To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the longest-running science-fiction show in the world, I’ll be taking weekly looks at some of my own personal favourite stories and arcs, from the old and new series, with a view to encapsulating the sublime, the clever and the fiendishly odd of the BBC’s Doctor Who.
The Vampires of Venice originally aired in 2010.
Tell me the whole plan!
…
One day that will work.
– the Doctor
The Vampires of Venice is interesting because it looks very different in 2013 as compared to when it was originally broadcast in 2010. In 2010, it looked a bit overly familiar, a collection of the tropes and storytelling tricks that we took for granted in the show under Russell T. Davies. The elements felt, at the time, a little over-familiar. Indeed, it seemed like Toby Whithouse’s script owed a great deal to his earlier adventure School Reunion.
However, Doctor Who looks very different in 2013. The show has definitely radically changed, so that these familiar plot points don’t seem quite so familiar any longer. Whereas The Vampires of Venice didn’t feel so strange after five years of Russell T. Davies, it does seem a bit more unique after three years of Steven Moffat. It doesn’t seem so much an attempt to repackage these story elements as it does one final celebration of them, a fond farewell to many of the narrative bits and pieces that we’d come to take for granted.
How times change.
A late-night bite…
Filed under: Television | Tagged: amy pond, arts, bbc, christmas, Davies, doctor, DoctorWho, Earth, Eleventh Doctor, Parting of the Ways, Philip Hinchcliffe, rory, rory williams, russell t. davies, science fiction, steven moffat, tardis, Time Lord, Time War, Unearthly Child, Vampires of Venice | Leave a comment »
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