The Doctor, Amy and Rory land on board a 17th Century Pirate Ship in distress. The small crew is being hunted down one by one: first injured and given a mysterious black spot, then claimed by a beautiful glowing Siren. As the crews numbers dwindle and Rory himself becomes a potential victim, The Doctor and Captain Henry Avery will have to put aside their equal desires to be in charge before the Siren kills them all.
Pirates + Doctor Who + Green glowing beautiful women + Amy with a cutlass=a pretty exciting episode…until you actually watch it. It kind of sucks I write that and realize my true disappointment with The Curse of the Black Spot. It could be because it just wasn’t as strong an episode to follow the season opening 2-parter. Maybe it could be that I was kind of lost on a few things regarding The Siren’s true purpose or how everything turned out alright in the end. Whatever it was, this episode had so much potential in it and it just never reached it.
Firstly, let’s get the positive stuff out of the way cause this episode did in fact have some. The Siren looked fantastic, a supposed menace masked by a beautiful face and an equally beautiful singing voice to match. It was kind of funny watching a marked Rory and the other marked Pirates attempt to reach her because of the trance they were under. In all honesty, she was pretty enough, extra push wasn’t required, but the story demanded it so I’ll let that go. Also fairing well were the first few interactions between The Doctor and Captain Avery. The two bickered over who was in charge before The Doctor relented, but it was once they got to the TARDIS that they found their best scenes and dialogue together. Avery finding similarities between devices on a Pirate Ship and the TARDIS was great and watching The Doctor realize he was right was equally priceless. A ship is a ship, good stuff. And, while it was brief, Amy got to dawn a Pirate jacket and brandish a cutlass to rescue The Doctor and Rory. Oh Amy Pond, so effortlessly hot you even make a Pirate outfit look sexy.
However, those three bits were all that really stood out as positive from the rest of the episode. The relationship between Avery and his son wasn’t as strong as the writers had hoped and, come on, we no longer need to be beaten over the head with how much Rory and Amy love each other. These little tests of their relationship are starting to get old and annoying. I love Amy and Rory, I really do, but they need to do a little more story wise other than this. The big reveal over what The Siren actually was and the overall resolution to the story was a bit lacking as well, I don’t know it just wasn’t as amazing as it could have been. Plus, The Siren, for all I like about her look and voice, didn’t have much of a voice even after her true nature was revealed. I would have liked some more vocal interactions between her and the other characters.
The Curse of the Black Spot suffers from some story drawbacks for sure, but, again, it does suffer from being the follow up to the slam bang story concluded last week. Every episode of Doctor Who cannot be perfect; I know I’ve seen some pretty boring ones. It just seems that the wind left the sails of this episode long before The Doctor, Amy and Rory popped up from the ships underbelly. It had its moments, but this wasn’t a truly memorable one I am sad to say.
Next Week-An episode penned by Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Coraline)…I’m already excited and I don’t even know what it’s about.
Pirates + Doctor Who + Green glowing beautiful women + Amy with a cutlass=a pretty exciting episode…until you actually watch it. It kind of sucks I write that and realize my true disappointment with The Curse of the Black Spot. It could be because it just wasn’t as strong an episode to follow the season opening 2-parter. Maybe it could be that I was kind of lost on a few things regarding The Siren’s true purpose or how everything turned out alright in the end. Whatever it was, this episode had so much potential in it and it just never reached it.
Firstly, let’s get the positive stuff out of the way cause this episode did in fact have some. The Siren looked fantastic, a supposed menace masked by a beautiful face and an equally beautiful singing voice to match. It was kind of funny watching a marked Rory and the other marked Pirates attempt to reach her because of the trance they were under. In all honesty, she was pretty enough, extra push wasn’t required, but the story demanded it so I’ll let that go. Also fairing well were the first few interactions between The Doctor and Captain Avery. The two bickered over who was in charge before The Doctor relented, but it was once they got to the TARDIS that they found their best scenes and dialogue together. Avery finding similarities between devices on a Pirate Ship and the TARDIS was great and watching The Doctor realize he was right was equally priceless. A ship is a ship, good stuff. And, while it was brief, Amy got to dawn a Pirate jacket and brandish a cutlass to rescue The Doctor and Rory. Oh Amy Pond, so effortlessly hot you even make a Pirate outfit look sexy.
However, those three bits were all that really stood out as positive from the rest of the episode. The relationship between Avery and his son wasn’t as strong as the writers had hoped and, come on, we no longer need to be beaten over the head with how much Rory and Amy love each other. These little tests of their relationship are starting to get old and annoying. I love Amy and Rory, I really do, but they need to do a little more story wise other than this. The big reveal over what The Siren actually was and the overall resolution to the story was a bit lacking as well, I don’t know it just wasn’t as amazing as it could have been. Plus, The Siren, for all I like about her look and voice, didn’t have much of a voice even after her true nature was revealed. I would have liked some more vocal interactions between her and the other characters.
The Curse of the Black Spot suffers from some story drawbacks for sure, but, again, it does suffer from being the follow up to the slam bang story concluded last week. Every episode of Doctor Who cannot be perfect; I know I’ve seen some pretty boring ones. It just seems that the wind left the sails of this episode long before The Doctor, Amy and Rory popped up from the ships underbelly. It had its moments, but this wasn’t a truly memorable one I am sad to say.
Next Week-An episode penned by Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Coraline)…I’m already excited and I don’t even know what it’s about.
Rating-6/10
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