Doctor Who review: "The Curse of the Black Spot"

[ed_rex]

 

Some pirates, some curse

Good grief, but I'm getting tired of finding fault, but there really isn't much good to to say about the third episode of Stephen Moffat's second series in control of the TARDIS.

"The Curse of the Black Spot" is a fairly generic, back-in-time adventure featuring a mythical monster that (of course) is anything but supernatural. Or should have been.

In truth, it's quite a lot less than a generic episode. It makes "The Unquiet Dead", "Tooth and Claw" or "The Fires of Pompeii" (never mind the superior "The Shakespeare Code") seem almost brilliant by comparison.

Avast ye scurvy dogs! There be no sense, nor continuity in this week's episode! (But be on yer guard fer spoilers and the sound of one man cursing! Aaarggh! Or rather, Aauuggghh!)

Comments

I think there were only two things I liked about this episode

[beable]

Or rather one thing, but two instances of it.

Specifically, that both Rory and Amy were up on their faerie lore as proper children of a British upbringing ought to be *vbg* (even if the lore was ineffective).

Specifically: I liked Rory asking the Doctor if he'd have to cover his ears forever, and I liked Amy telling the siren to back off because she already had a claim to Rory.

Otherwise this episode was an irritating rehash of "let's play with the shiny toys that we've already played with a million times" - specifically the whole dimensional shift thing and stranded ship) (memories of both Girl in the Fireplace and The Lodger), a slightly stupid healing ship (shades of The nanites in The Doctor Dances).

And I'm dissappointed with how Moffat handles the seasonal arc elements. At least with RTD these elements were subtler: the Bad Wolf shtick and the Saxon stuff were just subtle. Some viewers would notice they recurred, but most would just pass it off as background initially. The "there's something on your back" and "bees disappearing" were less subtle, but still did not bludgeon people on the head with "ATTENTION: BIG PLOT HERE" notices - they fit neatly into their stories and - while standing out, were still relatively unblatant.

Moffat's "THERE'S A HOLE IN YOUR MIND (or sorry, thats B5) THERES A CRACK IN YOUR WALL" and "AMY PREGNANT? MYSTERIOUS DREAMLIKE CONVERSATIONS THROUGH A HOLE IN THE DOOR THAT ISNT THERE - OH HEY AUDIENCE THIS IS WEIRD KTHXBYE" is irritating.

Re: I think there were only two things I liked about this episode

[ed_rex]

MYSTERIOUS DREAMLIKE CONVERSATIONS THROUGH A HOLE IN THE DOOR THAT ISNT THERE - OH HEY AUDIENCE THIS IS WEIRD KTHXBYE" is irritating.

Oh yeah. I know I'm going to shake my fist at my screen the next time the Doctor twiddles with that fucking pregnant/not pregnant machine again without, y'know, doing something other going for another deliberate adventure.