 |
| The siren (Lily Cole). |
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: Much of the story's first half sees the Doctor, effectively a captain of time, vying with Capt. Avery (Hugh Bonneville) for dominance of the situation. The Doctor seems to enjoy the sparring, 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.
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.
Review Index
No comments:
Post a Comment