Dr. Who Open Thread! S5E6!

Alright you Wholigans, Canada finally joined the rest of North America last night, and we've had a peek at S5E6, Vampires in Venice.

Please remember that spoilers from episodes after S5E6 are explicitly off-topic, and will annoy your friendly OT host (i.e., me) because she hasn't seen the later eps yet.

Also, note that spoilers from any Doctor Who material coming before S5E6 are explicitly on-topic.

So, starting from a progressives' p-o-v: did anyone else have a lovely warm fuzzy to note that the race of the gondolier (Isabella's dad) never came up? I mean, yes, there's a lost opportunity to examine the racism of 16th century Venice, true; but there're also important roles in the episode being earned by actors of colour, and I think that's a positive thing, given the about-to-be-released whitewashed live-action versions of Prince of Persia and The Last Airbender.

I really liked Rory's role in this episode, a lot. I think his common-sense response to the outlandish things he encounters frames the Doctor and Amy in a clearly different light. Rory and Amy hear screams: Rory, like most people would, runs away from the sound. Amy runs towards it. He continually provides a contrast to the march-to-the-sound-of-the-guns approach taken by the Doctor and Amy.

Also, sonic screwdriver healing? That's new, isn't it? I don't remember seeing a sonic screwdriver used for that before?

Also, Moffatt REALLY LIKES FANGS, huh?