The Stones Of Venice

The Stones Of Venice by Paul Magrs

Predictable sludge of the highest order. I say it because the script is so predictable and filled with cliches, yet somehow ends up being utterly fabulous. The setting is fantastic and the imagery is completely and effortlessly otherworldly despite being grounded. The semi future Venice feels like the renaissance Venice for some reason. 

Doesn’t make it less good though. The twist is mind numbingly stupid as it turns out that the only woman in the cast was the woman from the legend. 

And Charlie being hypnotized by chemicals used by gondoliers is completely unexplained. Does this matter a bit? No, because the script is about Venice, not the characters. That’s a flaw and a feature.

Bring Me Knitting: Venice is a location so uniquely suited to the Eighth Doctor that I don’t think this story could work for anyone else. He’s an adventurer and a romantic at heart, and a lot of the time he just jabbers on about how beautiful Venice is. 

Miss Lavish and Charlie even call him out on constantly talking to himself, in a scene that might be a highlight of the entire eighth doctor range. He sleeps on a gondola while Charlie flirts with the Gondolier, and he offers to save the paintings of Venice.

If you didn’t adore him in Storm Warning, you do now.

Charlie Pollard, Edwardian Adventuress: Unfortunately, Charlie spends much of the story hypnotized by Gondoliers, but the bits she’s in, she’s more than a match for the Doctor, and the villains of the story certainly don’t know what hit them. The highlights though, are when she reminisces about how her father would never let her do what she’s doing now, and when she calls out Orcino for being crappy. There’s a reason Charlie is up there in terms of companions. 

The Monsters: There are the gondoliers, who aren’t really evil, or even Estella, but the real monster of the story is Orcino’s greed, which causes him to erk an alien duchess, over nothing more than a game of cards. Estella May cause the problems, but she’s at least understandable. They even forgive and forget at the end.

It’s rare I can accept a power of Love ending, but Charlie’s dismissive reaction makes it work. 

Overall: The Stones of Venice is a great story, and definitely enjoyable, something I may even come back to. But there are too many flaws of this predictable plot to justify me giving it more than a 7/10. But I want to!