From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: jphalt@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: jphalt's Doctor Who reviews   
      
   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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