The Vampiress Episode: "Dr. Who"

"Vampires of Venice"

Series 5

Episode 6

Dr. Who is a franchise produced for the BBC.  The show (which originated in 1963) tells the story of a Dr who along with his companions travels through time in a police box and his experiences though out the different era's.  Similar to another British staple James Bond, the character of the Dr is always kept relatively the same age through different actors but unlike the aforementioned Bond, the change in look of the Dr is usually written into the storylines of the show. 

Though this particular blog entry references the modern (as of this writing) Dr. I would be remiss to ignore the 1989 series of episodes from the shows 26th season titled "The Curse of Fenric" which also dealt with vampires (or vampire like creatures at least).  In that story the Dr.and companions go back to World War 2 era England where they encounter vampire like creatures.  Though most were female, their main method of killing was claw like hands similar to the Maenad of True Blood and their true form was that of an odd swamp creature. 

The Episode "Vampires of Venice" from the shows modern era which started in 2005 is a lot more guy friendly than the previous attempt.  In this episode The Dr. takes his friends Amy and Rory on a trip to Venice, Italy in 1560 in order to help them work out their issues (in a previous episode Amy had kissed the Dr. and in the beginning of this episode he breaks the news to Rory after popping out of a cake at his bachelor party).  While there the Dr. Runs into a a concerned father named Guido.  In the opening scene of the show Guido goes to a woman named Rosanna who runs a high class girls school along with her son Francesco and begs her to accept his daughter which she does but immediately removes Guido from the premises for him to not be able to get near his daughter from that point on.  Guido now wants the Dr.'s help to save his daughter as he feels something strange is going on in that school (and one of the girls fanging out to him when he attempts to get close to his daughter doesn't help either (Below).

As you can see the fangs on these females are very unique.  They are a combo of the sabre tooth style seen on Regine Dandridge used in the film Fright Night 2 and the Piranha style seen on the series "Supernatural".  This is eventually explained (!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!) when it is later revealed that they are actually a type of sea creature from space who had come to Venice to turn the Venician women in order to repopulate their race.  The human forms you see throughout are just really sexy holograms created by a device they keep with them.

Vampire cast

 Helen McCrory (Rosana)

The Harry Potter starlet stars as the school head/matriarch/concerned mom/leader of an entire alien species, Rosana.  She doesn't come off as a scary alien in the midst of starting an invasion or blood thirsty vampire looking for her next kill as much as she does a mom trying to find good wives for her kids and even tries to make a play for the Dr for herself.  When you look at it from that point of view you kind of feel bad for her.  Especially with how dependent her son Francesco is on her (in almost a childlike way).

 

Alisha Bailey (Isabella)

Isabella is Guido's daughter who was to be the next Venician female to succumb to the alien sea creature match making service.  She does get bit by Francesco but doesn't fully turn as she sacrifices herself to save Amy who went into the school undercover to find out what was going on.  Much like your classic vampire the sea creatures are very sensitive to sunlight and being that she broke Amy out in the middle of the day it prevented her from escaping herself and she was eventually sentenced to death by Rosana.

The Vampire Schoolgirls

The stars of the episode are the girls.  Always seen in white they do absolutely everything together including speaking in unison.  They are the most active of the creatures in this episode and are hunting the Dr and his companions throughout.  One bonus is the hot blonde who gets the most screen time out of the group is Gabriella Wilde who just happens to be the younger sister of American actress Olivia Wilde (via some sort of confusing Brady bunch sort of way).  The group has a "Brides of Dracula" feel that I absolutely love and makes this episode a great watch.