Episode 6 of Matt Smith’s first series as the Eleventh Doctor sees the Doctor picking up a new passenger in the TARDIS, Amy’s fiancee, Rory. Together, the trio travel to Venice in 1580. There the encounter the unusual girls of the House of Calvierri. They are a family with a secret.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A FULL PLOT SUMMARY AND IS SPOILER-HEAVY.  READ ON AT YOUR OWN RISK!

SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD

This episode, which follows on the heels of the highly emotional and quite scary Weeping Angels two-parter, is meant to be a bit more light-hearted. And, it does have quite a few light moments, though the story itself is quite dark.

Here is the plot summary for this episode.

The Doctor, believing Amy’s attraction to him is due to the stress from travel, gatecrashes her fiancé Rory’s stag party, and invites the two of them on a romantic trip courtesy of the TARDIS. They land in Venice of 1580, but soon find that though a plague runs rampant outside of Venice, the city’s patron Signora Rosanna Calvierri has quarantined the city to prevent it entering Venice. When they try to learn more from Signora Calvierri, they encounter Guido, a boat-builder, desperately seeking information on his daughter Isabella. Guido explains that Signora Calvierri runs a highly-praised school for the betterment of young ladies, which he was able to enroll Isabella into, but now fears something is wrong with the school. The Doctor, and Amy and Rory separately investigate; they all come to the same initial conclusion: Signora Calvierri, her son Francesco, and the girls in the school are all apparently vampires, feeding on the blood of young women by biting their necks with long teeth, fearing direct sunlight, and leaving no reflection in a mirror.

Amy devises a plan to place herself within the school with the help of Rory, whereupon later she can allow in Rory and the Doctor through a canal entrance assisted by Guido. Though she is able to unlock the necessary gate, Amy is discovered by the other girls in the school and taken to a chamber to be turned into a vampire; in her struggles, she kicks at Signora Calvierri to find her wearing a device that masks an alien form underneath. The Doctor and Rory arrive in time, and with the help of Isabella, who has yet to be converted, free Amy and escape the school; however, Isabella is caught at the last moment while helping in the escape as she can’t handle the sunlight; the Doctor tries to open the door but he gets shocked by electricity and he collapses. Isabella is later thrown into a canal by Signora Calvierri and eaten by something that lives underwater.

The Doctor decides to address Signora Calvierri directly, and confirms that she and the others are creatures from the planet Saturnyne, a race of aquatic beings with vampire-like tendencies, but wearing perception filters—the device Amy struck—to make them appear human and the cause for lack of reflection in the mirror. Signora Calvierri states they were fleeing from numerous cracks in time that threatened their planet, through some of which they heard only silence on the other side. Calvierri and her son fell through one crack into Venice, and are now seeking to sink the city and convert humans into “Sisters of the Water” in order to continue their race. When the Doctor returns to Guido’s home to report this to the others, Signora Calvierri sends her girls to attack them. Guido sacrifices himself for the others by blowing up several kegs of gunpowder that kill him and the girls. Signora Calvierri activates a device on the top of a tower that begins to create earthquakes and tsumanis that will sink Venice. While Amy and Rory face and defeat Francesco, the Doctor climbs the tower and stops the device in time. The last of her kind, Signora Calvierri throws herself into the canal where her doomed offspring await, but not before tormenting the Doctor that he is now responsible for the extinction of two species: her own, and the Time Lords.

In the aftermath of the incident, Amy and the Doctor invite Rory to continue traveling with them in the TARDIS, but as the Doctor and Rory are about to enter the TARDIS, everything falls silent. Unnerved, the Doctor remembers Signora Calvierri’s words: “We saw silence, and the end of all things…”

This episode’s opening scene concludes with what may be one of the funniest images ever in Doctor Who: The Doctor popping out of the cake at Rory’s stag! The Doctor’s inability to use tact is all on full display as he tells the entire stag party that Amy kissed him and that she is a good kisser. Setup complete, the main story begins, and we’re off to “Venice” (actually the Crotian town on Trogir) and we have our first glimpse of the Calvierri family, the “Vampires” (actually fish-like humanoid aliens).  The locales are fantastic, especially the Calvierri Manor. Matt has some great comedic moments as the Doctor in this episode, including  looking at himself in the mirror for the first time and identifying himself using a library card with the First Doctor’s picture on it. Arthur Darvill, who hasn’t been seen since “The Eleventh Hour” really plays Rory as a great “normal” guy just trying to comprehend the world of traveling with the Doctor. His insecurity of losing Amy to the Doctor is understated, but perceptible at the same time. Karen and Arthur have some great scenes together as Amy and Rory, including the scene where Rory tries to fend off Francesco with a broom handle, with Amy “directing traffic.” Also stellar in this episode is Helen McCrory, who plays Rosanna, the matriarch of the Calvierri family. McCrory is best known to audiences recently as Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter film series. She plays Rosanna not as a “villain” but as a Mother desperately trying to save her children. It is revealed that their home planet of Saturnyne was destroyed by a crack in space. She came to Earth to repopulate her species. In the end, she committs suicide when the Doctor stops her plan to sink Venice. This adds another emotional weight to the Doctor as she tells him that he will be responsible for the death of their race. The most chilling moment comes as the end of the episode as silence, literally, falls. This was a good episode, though the pacing was a bit weird, with the resolution having to come a little to quickly. And, apparently, the must have accessory for an Earthbound evil alien this year is a perception filter. Prisoner Zero had one, the Calvierri all had one. Who else this season will have one? Did the intergalactic supermarket have a sale on them? Still though, Rory’s first trip in the TARDIS turns out to be a blast, and they ask him to stay. What could possibly go wrong?

NEXT WEEK: The Doctor meets his match, Amy makes a choice, Rory learns a hard lesson about traveling with the Doctor and it gets very cold inside the TARDIS. All this, plus WHEN OLD PEOPLE ATTACK!

Vampires of Venice gets a 4 out of 5.

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