Doctor Who: "The Curse of the Black Spot"

Season 6, Episode 3

The first standalone episode of the season brings about a few problems

“Or we can just go off and have some adventures.”

-The Doctor

The inherent problem with jumping from a heavily serialized episode to a standalone one is that the side-by-side comparison tends to land in the favor of the former. I don’t want to say that such episodes are automatically bad or subpar – I particularly enjoyed last season’s “Vincent and The Doctor” and “The Lodger” – but the shift is jarring, and the first standalone episodes are usually the biggest victims.

But boy, it is sure a good thing that I like pirates. I could say I enjoy the poetry of men facing off against the sea or something like that, but I just think pirates are awesome. (In fact, most of the quotes I jotted down for tonight have something to do with pirates, so that you tell you something.) I have to imagine that was the line of thought that drove the writer’s room tonight, as the rest of the episode wasn’t quite as good as it might have been.

“A ship’s a ship.”

-Captain Avery

I found the final twist – that the Siren was actually a virtual interface doctor on a spaceship stuck in the same location of the pirate ship by a temporal rift – to be a bit of a stretch logistically, but I guess sci-fi fits the show better than fantasy does. But as a mystery – who is this woman? Why is she killing off the crew? – there was a nice momentum to the story, with crew members dying off just frequently enough to be engaging and yet not so much as to be ridiculous.

 “I am sorry, but he is spoken for.”

-Amy

First off: Amy kicked just so much ass tonight, it’s ridiculous. In an episode that could have so easily fallen into straight up misogyny – because you know, what else do you call it when the villain of the hour is a hot woman who kills men? – Amy ended up being the much needed balance to that, the loving woman who very well may have been the siren’s equal. (Did you see the look that the siren gave Amy when she interfered with her taking Rory?)

But that’s not really what I wanted to talk about. Last season, the show relied so much of the Doctor-Amy-Rory love triangle, that it is just so refreshing to see the love saved for just the two of them. And damn in Karen Gillian didn’t bring it tonight, as she perfectly encapsulated Amy’s desires to save her husband from falling for the siren’s song.

And then there was Rory’s near-death scene, which proves to me just how good this show can be at playing emotional beats when it wants to. Even though I kept telling myself “I know Rory can’t die, thus this scene can’t work,” it eventually did, both because of how long it was dragged out, and due to the fantastic performances of Gillian and Matt Smith in that scene. I am usually not a fan of these “fake death” scenes, but this one actually elicited some true worry out of me, and that takes skill.

“The greatest adventure is having someone to share it with you.”

-Doctor

The part that didn’t work for me, however, was that of Captain Avery. I have nothing against the actor (Hugh Bonneville) who played the captain, he did some fine work in the scenes he had to play, and he actually made a lot of the material here work more than it should have. But that material itself was fairly tired, as I feel like I’ve seen the Captain who can’t give up the treasure, or who leaves his family behind a thousand times before. Of course, combining the two was a bit creative on the show’s part, but that only meant that we ended up with that cheesy and forced line from the Doctor about how Avery’s inability to give up the treasure was what drove him away from his family, and that was just groan worthy to watch, no matter how much emotional Smith put into reading that line.

And then there was that whole ending, with the Avery captaining the new ship away from earth, and toward the Dog Star. Because of course.

*****

As far as the elements of serialization are concerned, the reappearance of the Eyepatch Lady (can we refer to her as “Nadine”?) and the reminder of Amy’s possible pregnancy were intriguing enough, but only because they played off stories we already knew. As plot points, they really didn’t tell us much, and given how the American broadcasts of these episodes are cut down to fit the commercial breaks, I’d rather we spent that minute or two on something else, don’t you?

Next week: Another Time Lord?

Quotes, Etc.:

“Yo ho ho!...Oh, does nobody actually say that?”

“My ship automatically noticed-ish that your ship was having a bother.”

“Except the gun thing. And the beardiness.”

“I suppose laughing like that is in the job description.”

“Your ship is bigger than mine, and I don’t have a cool boot or a hat even.”

“Okay, groovy. So not just pirates today.”

“I love your getup. No, it’s great. You should dress up like a pirate more often.”

“A green signing shark in an evening gown.”

“You’re very big on the gun thing. Freud would say your compensating.”

“Sorry that I lied when I said yours was bigger.”

“I’m confused.” “Well it’s a big club, we should get t-shirts.”

“I know, it’s bad luck to break them, but look at it this way: There’s a stroppy homicidal mermaid trying to kill all.”

“I swear he’s making half this stuff up.”

“Ah, look." "What's that?" "Sneeze. Alien bogies.”