some were tiny. Some were as big as the sky” And things are now hotting up with the larger series story arc, as we catch a glimpse of the silence (can you even catch a glimpse of silence?) that Prisoner Zero spoke of back in the first episode . These teasers at the end of each episode might feel a little repetitive, but Steven Moffat’s ability to restore cliffhangers even to single-episode stories is another nice feature of this series . With love Eerie vampire girls and bloodsuckers from the sea. This all feels a bit Curse Of Fenric . And people running round Venice in red shirts? That’ll be a nod to Don’t Look Now. Timey trivia This was actually filmed in Croatia, because 21st century Venice doesn’t look a lot like 16th century Venice. Next week! In Amy’s Choice, it’s five years later, Amy and Rory are back living in Leadworth and she’s pregnant. Until the Doctor walks back into their lives. Intriguing, not least because the episode is written by Simon “Men Behaving Badly” Nye. 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