A Trip To Venice

Following Amy Pond's attempts to seduce him (see the end of "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone"), The Doctor gatecrashes her fiancé, Rory's stag party and tells him of what has happened. Knowing full well that travelling with him has a habit of destroying his companions' lives and relationships on Earth, The Doctor decides to take Amy and Rory on a romantic trip to get their relationship back on track.

The TARDIS lands in the city of Venice in 1580, but The Doctor and his two travelling companions quickly discover that all is not well, as according to the citizens, plague is running rampant, and the city has been placed under quarantine at the order of the city's patron, Signora Rosanna Calvierri.

The Doctor heads to the Calvierri's palazzo, where he discovers that Rosanna Calvierri runs a school for the betterment of young ladies, which is highly sought after. However, as The Doctor watches, he sees a Venetian carpenter called Guido, who had entered his daughter, Isabella into the school several days before, trying to remove his daughter from the school. After Guido is turned away by the guards, The Doctor goes after him and learns that something evil is happening in the school, for his daughter didn't recognise him, and the girl who turned him away had behaved like an animal with long vampire-like teeth…

Isabella and Guido

Meanwhile, Amy and Rory, desperately trying to get along and to enjoy their time in Sixteenth Century Venice, hear a scream, and go to investigate. They find Rosanna Calvierri's son, Francesco, drinking blood from the neck of a flower girl who he has just attacked. As Rory tends to the girl, Amy chases after Francesco, only to lose him when he turns into an alley that opens onto a canal.

The Doctor, with Guido's help, sneaks into the school, but he is ambushed by five beautiful girls. Upon noticing the girls have no reflections, and seeing their teeth are curved fangs, The Doctor quickly makes an escape and tells Amy, Rory and Guido that there are vampires in Venice.

Rosanna Calvierri

Needing a way into the school, Amy suggests that she pose as a destitute girl to gain entrance to the school, then open a way for The Doctor and the others to enter. Despite his distaste for the idea, The Doctor reluctantly agrees. However, Amy is caught shortly after opening a trap door for the others and is taken to a chamber by Rosanna, Francesco and another girl to be transformed. Unaware of Amy’s capture The Doctor and Rory sneak into the school. Their they find a desiccated female corpse. The Doctor theorise that not all the girls survive the process of being turned into vampires. Worried about Amy being missing Rory angrily tells The Doctor that the greatest danger he poses to his companions is the fact he drives his companions to put themselves at risk trying to impress him.

The Doctor and Rory's presence in the school is discovered by the Calvierri Girls, while trying to escape they eventually find themselves trapped by Rosanna and Francesco. Fortunately Amy is rescued by Isabella and while they try to escape they come across The Doctor and Rory. Their sudden arrival in the corridor provides a distraction allowing them all to escape from Calvierri's palazzo. Isabella, however, is caught just as the others reach safety. Having been partially transformed she is affected by the sunlight and is then dragged back into the school. Her final fate is to be thrown into the canal, where something alive in the water drags her under.

The Doctor goes back to the school and confronts Rosanna Calvierri. He identifies her as a Saturnynian, a race of aquatic beings. The vampire traits displayed are a result of the natural teeth of the species, their natural aversion to sunlight (being deep-sea creatures) and a perception filter they wear to give themselves human appearance by manipulating brain waves which is rendered redundant when seen in a mirror, hence no reflection. Rosanna explains that her people's planet was lost when her race ‘ran from the silence’ through a crack in the universe that sealed behind them, leaving the Saturnynians trapped on Sixteenth Century Earth and in Venice.

Francesco Calvierri

As they question each other The Doctor is forced to identify himself as from Gallifrey. On learning this Rosanna Calvierri proposes an alliance, but The Doctor refuses. The Doctor is then escorted out of the school. As he departs Rosanna announces that the storm is coming. She also orders her girls to kill The Doctor and his companions.

At Guido's house, The Doctor realises that the Saturnynians are planning to make Venice habitable for their species by sinking the city. The purpose of Rosanna's school was to lure girls to the school that could be converted into female Saturnynians, since only males survived the fall through time. At that moment, the Calvierri girls attack the house, but Guido buys The Doctor, Amy and Rory enough time to escape by detonating barrels of gunpowder he had stolen from his workplace at the Arsenal, sacrificing himself but killing the Calvierri girls who have fully transformed into female Saturnynians. The Doctor then instructs Amy and Rory to return to the safety of the TARDIS. Reluctant at first they agree. But on there way they are confronted by Francesco who starts to attack Amy. She is saved by Rory who inadvertently annoys Francesco by insulting his mother. A fight then takes place between Francesco and Rory. However, Rory is soon overpowered and is about to be killed by Francesco, who has transformed into a Saturnynian, when Amy is able to use a mirror to reflect sunlight onto Francesco causing the creature to explode.

At the same time, Rosanna Calvierri activates a device that triggers an immense storm over Venice even though The Doctor tells her that all the female Satunynians she has created are dead. Realising that the storm will trigger earthquakes and tsunamis which will sink the city The Doctor, with the help of Amy and Rory who after their encounter with Francesco have rejoined him, The Doctor climbs to the top of a tower to deactivate the device so saving Venice. Defeated, Rosanna throws herself into the water to join her doomed offspring, but not before tormenting The Doctor with the knowledge he is now responsible for the extinction of two species: hers, and his own.

With everything returning to normal, The Doctor invites Rory to continue travelling him and Amy in the TARDIS, but as The Doctor and Rory are about to enter the TARDIS, everything falls silent. Unnerved, The Doctor remembers Rosanna Calvierri's words: ‘We saw silence, and the end of all things...’.