Doctor Who: Series 5, Episode 6 – “The Vampires of Venice” (2010)

*Spoilers for “Flesh and Stone”*

This episode is a mixed bag for me. I always enjoy when Who puts a sci-fi spin on classic horror characters, and the late Helen McCrory’s guest appearance is worth the price of admission on its own, but anytime Moffat toys with the idea of a Doctor-Amy-Rory love triangle, it tends to get awkward, and this episode is no exception.

After her terrifying near-death experience with the Weeping Angels in the previous episode, Amy decided to seize the day by doing her darndest to jump the Eleventh Doctor’s bones. He was not on board with that, for all kinds of reasons, including the fact that Amy had just admitted to him that she’s getting married in the morning. The Doctor decides the best way to deal with this is to pick up Rory and take him and Amy both on a “wedding present” trip, so they can share in the adventure together. The TARDIS brings them to 16th century Venice, where a mysterious aristocrat named Rosanna runs a school for a select group of girls. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory are enlisted to help a man who worries for his daughter’s safety after she was accepted to the school.

The episode’s take on vampires is a lot of fun. I enjoy the alien explanations it gives for the various bits of vampire mythology: the fangs, the aversion to sunlight, not appearing in mirrors. Also, I adore the Doctor and Amy’s giddy excitement to be facing off against vampires, while Rory is standing here going, “Okay, but dangerous, though?!?” And Rosanna is simply a splendid baddie—intelligent, otherworldly, and elegant. Helen McCrory gives excellent vampire in the role, and I love the scene where she and the Doctor get a measure of one another. My first time watching series 5, I remember being struck by how Matt Smith really made you feel the weight of the Doctor’s years in their interactions.

There’s all kinds of other good stuff here too. I get a kick out of the Doctor crashing Rory’s stag night—in the most Doctor way possible—to take Rory away in the TARDIS. I’m tickled by the Doctor accidentally flashing his library card (with One’s picture on it!) to the vampires. And Rory has a terrific speech where he lays out why he thinks the Doctor is so dangerous. “It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you,” he says. “You make it so they don't want to let you down.”

However, the climax is pretty goofy, and while the show is capable of doing the Doctor-Amy-Rory stuff well, they can also belabor it way too much. This is from the end of “Flesh and Stone,” but it’s never clear why a near-death experience makes Amy so determined to cheat on her fiancee the night before her wedding. The Doctor is firmly of the opinion that he doesn’t want anything to do with any love triangle business—when Amy inevitably suggests she infiltrates Rosanna’s school, the Doctor suggests he come along and pose as her father, with Amy reminding him, “You look about nine.” But unfortunately, Rory just can’t seem to get that part. To be fair, it’s the night before his wedding and he found out his fiancee was kissing her childhood “imaginary friend,” but by and large, he’s the one making it into a competition with the Doctor, who’s not trying to do any of that. Rory gets squirrelly at the thought of Amy and the Doctor fighting alien vampires together, and there’s a dick-measuring metaphor using flashlights. And personally, I don’t like having dick-measuring metaphors in Doctor Who. 

So boo for that. Still, it’s a pretty enjoyable episode overall, and while the aggravating elements bring it down for me, they’re not enough to spoil it.

Doctor Who: Series 7, Episode 8 – “The Rings of Akhaten” (2013)

Series 7 definitely isn’t my favorite season of new Who. For my money, it’s a little too much of Moffat up to his usual tricks, and I’m not thrilled about how any of the companions are written. But I dunno—I’m an easy mark, I guess, because this is one series 7 episode that I love.

For her first official trip as a companion, the Eleventh Doctor takes Clara to the Rings of Akhaten, where the residents of seven planets have gathered for a festival centered around an ancient ceremony. Clara helps a frightened little girl, not realizing they’re about to get drawn into a fight with a hungry Old God.

I really enjoy the set up of Akhaten and everything surrounding that. All the music is really well done, and I like a good “first taste of an alien world” scene for a companion—it’s fun to watch Clara try some luminous blue fruit (she’s not a fan) and attempt to talk to an alien who communicates through barks and growls.

What’s more, the whole notion of a currency based on sentimental value is interesting to me. This is an episode that’s all about what matters at the core of us: the people who’ve touched us, the emotions that shape us, the stories that make us who we are. There’s nothing more precious than that, or more powerful. And really, when you get down to it, isn’t that why we love Doctor Who?

It's a pretty decent adventure for Clara. I’ll always and forever have issues with her tugging on the locked door of a time machine and taking that as proof that the time machine doesn’t like her. But I love how kind and reassuring she is with Merry—this is the episode that makes the best use of Clara being a nanny, in my opinion—as well as how determined she is to help first Merry, then the Doctor, when things go south. She spends a good chunk of this episode confused/in over her head, but that has zero bearing on her desire to help.

Meanwhile, it’s a great episode for the Doctor, although he too has a large “I call bullshit” moment. (Really, Doctor? 900+ years old, and your sonic screwdriver is your only possession of sentimental value? I’d bet money that’s not your only possession of sentimental value that you currently have on you—I know your pockets are bigger on the inside!) His faceoff against the Old God is one of my absolute favorite Eleventh Doctor scenes. Matt Smith has such a talent for giving you these glimpses where you can see exactly how old the Doctor is, and he employs that beautifully in this episode. From the moment he cinches his bowtie and sighs, “Righty-ho, then,” I’m just gone.

Doctor Who: Series 6, Episode 11 – “The God Complex” (2011)

*Episode premise spoilers.*

It took me a couple viewings to really get into this one, but once I did, I liked it a lot. An excellent Eleventh Doctor adventure that takes the story to some very interesting place.

The TARDIS lands in a seemingly inescapable motel, one where all the rooms are filled with bad dreams. What’s more, everyone in the motel has “their door,” the room holding their own worst nightmare: if you find your door and look inside, you’re killed by a beast lurking somewhere in the hotel. The Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory try to help the others trapped in the motel get out alive, all while trying to avoid finding their own doors.

The parts that took a little getting used to for me were some stylistic choices in the episode. The editing gets frenetic at times, which feels to me like an attempt to up the creepiness in a way that’s a bit too self-conscious.  Similarly, I don’t think it was necessary to have the motel corridors twist and turn the guests around so they pop up in unexpected places—I get that it adds to the labyrinthine atmosphere (given the bona fide minotaur roaming around,) but to me, it’s another extraneous bit of “creep factor” that distracts from the main story.

I love a good “our nightmares are coming to life” story in a genre show. In fact, I’ve talked about that before on the Sunday Who Review, with “The Nightmare Man” from The Sarah Jane Adventures. Unfortunately, the episode is a little stingy with showing us the Doctor and companions’ nightmares—we only see inside one of their doors—but the rooms for the other characters are done well. I also really enjoy where the episode ultimately takes this story, the realization of what the motel is for. The Doctor makes critical mistakes early on when his strategies unwittingly lead Amy, Rory, and the others in the wrong direction.

There are some great oneshot characters in this episode. Rita is prime companion material, and I love her interactions with the Doctor. And the introduction of the Tivolians as a new alien race, hailing from “the most conquered planet in the galaxy,” is super fun. Gibbis cracks me up throughout the episode with lines like, “I’m in Town Planning. We’re lining all the highways with trees so invading forces can march in the shade.”

The interactions between team TARDIS are excellent as well. The Doctor-Amy relationship gets some major spotlight scenes, exploring the nature of their connection and the implications that’s had on Amy’s life. And we sneak in some Doctor-Rory moments too, which are rarer to see but always welcome! Strong emotional storytelling with these three all around.