Alternative Vampires, Alternative Realities: Thoughts on Doctor Who 5x06 & 5x07
To sum it up quickly: Did not enjoy, and Hmm. Interesting.
5x06 "Vampires in Venice"
For me, this was a mildly entertaining episode that could not make up for its massive amounts of fail. The best moment for me was when Guido name-checked the Arsenale, which gives me a chance to quote this:
Quale ne l’arzana de’ Viniziani
bolle l’inferno la tenace pece
a rimpalmare i legni lor non sani,
ché navicar non ponno; in quella vece
chi fa suo legno novo e chi ristoppa
le coste a quel che piu vïaggi fece,
chi ribatte da proda e chi da poppa,
altri fa remi e altri volge sarti,
chi terzeruolo e artimon rintoppa:
tal, non per foco ma per divin’ arte,
bollia la giuso una pegola spessa
che ’nviscava la ripa d’ogne parte.
(Translation by Robert Durling: “As in the arsenal of the Venetians in winter the tenacious pitch boils to recaulk their worn ships, for they cannot sail; instead this man works on a new ship, that one plugs the ribs of a craft that has made many voyages, this one repairs the prow, this one at the stern, another makes oars, another twists shrouds, another patches foresail and mainsail: so, heated not by fire but by God’s art, a thick pitch boiled there that clung to the banks on every side.” And you thought your workplace was hellish.)
Alas, poor Guido and Isabella. Let’s start with the obvious, glaring racefail: The show kills off both of its black characters-part of a larger and hugely problematic pattern within Doctor Who and sci-fi shows generally. But it’s not just that they both die; it’s that both of them give their lives to save white characters, and the white villainess who kills them (directly in Isabella’s case, and indirectly by inspiring Guido’s suicidal self-sacrifice with both her long-term and short-term actions) gets more character development than either of them.
So Isabella rescues Amy but is unable to escape herself, and in punishment is executed in a sequence that (narratively speaking) exists for the role it plays in Rosanna’s arc. Guido, though partially motivated by despair over his daughter’s murder, commits suicide to put an end to Rosanna’s plan (which cannot work without her converted female fish-from-space) and save Venice, which has been visually represented in the show by a bunch of white people (and chickens).
Vamps and vampires. This episode clearly wants to exploit the vampires-as-metaphor-for-male-sexual-predation motif, and plays up the rape imagery-which we see with Isabella, Amy, and the flower-seller. In fact, the entire plan of the villains rests on mass rape and an even more fundamental violation of women-literally depriving them of their humanity. This is not an inherently problematic choice. What is problematic is that while the plot makes clear that the Venetian women-made-fish are victims, they are visually depicted as predatory and seductive-bascially eye-candy mooks-which taps into more problematic representations of women’s sexuality than I can list. And of course the mastermind behind the rape plot is a woman (a woman who dominates the token male villain, mind you), and she gets to have a bit of sexual tension with our Manly Hero.
I hate this plot. It’s conceivable I would be less bored and appalled by the whole the-plot-is-built-on-rape-but-women-are-seductive-villains-and-ordering-the-men-to-rape if I hadn’t seen it so many times before in sci-fi. I’m bothered by everything that repetition implies-about the inability of such writers to think about sexual violation from a female perspective, or in a way that addresses male responsibility; about the obsession with women as castrating dominators and seductresses; and about the depiction of women who have been violated as mute and no-longer-human.
I’ve spent much of my career talking about woman-on-woman rape and believe in the importance of talking about women as perpetrators of sexual violence, but this is not the way to do it. This is a male fantasy about sexual power, in which women being sexually violated is titillating but not ultimately blamed on men, and another aspect of rape culture.
Battles of the sexes. The most interesting aspect of the Venice episode, at least in terms of competing gender tropes, is the fight scene, in which Rory tries to do the alpha-male protect-my-woman thing, only to be saved by Amy. That scene riffs on several gender tropes. Most obviously, it pits the inept and not-terribly-manly Rory against a more traditional predatory-male archetype, whose masculinity has been undercut by his characterization as a mama’s boy-Rory in fact childishly insults his mother to get him to fight, and Amy calls him “mama’s boy” just before she kills him. It’s also a deliberate recall of the more pivotal scene in which Rory tells the Doctor he’s dangerous because he makes people want to impress him-here Rory is making the same mistake that Amy did earlier in the episode, taking a stupid risk to prove his devotion and impress her.
The fact that Amy has to save Rory instead-killing the alien-fish/vampire with reflected sunlight via a pocket mirror, a very feminine object-neatly subverts the men-battle-for-woman paradigm. It also resolves the tension between them within this episode. The bit of banter following-in which she asks him why he made the sign of the cross, and he complains about the criticism-is one of the few moments in which I really believed in them as couple, and represents their return to normalcy: Amy re-asserts both her affection for Rory, and her power over him. She doesn’t only kiss him, but tells him what to do; they go back to help the Doctor on her orders.
Amy's almost invisible arc. One of the most disppointing things about this episode is that while it was set up to be about Amy’s emotional journey, there’s very little of her in it. In fact, Amy only seems to affirm her love for Rory in the face of an alien threat. In “Vampires in Venice” Amy’s one moment of decision and affirmation is the one where Rosanna promises her “thousands of husbands.” Amy says “Sorry, I’m engaged” and kicks her. Granted, “I’d rather be with Rory than be gang-raped by piscid aliens” is not the world’s most convincing declaration of love, but that’s Amy’s turning point within the episode (which is for the most part notably uninterested in what Amy thinks and wants.)
When Isabella frees her shortly thereafter, she rushes into Rory’s arms, not the Doctor’s, and for the rest of the episode, she and Rory are visually grouped together, side by side. The second scene in Guido’s house is a real contrast from the first-rather than being separated by space, they mirror each other, as the Doctor claps his hands over their mouths and waggles their heads. Likewise, they both destroy the Venetian throne/space console and watch the Doctor climb the campanile together.
But the episode does not emotionally convince us of Amy’s renewed devotion, and I’m glad 5x07 at least attempted to do so. Again, it’s only extreme danger-the more so as it costs Rory’s life-in dream!Upper Leadworth that drives her to reaffirm his importance to her.
Plot holes big enough to swim through. Putting aside the amazingly anti-climactic ending, was anyone else bothered by the fact that the Doctor et al left Venice surrounded by thousands of male fish-from-space apparently eager to devour any Venetians who go for a swim (something Isabella implies is common)? I would think it would take a while for them to die off.
The rest is silence. Like everyone else I did love the moment of silence at the end of the episode. The crack in the Britannia ship at the end of episode 5x02 was creepy because it was unexpected, but repetition of the motif has dulled its power; the silence was something new and unnerving.
5x07 “Amy’s Choice”
Choice of setting. The preview made it seem obvious that the TARDIS and not Leadworth would be the real world; I liked that the teaser segment that introduced us to the episode was much more subtle-as was the ultimate resolution. But I still found the episode to be tense without being suspenseful.
Choice of partners. I’ve been wondering for a while why Amy, who has consistently been presented as what I would like to see as sexually liberated but fear the writers intend as “loose,” opted to get married at age 21. It has seemed thus far out of character to me. But in this episode (partly due to miakun ’s thoughts on the subject), I actually got it. Amy craves stability and permanence-presumably in response to her childhood losses. But at the same time, she doesn’t trust that the world, or other people, will ever do anything but let her down (remember her telling the Doctor “People always say that”?), and so she sabotages herself at every opportunity.
So she falls for Rory, whose nebbishy exterior typifies a type of stability, then runs away with the Doctor the night before her wedding. That’s why Rory’s death is her breaking point; it’s the loss not just of him but of everything he represents. That’s also why the time-travel escape is so perfect for her-she can be forever in that moment and never have to face the consequences-of someone else letting her down, or of her own actions costing her what she wants but fears to embrace.
About that nurse. I like Rory. I like his professionalism and caring-his rushing to check on the wounded flower-seller and the electrocuted Doctor. I like his devotion to Amy. I like that he apologized to the unconscious Amy for every bump when he dragged her up the steps; I like that he knows her well enough to both call her on her tendency to lie and then change his mind on it (“Well, you do have a history of…being very lovely”); I like that he grew the pony-tail to be more exciting and then cut it off for her. I like that he seeks feedback from Amy, asking her what he had done right so he could use it in the future “for emergencies and birthdays.” I like that Rory cares more about who he’s with than where he is. I like watching a non-macho man, one repeatedly shown to be comfortable taking direction from Amy, get the girl.
I would like it better if we got a better sense of why Amy appeals to him, or that their respective strenghts and weaknesses balance each other, letting them work effectively as a team.
Symbolic choices. I also liked the scissors parallel-Amy uses a pair to create the ponchos for her boys in the TARDIS, expressing her affection for them, and then Rory uses one to demonstrate his devotion to Amy by cutting off his pony-tail.
The corresponding moment is the one in which the Doctor hands the keys over to Amy, letting her drive their suicide camper. He’s not taking her direction, and for once he’s not giving her a ride. It’s nicely echoed when Rory at the end of the episode says their next trip should be Amy’s choice.
Expecting more when Amy is expecting. The moment where Amy puts the Doctor in his place for insulting her village life as dull by faking a contraction is priceless. But ultimately I think they underused Amy’s pregnancy, which is a shame.
"If I had a real face." As a newcomer, I appreciated that Dream Lord was ultimately not a figure from the show's mythology, who would have had no resonance for me. I liked the many hints that the Dream Lord and the Doctor were one-the bow tie, the doctor guise, his decides to split Amy off from the others after the Doctor suggests splitting up; the fact that he can drive the TARDIS, etc., and the call-back to the series’ myth-arc: “I’ve seen your dreams. Some of them twice, Amy.” I was actually surprised that there was so little reference to the latter in the episode, though perhaps the literal fact of two Doctors in the episode is a clue.
Speculations. About the bow ties-all through the episode, the Doctor wears a blue bow tie in the Upper Leadworth dream and his usually dark red one in the TARDIS one. But then at the false end, when they all wake up in the snowy TARDIS and the Dream Lord “concedes,” I thought his bow tie was blue again. Am I right, or is the lighting and snow coating the maroon one fooling my eyes?
And what would have happened if the Doctor had not blown up the TARDIS? Would they have remained in a dream!TARDIS which the Dream Lord controlled forever?
5x06 "Vampires in Venice"
For me, this was a mildly entertaining episode that could not make up for its massive amounts of fail. The best moment for me was when Guido name-checked the Arsenale, which gives me a chance to quote this:
Quale ne l’arzana de’ Viniziani
bolle l’inferno la tenace pece
a rimpalmare i legni lor non sani,
ché navicar non ponno; in quella vece
chi fa suo legno novo e chi ristoppa
le coste a quel che piu vïaggi fece,
chi ribatte da proda e chi da poppa,
altri fa remi e altri volge sarti,
chi terzeruolo e artimon rintoppa:
tal, non per foco ma per divin’ arte,
bollia la giuso una pegola spessa
che ’nviscava la ripa d’ogne parte.
(Translation by Robert Durling: “As in the arsenal of the Venetians in winter the tenacious pitch boils to recaulk their worn ships, for they cannot sail; instead this man works on a new ship, that one plugs the ribs of a craft that has made many voyages, this one repairs the prow, this one at the stern, another makes oars, another twists shrouds, another patches foresail and mainsail: so, heated not by fire but by God’s art, a thick pitch boiled there that clung to the banks on every side.” And you thought your workplace was hellish.)
Alas, poor Guido and Isabella. Let’s start with the obvious, glaring racefail: The show kills off both of its black characters-part of a larger and hugely problematic pattern within Doctor Who and sci-fi shows generally. But it’s not just that they both die; it’s that both of them give their lives to save white characters, and the white villainess who kills them (directly in Isabella’s case, and indirectly by inspiring Guido’s suicidal self-sacrifice with both her long-term and short-term actions) gets more character development than either of them.
So Isabella rescues Amy but is unable to escape herself, and in punishment is executed in a sequence that (narratively speaking) exists for the role it plays in Rosanna’s arc. Guido, though partially motivated by despair over his daughter’s murder, commits suicide to put an end to Rosanna’s plan (which cannot work without her converted female fish-from-space) and save Venice, which has been visually represented in the show by a bunch of white people (and chickens).
Vamps and vampires. This episode clearly wants to exploit the vampires-as-metaphor-for-male-sexual-predation motif, and plays up the rape imagery-which we see with Isabella, Amy, and the flower-seller. In fact, the entire plan of the villains rests on mass rape and an even more fundamental violation of women-literally depriving them of their humanity. This is not an inherently problematic choice. What is problematic is that while the plot makes clear that the Venetian women-made-fish are victims, they are visually depicted as predatory and seductive-bascially eye-candy mooks-which taps into more problematic representations of women’s sexuality than I can list. And of course the mastermind behind the rape plot is a woman (a woman who dominates the token male villain, mind you), and she gets to have a bit of sexual tension with our Manly Hero.
I hate this plot. It’s conceivable I would be less bored and appalled by the whole the-plot-is-built-on-rape-but-women-are-seductive-villains-and-ordering-the-men-to-rape if I hadn’t seen it so many times before in sci-fi. I’m bothered by everything that repetition implies-about the inability of such writers to think about sexual violation from a female perspective, or in a way that addresses male responsibility; about the obsession with women as castrating dominators and seductresses; and about the depiction of women who have been violated as mute and no-longer-human.
I’ve spent much of my career talking about woman-on-woman rape and believe in the importance of talking about women as perpetrators of sexual violence, but this is not the way to do it. This is a male fantasy about sexual power, in which women being sexually violated is titillating but not ultimately blamed on men, and another aspect of rape culture.
Battles of the sexes. The most interesting aspect of the Venice episode, at least in terms of competing gender tropes, is the fight scene, in which Rory tries to do the alpha-male protect-my-woman thing, only to be saved by Amy. That scene riffs on several gender tropes. Most obviously, it pits the inept and not-terribly-manly Rory against a more traditional predatory-male archetype, whose masculinity has been undercut by his characterization as a mama’s boy-Rory in fact childishly insults his mother to get him to fight, and Amy calls him “mama’s boy” just before she kills him. It’s also a deliberate recall of the more pivotal scene in which Rory tells the Doctor he’s dangerous because he makes people want to impress him-here Rory is making the same mistake that Amy did earlier in the episode, taking a stupid risk to prove his devotion and impress her.
The fact that Amy has to save Rory instead-killing the alien-fish/vampire with reflected sunlight via a pocket mirror, a very feminine object-neatly subverts the men-battle-for-woman paradigm. It also resolves the tension between them within this episode. The bit of banter following-in which she asks him why he made the sign of the cross, and he complains about the criticism-is one of the few moments in which I really believed in them as couple, and represents their return to normalcy: Amy re-asserts both her affection for Rory, and her power over him. She doesn’t only kiss him, but tells him what to do; they go back to help the Doctor on her orders.
Amy's almost invisible arc. One of the most disppointing things about this episode is that while it was set up to be about Amy’s emotional journey, there’s very little of her in it. In fact, Amy only seems to affirm her love for Rory in the face of an alien threat. In “Vampires in Venice” Amy’s one moment of decision and affirmation is the one where Rosanna promises her “thousands of husbands.” Amy says “Sorry, I’m engaged” and kicks her. Granted, “I’d rather be with Rory than be gang-raped by piscid aliens” is not the world’s most convincing declaration of love, but that’s Amy’s turning point within the episode (which is for the most part notably uninterested in what Amy thinks and wants.)
When Isabella frees her shortly thereafter, she rushes into Rory’s arms, not the Doctor’s, and for the rest of the episode, she and Rory are visually grouped together, side by side. The second scene in Guido’s house is a real contrast from the first-rather than being separated by space, they mirror each other, as the Doctor claps his hands over their mouths and waggles their heads. Likewise, they both destroy the Venetian throne/space console and watch the Doctor climb the campanile together.
But the episode does not emotionally convince us of Amy’s renewed devotion, and I’m glad 5x07 at least attempted to do so. Again, it’s only extreme danger-the more so as it costs Rory’s life-in dream!Upper Leadworth that drives her to reaffirm his importance to her.
Plot holes big enough to swim through. Putting aside the amazingly anti-climactic ending, was anyone else bothered by the fact that the Doctor et al left Venice surrounded by thousands of male fish-from-space apparently eager to devour any Venetians who go for a swim (something Isabella implies is common)? I would think it would take a while for them to die off.
The rest is silence. Like everyone else I did love the moment of silence at the end of the episode. The crack in the Britannia ship at the end of episode 5x02 was creepy because it was unexpected, but repetition of the motif has dulled its power; the silence was something new and unnerving.
5x07 “Amy’s Choice”
Choice of setting. The preview made it seem obvious that the TARDIS and not Leadworth would be the real world; I liked that the teaser segment that introduced us to the episode was much more subtle-as was the ultimate resolution. But I still found the episode to be tense without being suspenseful.
Choice of partners. I’ve been wondering for a while why Amy, who has consistently been presented as what I would like to see as sexually liberated but fear the writers intend as “loose,” opted to get married at age 21. It has seemed thus far out of character to me. But in this episode (partly due to miakun ’s thoughts on the subject), I actually got it. Amy craves stability and permanence-presumably in response to her childhood losses. But at the same time, she doesn’t trust that the world, or other people, will ever do anything but let her down (remember her telling the Doctor “People always say that”?), and so she sabotages herself at every opportunity.
So she falls for Rory, whose nebbishy exterior typifies a type of stability, then runs away with the Doctor the night before her wedding. That’s why Rory’s death is her breaking point; it’s the loss not just of him but of everything he represents. That’s also why the time-travel escape is so perfect for her-she can be forever in that moment and never have to face the consequences-of someone else letting her down, or of her own actions costing her what she wants but fears to embrace.
About that nurse. I like Rory. I like his professionalism and caring-his rushing to check on the wounded flower-seller and the electrocuted Doctor. I like his devotion to Amy. I like that he apologized to the unconscious Amy for every bump when he dragged her up the steps; I like that he knows her well enough to both call her on her tendency to lie and then change his mind on it (“Well, you do have a history of…being very lovely”); I like that he grew the pony-tail to be more exciting and then cut it off for her. I like that he seeks feedback from Amy, asking her what he had done right so he could use it in the future “for emergencies and birthdays.” I like that Rory cares more about who he’s with than where he is. I like watching a non-macho man, one repeatedly shown to be comfortable taking direction from Amy, get the girl.
I would like it better if we got a better sense of why Amy appeals to him, or that their respective strenghts and weaknesses balance each other, letting them work effectively as a team.
Symbolic choices. I also liked the scissors parallel-Amy uses a pair to create the ponchos for her boys in the TARDIS, expressing her affection for them, and then Rory uses one to demonstrate his devotion to Amy by cutting off his pony-tail.
The corresponding moment is the one in which the Doctor hands the keys over to Amy, letting her drive their suicide camper. He’s not taking her direction, and for once he’s not giving her a ride. It’s nicely echoed when Rory at the end of the episode says their next trip should be Amy’s choice.
Expecting more when Amy is expecting. The moment where Amy puts the Doctor in his place for insulting her village life as dull by faking a contraction is priceless. But ultimately I think they underused Amy’s pregnancy, which is a shame.
"If I had a real face." As a newcomer, I appreciated that Dream Lord was ultimately not a figure from the show's mythology, who would have had no resonance for me. I liked the many hints that the Dream Lord and the Doctor were one-the bow tie, the doctor guise, his decides to split Amy off from the others after the Doctor suggests splitting up; the fact that he can drive the TARDIS, etc., and the call-back to the series’ myth-arc: “I’ve seen your dreams. Some of them twice, Amy.” I was actually surprised that there was so little reference to the latter in the episode, though perhaps the literal fact of two Doctors in the episode is a clue.
Speculations. About the bow ties-all through the episode, the Doctor wears a blue bow tie in the Upper Leadworth dream and his usually dark red one in the TARDIS one. But then at the false end, when they all wake up in the snowy TARDIS and the Dream Lord “concedes,” I thought his bow tie was blue again. Am I right, or is the lighting and snow coating the maroon one fooling my eyes?
And what would have happened if the Doctor had not blown up the TARDIS? Would they have remained in a dream!TARDIS which the Dream Lord controlled forever?