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THE CURSE OF THE BLACK SPOT

1 episode. Approx. 43 minutes. Written by: Stephen Thompson. Directed
by: Jeremy Webb. Produced by: Marcus Wilson.


THE PLOT

The TARDIS detects a ship in distress: Specifically, a 17th century
pirate ship, becalmed in the middle of the ocean. The ship's crew have
been picked off one by one, each man marked for death by a black spot
on his hand as soon as he receives the slightest injury. Their
predator is a siren (Lily Cole) who rises from the water to claim the
wounded sailors, destroying them with a single touch. And after a
close encounter with the remains of the pirate crew, the Doctor and
Amy are shocked to find that Rory now carries the siren's mark!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Is so instinctively in charge that he can't help but clash
with the captain of the pirate ship. Much of the story's first half
sees these two captains, one of time and one of the sea, vying for
dominance of the situation. Truthfully, the Doctor seems to enjoy
sparring with Capt. Avery (Hugh Bonneville), and he rapidly bonds with
the other man. The story does see the Doctor rejecting one working
theory after another regarding the siren. This would seem to make him
ineffectual, but what it really shows is how fast his mind works. He
initially believes the siren is using the water to travel. This fits
with all the available facts. Then the siren materializes in a dry
room with reflective surfaces, leading him to change his theory to fit
those facts. Each time his current theory is disproved, he moves to
another one - and with each one, he moves closer to the truth. For a
hero who was originally introduced as a scientist, this is quite
fitting and is by far my favorite element of the episode.

Amy: Thinks fast to save the Doctor and Rory from the pirates - and
unwittingly provokes the siren in the process. Her maternal instincts
show themselves in her scenes with Toby, as she attempts to protect
the boy from the truth of what kind of ship his father truly captains.
She also has not forgotten, and cannot shake, having seen the Doctor's
death. She knows she can't tell him about it, but she is clearly
struggling under the weight of that knowledge.

Rory: Gets scratched early in the episode, and spends much of the rest
of it under the influence of the siren's spell. This gives Arthur
Darvill a turn doing some amusing "drunk acting." His training as a
nurse asserts itself at the story's finish. Other than that, he is
little more than a plot device this time.


THOUGHTS

Having had the big, season-setting 2-parter, we now move to the
crucial event of every television season: The filler episode.

The Curse of the Black Spot is pure filler. There are a few nods at
the season arc, with Amy seeing the one-eyed woman looking in through
a window again and a quick flashback to the Doctor's future death (a
flashback to the hero's future. Only in a time travel show). But these
are throwaways around the edges of a pure standalone story, a story
that's mostly a pirate pastische.

As long as the episode contents itself with being a pirate pastische,
The Curse of the Black Spot is reasonably fun to watch. All the
standbys are on-hand. A ship of pirates, a cursed treasure, a mystical
siren, a plucky boy, and a captain with a past. There's even a (brief)
mutiny and a scene in which the Doctor walks the plank. It's all very
shallow and obvious, but it is entertaining.

Then the narrative takes a shift in the last ten minutes, and suddenly
we're watching a completely different type of story. Nothing actively
conflicts with what's gone before. But the amusement value drops as
the pirate elements all but disappear. In their place, we get some
very mild, vaguely Star Trek-like science fiction trappings, ones
which lack any sense of atmosphere. An attempt at an emotional climax
involving Amy and Rory misfires, leaving the end of the story even
more bungled than it had been already.

A pity. If this script could have just contented itself with being a
lightweight pirate piece, it would have been far more successful. But
that final stretch cripples the episode, one which already wasn't on
track to be one of the series' better offerings. Don't get me wrong -
The Curse of the Black Spot is a watchable enough time filler - but on
future viewings of Series Six, this is one I'll choose to skip.


Rating: 4/10.

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