One of the great strengths of DOCTOR WHO is that its format allows it be flexible . As season two of the new series shows one week we can have a terrifying horror story featuring Satan followed a week later by a post modernist black comedy with a well regarded comedian in a guest role . Unfortunately by season five there seems to be a lack of imagination involved . Time Of Angels / Flesh and Stone was an improvement on previous weeks but Vampires In Venice is a rather retro step from the improvement in the last two weeks , so much so that there's the feeling it's a left over story from the RTD era
The eponymous vampires aren't vampires at all , they're aliens from another planet disguised as vampires . Tooth And Claw also had a mythical monster - a werewolf - who wasn't a mythical monster at all but an alien pretending to be something it wasn't . Why do the production team insist on making mythical creatures of horror in to aliens ? Is that so there will be a big pay off climax involving lots of spectacular special effects ? Sometimes less should be more especially if spectacle replaces drama
Sadly much of the drama is spoiled in this story by the amount of humour .. Rory's stag night is ruined by the Doctor pouncing out of a cake which led to a laugh from me . Unfortunately the rest of humour fails to work because it's laid on with a trowel . Sexual innuendo raises its ugly head as characters complain " Yours is bigger than mine " something I'd hoped had disappeared with RTD Rory becomes a comedy character very much like Mickey as he throws insult and tries to defend himself with a broomstick from a vampire . Amy too fails to convince as she is abducted by vampires and makes jokes about Ofsted . Of course with this type of show there's a suspension of disbelief but it works against its own advantage when the human characters crack jokes in the face of death . The Doctor might be able to get away with it but not the human characters
All in all this is a fairly average story from Toby Whitehouse who wrote the very enjoyable School Reunion from season two . There are good aspects such as the wonderful production values and the good performances of the supporting cast but we've come to expect that over the last few years . Perhaps more worryingly Moffat seems to be resting on the laurels of the success RTD years . As soon as he took the job Moffat claimed that he wasn't in the nostalgia business but unfortunately nostalgia along with deja vu seems to be in abundance this season which whilst not being a bad thing one had hoped to see something a bit more radical
The eponymous vampires aren't vampires at all , they're aliens from another planet disguised as vampires . Tooth And Claw also had a mythical monster - a werewolf - who wasn't a mythical monster at all but an alien pretending to be something it wasn't . Why do the production team insist on making mythical creatures of horror in to aliens ? Is that so there will be a big pay off climax involving lots of spectacular special effects ? Sometimes less should be more especially if spectacle replaces drama
Sadly much of the drama is spoiled in this story by the amount of humour .. Rory's stag night is ruined by the Doctor pouncing out of a cake which led to a laugh from me . Unfortunately the rest of humour fails to work because it's laid on with a trowel . Sexual innuendo raises its ugly head as characters complain " Yours is bigger than mine " something I'd hoped had disappeared with RTD Rory becomes a comedy character very much like Mickey as he throws insult and tries to defend himself with a broomstick from a vampire . Amy too fails to convince as she is abducted by vampires and makes jokes about Ofsted . Of course with this type of show there's a suspension of disbelief but it works against its own advantage when the human characters crack jokes in the face of death . The Doctor might be able to get away with it but not the human characters
All in all this is a fairly average story from Toby Whitehouse who wrote the very enjoyable School Reunion from season two . There are good aspects such as the wonderful production values and the good performances of the supporting cast but we've come to expect that over the last few years . Perhaps more worryingly Moffat seems to be resting on the laurels of the success RTD years . As soon as he took the job Moffat claimed that he wasn't in the nostalgia business but unfortunately nostalgia along with deja vu seems to be in abundance this season which whilst not being a bad thing one had hoped to see something a bit more radical