Blood Vessel is the second instalment in this new adaptation written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat using the book written by Bram Stoker.
We have been given to believe that this is a period Dracula adaptation yet at the end of this second episode Dracula is brought into the modern world. This is a huge surprise that none of us saw coming yet it makes it exciting as to see what Dracula will be like in the modern world.
However, in Blood Vessel, this episode is based on just four pages of Stoker's original novel. Episode two sees the events of Dracula onboard the sailing vessel known as Demeter, taking passengers from Eastern Europe to England. Dracula played by Claes Bang begins a murder mystery upon the vessel as he picks the passengers and crew off one by one. As this episode is based off four pages of the original novel nearly all the characters are inventions from Dr Sharma (Sacha Dhawan), Valentin (Clive Russell) and the Grand Duchess (Catherine Schell). We don’t spend much time getting to know these characters as most of our attention is on the action between Dracula and Sister Agatha (Dolly Wells).
Dracula in this episode is for the most part in complete control with the most power. He is manipulative and secretive, but we get an insight too into how intelligent he is as he organised all the passengers to come onto the ship. It is always entertaining to watch Dracula and Agatha verbally sparring with one another, we get to see the wit and intelligence and it makes us question who will win the battle. Bang has really put his own stamp on this iconic character and made him intriguing to watch but also frightening as Dracula is a terrifying creature.
Dolly Wells puts on another fantastic performance as Sister Agatha, who is also a Van Helsing. She is constantly fighting against Dracula and challenging his behaviour. Wells' character is the closest someone has ever gotten to killing this iconic villain. The character of Agatha is full of surprises and actually a more complex than we first realise. Credit should be given to Wells for the excellent performance of this surprising yet strong character.
We believe at one point that Dracula has been defeated but we must assume by now that when we think he is defeated he always has a plan b that we don’t expect. Dracula eventually finds his way to England by the end of this episode yet it has taken him much longer than he expects and somehow Agatha is still alive and waiting for him.
This second episode is a lot less gory than the first yet the is a lot more blood. In the first episode we saw the animalistic side of Dracula and in this episode, we see the intelligent and patient side of Dracula. There are plenty more twists in this episode like the reveal of what was in room number 9. It is now exciting to see how Dracula will be brought into the modern era in the next episode and what more twists and turns Gatiss and Moffat can bring.
Blood Vessel is a very good episode, it is more complex than the previous episode due to the Count being in control and more characters are involved. It does feel as if the new characters were underused as we didn’t get to know them much as most of our attention was on Agatha and Dracula. This episode is much less frightening than the first episode and much less gory however it was still entertaining to watch Dracula in his element. It was also entertaining to see Dracula in control for the past two episodes and now he may have lost that once he steps foot onto England where Agatha is waiting. It is now exciting to see what will happen to Dracula in the final instalment and whether it will be frightening or go down another route like this episode. What we do know at the minimum is that we will receive a great performance from Bang and Wells as their characters are strong and bounce off one another so well.
