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Date 8th May 2010
Cast The Doctor Matt Smith
Crew Written by Toby Whithouse
Grip John Robinson
Plot Outline from Wikipedia Following Amy's attempts to seduce him, the Doctor gatecrashes her fiancé Rory's stag party and tells him the problem. Knowing full well that travelling with him has a habit of destroying his companions' lives and relationships on Earth, the Doctor decides to take Amy and Rory on a romantic trip to get their relationship back on track. The TARDIS lands in the city of Venice in 1580, but he quickly discovers all is not well, as according to the citizens, plague is running rampant, and the city has been placed under quarantine at the order of the city's patron, Signora Rosanna Calvierri.
The Doctor heads to the Calvierri's palazzo, where he discovers that Rosanna runs a school for the betterment of young ladies which is highly sought after. However, as the Doctor watches, he sees a Venetian boat-builder called Guido, who had entered his daughter Isabella into the school several days before, trying to remove her. After Guido is turned away by the guards, the Doctor goes after him and learns that something evil is happening in the school, for his daughter didn't recognise him, and the girl who turned him away had a face like an animal. Meanwhile, Amy and Rory, desperately trying to get along, hear a scream, and go to investigate, finding Rosanna's son, Francesco Calvierri, drinking blood from the neck of a flower girl. As Rory tends to the girl, Amy chases Francesco, only to lose him when he turns into an alley that opens on to the canal. Meanwhile, with Guido's help, the Doctor sneaks into the school, where he is ambushed by five beautiful girls. Upon noticing the girls have no reflections, and seeing their teeth are curved fangs, the Doctor quickly makes an escape and tells Amy, Rory and Guido the problem: there are vampires in Venice.
Needing a way into the school, Amy suggests that she pose as a destitute girl to gain entrance to the school, then open a way for the Doctor and the others to enter. Despite his distaste for the idea, the Doctor reluctantly agrees; however Amy is caught opening a trap door for the others and is taken to a chamber by Rosanna, Francesco and the other girl to be transformed. As they sneak into the school, the Doctor and Rory find a desiccated female corpse; the Doctor theorises that not all the girls survive the process of being turned into vampires, and Rory angrily tells the Doctor that the greatest danger he poses to his companions is the fact he drives his companions to put themselves at risk trying to impress him. Fortunately, the Doctor and Rory, with the help of Isabella, are able to rescue Amy and escape, though Isabella is caught and thrown into the canal, where something alive in the water drags her under.
The Doctor goes back to the school and confronts Rosanna. He identifies her as a Saturnynian, a race of aquatic beings. The vampiric traits displayed are a result of the natural teeth of the species, their natural aversion to sunlight (being deep-sea creatures) and a perception filter they wear to give themselves human appearance by manipulating brain waves which is rendered redundant when seen in a mirror, hence no reflection; the teeth emerge when attacking because, sensing danger, the human brain 'tweaks' the perception filter to see something dangerous. Rosanna explains that her people's planet was lost when "silence fell" and that they fell through a crack in time that sealed behind them, leaving the Saturnynians trapped in 16th century Venice. When the Doctor identifies himself as from Gallifrey, Rosanna proposes an alliance to restore their peoples together, but the Doctor refuses and departs after confirming that she doesn't even remember Isabella's name. Rosanna remarks that she will "bend the heavens" to save her people, then orders her girls to kill the Doctor and his companions.
At Guido's house, the Doctor realises that the Saturnynians are planning to make Venice habitable for their species by sinking the city. The purpose of Rosanna's school was to lure girls to the school that could be converted into female Saturnynians, since only Rosanna and her male offspring survived the fall through time. At that moment, the Calvierri girls, now fully transformed into Saturnynians, attack the house, but Guido buys the Doctor, Amy and Rory enough time to escape by detonating barrels of gunpowder he had stolen from his workplace at the Arsenal, killing the girls but sacrificing himself. At the same time, Rosanna activates a device that triggers an immense storm over Venice; the Doctor realises that the storm will trigger earthquakes and tsunamis that will sink the city and tells her that all the female Saturnynians she has created are dead. Then, with the help of Amy and Rory, he deactivates the device, saving Venice. Defeated, Rosanna throws herself into the water in human form to be eaten by her doomed offspring, but not before tormenting the Doctor with the knowledge he is now responsible for the extinction of two species: hers, and his own. In the aftermath of the incident, Amy and the Doctor invite Rory to continue travelling with them in the TARDIS, but as the Doctor and Rory are about to enter the TARDIS, everything falls silent. Unnerved, the Doctor remembers Rosanna's words: "We saw silence, and the end of all things..."
From the start this episode was stylish and beautifully filmed. The location in Croatia beautifully emulated the real Venice with a few filming tricks and a bit of CGI. The guest characters were well cast and believeable. Rosanna the matriarch of the alien fish-vampire clan was especially well conceived. Cool, elegant but deadly, she ruled the city from her palazzo, but not for the good of Venetians. Her favourite son, Francesco sneered at everything he thought inferior and strutted around the city like he owned it – which he very nearly did. But he was a mummy’s boy at heart, with a near incestuous relationship with Rosanna that must owe something to Oedipus. His come uppance, after a fight with Rory and the timely intervention of Amy was genuine hubris.
The alien fish form of Rosanna and the rest of her clan was a very good design. We didn’t see it a lot, but perhaps we didn’t need to. A glimpse of the horror was enough. we never saw the ones in the canal at all. A few bubbles and agitation of the water was enough. Playing Rosanna as, not just a villain, but somebody who very nearly commanded The Doctor’s sympathy was interesting. She pushed his buttons when she talked about them both as refugees, and he had a very good try at getting her on his side. He even tried to save her in the end. A character who isn’t just pure evil or pure good is far more interesting and far more likely, when all is said and done. Guido the worried father and Isabella the victim of Rosanna’s
cruel plan, were also well conceived. They both represented themselves
as the common people of Venice, proud and undaunted. Both died proclaiming
‘We are Venetians.’ You just can’t argue with that.
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