Tuesday 10 May 2011

Doctor Who: The Curse of the Black Spot

Yo ho ho! Or does nobody actually say that?

Pirates, becalmed on the high seas, in fear of an unearthly power. It's a good setup, and one that this week's Doctor Who made good use of. The Doctor had to walk the plank (another thing that nobody's sure real pirates actually did), and did his usual trick of talking nonsense to stall for time while trying to think up a way out, giving Amy the opportunity not only to rescue him, but to dress for the part as well. The lines
What do you think you're doing?

Saving your life!
recurred, and we even had a bit of fun with the Gilbert and Sullivan idea of silly, non-threatening pirates, with the pirates being afraid of even the slightest scratch.

Most of the episode focussed on Captain Avery, and so Amy and Rory had a bit less to do than usual after Amy's swashbuckling. Rory, who'd been a bit left out of the action for most of the episode, did get a star turn at the end when, told that he was drowning, told Amy how to save his life. There was a wonderful running joke thoughout the episode of The Doctor realising every five minutes that he'd been wrong about everything so far.

The were two interesing bits of Moffatian weirdness in this episode. First off, who was the woman in the eyepatch, who appeared to Amy as if on a videoscreen and said "You're doing well"? Secondly, what's going on with Amy's pregnancy? Last week, I thought I knew what had happened, but now even the Tardis can't work out what's going on. It reminds me of the bit in The Beast Below where a computer couldn't work out her marital status. All will be revealed, eventually, but it's likely to get a lot stranger first!

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