Doctor Who S32E3 "The Curse of the Black Spot" [spoilers]

[Broomstick]

Basically, it's a stand-alone episode that might either be a filler or a breather episode. As such, it is unlikely to be one of the epic goodness stories of the series so landing on “mediocre” is about as good as it gets. (There are some exceptions to this rule – I'm thinking “Midnight”, which might have qualifed as a “filler” in some definitions – but these sorts of stories tend to be so-so with lower budget effects.)

OK I have issues with this episode I'll call “failures of logic”, as they don't make sense.

1) At the beginning.... the Captain thinks they're stowaways, OK, from his viewpoint that makes a hell of a lot more sense than “multi-dimensional engineering” but when he essentially says we're making the Doctor walk the plank due to low stores the Doctor should have offered food and water – I'm assuming, between swimming pools, bathrooms, libraries, extensive wardrobes, etc. and a kitchen the TARDIS does have food and water in it.

2) No one makes any sort of real effort to restrain Big Black Pirate Guy at the first teleport/disintegration we see. Now, I know these guys are pirates, but on a ship like that there was some self-interest in protecting your shipmates because you needed hands to sail the ship. Although I suppose by that time they pirates were giving up hope of surviving, so meh.

3) Amy gets thrown backwards multiple body-lengths but doesn't get hurt? I could see getting up from that, if you were lucky and your landing was soft, but not even a minor boo-boo? This is a demon/mermaid/holodoctor that goes after papercuts, c'mon.

4) The doctor has to keep revising his theories and figure stuff out. However, it started to go off the rails towards the end – WHY did the doctor suddenly think people were being teleported rather than killed? Would have been much better if they had thrown a hint in – like maybe people catching glimpses of the other ship through reflections? That would have also solved the one-way viewing problem.

5) Smash a mirror you get shards of reflective stuff – this doesn't solve your problem, might even make it worse. COVER the mirror you idiots, as covering reflections seems to work well enough.

6) Crown rolls across deck, it's shiny and reflective and everyone knows that's bad – what, the Doctor, captain and Amy all just stare at it? No one tries to snatch it up and toss it overboard until AFTER the kid gets zapped?

7) The Doctor sucks at first aid. Now, maybe that's partly because he's an alien from a species that, when severely injurned, can just whip up a whole new body, but really, he's spent enough time around humans he should have gotten a clue by now. I suppose it's somewhat logical the Doctor wouldn't know CPR, between regeneration being an option and having a vastly different cardiovascular system (how would you do chest compressions on someone with two hearts?) but c'mon, it's not that difficult and he's a smart guy. Well, it's not like the CPR scene was that realistic – sure, it wasn't an instant save and Amy is having to really work at it, but then, who wants to see the vomit and mucus coming out of someone, or hear the sound of breaking ribs anyhow? It's fiction, enjoy it.

8) The Doctor says the boy is suffering from typhoid fever – except the symptoms don't match, which is probably why people in this thread are saying TB instead of typhoid. Well, OK, the Doctor is a doctor but not of medicine, we knew that. Slopppy writing, poor research, whatever, it could have been done better.

9) He gives a crew of 17th Century pirates a frakkin' space ship and tells them to have fun? Is this really going to end well?


And now, for things that actually make some sense, or are just cool (like bow ties)

A) Amy taking up sword and confronting the pirates. After all, aside from the pistol everyone above deck is, essentially, unarmed. This wouldn't work under normal circumstances, but we find out later why the pirates put away all the sharp things. Between that, some swashbuckling, and pirates terrified of a scratch it's one of the better scenes.

B) While in theory Rory with his Centurion experience should be the better fighter, as a man the pirates were physically restraining him. Doesn't matter if he's got 2,000 years of memory of being an Auton Centurion, now he's just a flesh and blood guy and only human. A couple of big burly pirate guys can restrain him. They underestimated Amy because she's a woman, which led to her finding the extra-large cutlery.

C) While off-screen teleports involve more screaming, the guys we see being “dissolved” also scream, briefly, before going >poof<

D) The scene between the captain and his son where the son didn't say his mom was dead, but made it clear she was, and the captain figured it out. Very nice, touching scene where the two people involved looked intelligent and perceptive. The captain is actually a smart guy.

E) The captain walks into the TARDIS, and instead of going into extended gawk mode he tries to figure it out. He's enormously handicapped by the thing being centuries and lightyears ahead of him, but he tries anyway. Most people just stand around with the jaw open, not the captain. Later on, on the alien ship, he says “Just point me to the atom accelerator” - this is definitely a smart guy who can adapt quickly.

F) The bit where the Doctor is smashing a mirror, the captain gives him a look, the Doctor says yes, it's bad luck, homicidal mermaid, etc., and the captain says yes, how much worse can it get? Nice humor, but – see where it doesn't work, above.

G) Toby! Rory! The TARDIS! - OK, now we know who loves who...


And stuff that's just becoming running gags/common themes/stuff:

I - This doctor apparently has a thing about hats – first it was fezzes, then a stetson, now a tricorne. Perhaps we should be surprised no one shot the tricorne?

II - Rory is dying! Wait – he gets better! Really, this is getting old quick. Stop that. I do not want Rory the Woobie (currently somewhere between Stoic and Iron sub-types). Rory is a nurse, he should be given the chance to act like one (Martha Jones didn't get to strut her medical education often, either, but we did see her taking care of hurt people at least occassionly). Rory also has that weird 2,000 year collection of Auton Centurion memories, I'd like to see them do something with that at least once. Geez, people used to complain about the girl companions being useless!

III - Bits where half the group know what it going on, and the other half are looking at the first half like they're crazy. Stand out for this is when the Doctor and the captain run into the powder room, snatch the medal out of Toby's hand, and the Doctor breathes on it to fog the metal. Totally makes sense if you know what's going on, totally insane if you don't, and Rory, Amy, and Toby are clearly in the latter camp from their expressions.

IV - Eyepatch Lady of the Sliding Window – I hope there's a good payoff down the line for this.

V - Eleven is disgusting on a certain level – if he's not licking things or spitting them out he's putting his hand in alien snot. Ewwwwww......!

VII - Shroedinger pregnancy – we get it, stop hitting us with the clue-by-four. Though I wonder if the Doctor knows more about this than he's letting on because while he seems worried he doesn't seem particuarly puzzled, as if he knows what's going on.


Stuff I'd like to see:

i – Rory being a nurse. Extra bonus points if Rory has to give the Doctor first aid and runs into the problem the Doctor is alien – how the hell do you care for someone when you don't know what normal is? (To be fair, we caught a glimpse of Rory the Nurse in “Vampires of Venice” when he rushed to the girl who had been attacked) Maybe they're saving this for when the Shroedinger pregnancy becomes the Shroedinger delivery? I can't imagine the Doctor being any better at being a midwife than he is at CPR.

ii – Rory the Roman. C'mon, 2,000 years locked in his head. There's been some mention that it's all behind a “door”, so maybe he'd have to consciously access it rather than spontaneously remembering it, but Rory doing something like reading Latin or suddenly displaying military skills if a situation calls for it could be very cool.

iii – Amy getting the fuck over her crush on the Doctor and actually like she's actually committed to Rory. He's her husband, for goodness sake, and there is NO question of his loyalty and devotion to her.

iv - “But that doesn't make sense!” - Rory and Amy are the human perspective, once in awhile they should say that phrase, with extra bonus points if the Doctor comes back with “it's alien, they think differently – do I seem sensible to you all the time?”. The demon/mermain/holodoctor doesn't always make sense from our viewpoint, and that's probably because it's an artificial program made by aliens. Granted, this can turn into a handwave as bad as technobabble if used too often, but done well it would be a nice addition.

[Raxmei]

Rory: "I know you'll never give up"
Amy: does showbiz CPR for 60 seconds and then gives up
Way to go.

The episode as a whole and especially the ending feels clumsy and stupid.

[NecronLord]

B) While in theory Rory with his Centurion experience should be the better fighter, as a man the pirates were physically restraining him. Doesn't matter if he's got 2,000 years of memory of being an Auton Centurion, now he's just a flesh and blood guy and only human. A couple of big burly pirate guys can restrain him. They underestimated Amy because she's a woman, which led to her finding the extra-large cutlery.

Hey now, I wasn't saying he should beat them up, but it would be nice to see some of that experience come into play.

E) The captain walks into the TARDIS, and instead of going into extended gawk mode he tries to figure it out. He's enormously handicapped by the thing being centuries and lightyears ahead of him, but he tries anyway. Most people just stand around with the jaw open, not the captain. Later on, on the alien ship, he says “Just point me to the atom accelerator” - this is definitely a smart guy who can adapt quickly.

Yeah. He was... actually pretty impressive.

I was definately assuming that the Doctor taught him to fly the ship at some point offscreen.

VII - Shroedinger pregnancy – we get it, stop hitting us with the clue-by-four. Though I wonder if the Doctor knows more about this than he's letting on because while he seems worried he doesn't seem particuarly puzzled, as if he knows what's going on.

Actually, I didn't get it. I didn't see the 'negative' bit of it the first time.

iii – Amy getting the fuck over her crush on the Doctor and actually like she's actually committed to Rory. He's her husband, for goodness sake, and there is NO question of his loyalty and devotion to her.

[Broomstick]

B) While in theory Rory with his Centurion experience should be the better fighter, as a man the pirates were physically restraining him. Doesn't matter if he's got 2,000 years of memory of being an Auton Centurion, now he's just a flesh and blood guy and only human. A couple of big burly pirate guys can restrain him. They underestimated Amy because she's a woman, which led to her finding the extra-large cutlery.

Hey now, I wasn't saying he should beat them up, but it would be nice to see some of that experience come into play.

Pity we can't have "Shroedinger Centurion" where Rory can turn into the Plastic Warrior complete with Awesome Hand Gun at convenient times, but that's probably too silly even for Doctor Who.

iii – Amy getting the fuck over her crush on the Doctor and actually like she's actually committed to Rory. He's her husband, for goodness sake, and there is NO question of his loyalty and devotion to her.

That poster is just.... totally AWESOME.

[Parallax]

Past incarnations of the Doctor have known basic medical procedures. Why the 11th doesn't is ... odd.

[Broomstick]

OK... let's try this on for size....

The Doctor knows enough to know that Rory probably can be saved with mouth-to-mouth/CPR, and that Amy is doing it correctly. He does encourage her to keep at it. For some reason, the Doctor was sure Rory could be revived, but wanted Amy to be the one to do it.

Hmmm.... why?

So Amy wouldn't become dependent on him? So she could be the hero? This is all heading towards rampant speculation constructed of hopeful thinking and not based on what is seen.

[PREDATOR490]

I find it more insane the TARDIS dosent have medical facilities onboard. The thing IS a Spaceship afterall and while Timelords can regenerate, they logically can get injured which would require treatment.
The idea that it dosent have some sort of medical facility alone is stupid.

The idea that the Doctor dosent have ANY medical supplies AT ALL onboard is even more insanely stupid when he likes to collect all sorts of shit.

Sadly this runs into a major problem with Doctor Who since its begining. The show has always been exceptionally avoidant of showing the inside of the TARDIS and the various rooms inside it. On the one hand, fair enough. On the other it becomes increasingly annoying for the show to ignore it in situations like this.

Random alien spaceship has a super-sophisticated medical program... where is the TARDIS equivilent ?
Alternatively why cant the TARDIS fly off and bring a suitable one back to save Rory etc. or fly him off to a place with such a place ?

Because the Doctor is an idiot apparantly.

[Broomstick]

It's a problem if the TARDIS sickbay/infirmary is set up solely for Time Lords and not other species... though if that were the case one would have to wonder why the Doctor didn't modify it, considering how often he takes non-Gallifreyans along with him.

[Parallax]

We have seen that the TARDIS does have sickbay facilities; we saw them in 'The Invasion of Time'.

[Broomstick]

Well, maybe you have, but some of us have less access to Who than others.

That, and my memory of some episodes I might have seen 20 or 25 years ago and not since could well be spotty.

A recent donation to my county library may help me catch up with the past few decades, but there are only so many hours in day (week, month, etc.)

[Big Orange]

In the ill fated Canadian TV movie with Paul McGann from 15 years ago, didn't the TARDIS save a couple of dead companions almost magically with no obvious technology in play?

This episode was watchable and fun in places, but hamstrung by a few plotholes and limited budget, as far as historical filler goes I didn't like "The Curse of the Black Spot" as much as "The Fires of Pompeii" and "The Shakespeare Code".

In the next four episodes I'm really stoked about Neil Gaiman's episode and Steven Moffat's "A Good Man Goes to War", but a bit wary of Matthew Graham's two parter that's sandwiched between them. Matthew Graham's output as a writer is a mixed bag - I have rather vague, fragmented memories of The Last Train from the late 90s, "Fear Her" (also a blatant budget saver) was forgettable save for a couple of memorable moments, Life on Mars was a classic fantasy cop show and Ashes to Ashes was a weaker spin-off of LoM but still had its moments (especially its final episode).

The less said about Bonekickers the better....

[TC Pilot]

I can think of two reasons why the Doctor wouldn't help Rory:
-doing so would make the holographic nurse go beszerk (only Amy signed the release form, so it only applies to Amy?)
-the Doctor is just being evil

As for giving the pirates the spaceship, I thought it was hilarious. The captain was supposed to be Henry Every, who completely vanished from history. So that explains where he went to

By the way, anyone keeping track of the number of "Alien computer systems goes crazy, starts killing people" plotlines the show's done? I can think of four including this one.

[Broomstick]

Can't remember the title, but I can think of at least one from the Tom Baker years, which probably means "lots and lots" over the entire course of the show.

[NecronLord]

In the ill fated Canadian TV movie with Paul McGann from 15 years ago, didn't the TARDIS save a couple of dead companions almost magically with no obvious technology in play?

The TARDIS resurrected them after the Master had killed them, it's implied that it used his 'life energy' to do so, given that it comes from the Eye of Harmony (duplicate) into which the Master had just been gobbled. The Doctor definitely wasn't expecting it, and it wasn't a normal medical function.

Interestingly, it resembles the resurrection energy from the new series (fairy dust).

[open_sketchbook]

The pacing felt all over the place, usually way, way too fast. This would have been a far better two-parter. Neat, though.

Disappointing, but not actually bad.

[Lord Woodlouse]

I think there's plenty of times you can say "but wouldn't the TARDIS have this!?", but if you take that to it's ultimate conclusion it probably invalidates about half the story ideas out there.

It's entirely possible the Doctor would not yet feel comfortable with any medical knowledge/expertise he has tucked away in his brain yet. Some incarnations of the Doctor do seem to lose skills they had previously. With people his knowledge seems to be largely academic.

It's always possible the TARDIS sickbay (not the most widely used part of the ship, you'll have to admit) doesn't have the equipment on hand to deal with what is possibly considered a fairly obscure alien illness.

[Shroom Man 777]

I liked it. I'd give it a 3.5, so I just voted 4. Yeah, the twist is basically the same as that of The Doctor Dances, but the villain and the situation wasn't using the patented Moffat tricks and was more reminiscent of those Doctor in the Classical Era type stories, ala him versus Shakespeare, or him versus Charles Dickens, or him versus Agatha Christie, etc. Yep, it was definitely That Kind of episode. A typical Doctor in Historical Set Piece Setting meeting Historical People episode.

Those episodes tend to be not very remarkable. The best moment in from this type of episode was, well, Shakespeare screaming EXPELLIARMUS.

This episode would be awesomer if the dread pirate of SPACE becomes a recurring character. Hell yeah, that would be fucking awesome. I mean, if that ship of theirs can travel between dimensions, why not time? The Doctor can face some evil baddie and then SUDDENLY PIRATES, and they shoot a Dalek in its eyestalk with a space flintlock or chop a cyberman up with their cutlasses.

Another thing, also. It would be actually cool if Rory's centuries of being a centurion (hehe) got put to use. In Vampires of Venice, he tried to swordfight some douche and got his ass kicked. So it would be awesome if he gets into another swordfight but ends up ruining shit and beating ass with a gladius due to his character development from having been a centurion for two thousand years and dedicating himself to protecting Amy all that time. We need to see Badass Rory.

Overall, not a bad episode. But unremarkable. I can see why they like to get this type of episode done very early in the season, though. Notice how Doctor versus Charles Dickens or Doctor versus Shakespeare were shown at the early part of the season? Yeah.

[Crossroads Inc.]

My main gripe with the Epasode was just how conviently it was that the siren was NOT a homicidal killer and was NOT vaporizing people to an instant death. I mean, the Doctor in about 10seconds went from "Horrible killing alien thing" to "It must be intelligent and can be reasoned with! So lets all get Zapped by it even though we have NO idea what will happen!"

Other then that, it was an ok show, had some laughs, has good moments. The Captain I grew VERY fond of with him inside the TARDIS trying to figure it out. "A ship is a ship, they all have a wheel" is a great quote. Also echo the love for SPACE PIRATES to return, that would be epic.

Also also, totally need to see more Centurion Rory. They have made notes about it twice now and it would be a hell of a tease for it NOT to factor into an ep at some point.

[Gurachn]

This one just had too many unlikely or unplausible bits for me to give it more than a 2.

I did like the captain, and would be glad to see him pop up somewhere in the future, but really, what is the chance that a 19th century pirate would be even able to identify the toilets on an alien space ship, not to mention make it go!
Or that the doctor would just let him jump behind the wheel, and take off with his crew of illiterates, knowing that even if they could get the thing going, the chances of them getting lost, burning on reentry, eventually starving to death, or perishing in some other calamity are an almost certainty?

Dr Who, by it's nature requires a pretty hefty (and usually enjoyable) chunk of suspension of disbelief, but a considerable percentage of this one crossed the line into just plain stupid, imo.

[Raxmei]

Forget the Doctor doing CPR, why not fly the TARDIS to a hospital, preferable one in the future? Real life CPR is highly unlikely to resuscitate people by itself. You do it to keep things going until the real doctors show up. Let Amy do CPR while the Doctor flies to the space British ER to get him space revived on the space national health.

[Broomstick]

Uh... they're in the 17th Century? I don't think the NHS existed back then....

Yes, yes, I know, the TARDIS travels in time, too. Scratch that.

Anyhow - it's a filler. Not the worst ever, but with a plot full of holes. Can't hit a home run every time. I hope this week we get better.