Vampires in Venice
Finally got around to watching this and have to say I really really enjoyed it.
Generally I'm really enjoying this series of Who - I think in terms of quality its right up there with the 1st series of New Who. I find that when I get to the end of the episodes I actually have a desire to re-watch them which certainly wasn't the case with the dying episodes of Rusty's reign.
I mean even the very weak emo space whale episode had a certain eccentric charm to it and while the Dalek ep may well indeed have been a rather cynical way to sell more toys and was more about Moffat's desire to give the Dalek's their balls back with them having been castrated under Rusty's reign, it was at least admirably bonkers.
I liked the monsters in this episode. The design of the fish monsters was impressive and the costumes for their human forms were quite superb. I also liked that they had some emotional heft with Helen McCrory giving a subtly nasty performance as the mother desperate to keep her species alive and the mummy's boy son was a nice touch.
I adored David Tennant but Matt Smith continues to be beyond superb as the Doctor. Him bursting out of the cake was hilarious and I loved his interactions with everyone in this episode including Rory. Tennant could never quite pull off the shouty bits but Matt Smith has the moral indignation down pat such as when he vowed to stop the Countessa because she didn't know the name of the woman she had blithely executed.
The show continues its unfortunate trend of killing off the ethnic minority characters but at least Isabella and her father were the two bravest characters in this episode.
What I rather liked about the episode was the way Rory was bought into the fold. Compare Moffat's treatment of Rory with Rusty's treatment of Mickey. Mickey who committed no crime other than dating Rose Tyler was portrayed as "inferior" from the get go. He was branded Mickey the Idiot. The Doctor treated him with open disdain and it was made clear that he wasn't welcome. He was shown to be cowardly and weak and the narrative repeatedly slammed home that Mickey wasn't good enough and that for Rose to stay with him as opposed to travelling with the Doctor would be a "waste" and that she wouldn't live up to her potential.
I always hated that Mickey had to go through this slightly forced transformation into "defender of the Earth" before the other characters felt he had worth. Mickey was a nice lad from a council estate who was dating a nice girl called Rose who he treated well. Just because he didn't have a time machine didn't mean he wasn't worthy and I hated that he was treated as such.
Rory is inevitably portrayed slightly comically and he bumbles awkwardly through introducing Amy to the Countessa and isn't that much cop in a fight but he's shown to be brave (refusing to leave the Doctor) and willing to stand up for himself with the Doctor. And crucially the Doctor never treats him with disdain quite happy to have Rory along and very tolearant when Rory starts griping about him. It was a much nicer dynamic and I rather hope we get Amy and Rory in the Tardis for a few episodes yet.
Also the section at the end where everything just went silent because the "silence" had caught up? Super creepy and effective.
So a bit of a light weight episode with some slightly stilted plotting but still very enjoyable television.