The Curse of the Black Spot (7 May 2011)

On board a 17th century pirate ship sailing the ocean waves, a crew under the command of one Captain Avery are being picked off one by one by a ghostly apparition. They believe it to be a ... See full summary »

Director:

Jeremy Webb

Writer:

Steve Thompson

Stars:

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Matt Smith	...	The Doctor
Karen Gillan	...	Amy Pond
Arthur Darvill	...	Rory
Hugh Bonneville	...	Henry Avery
Oscar Lloyd	...	Toby Avery
Lee Ross	...	The Boatswain
Michael Begley	...	Mulligan
Tony Lucken	...	De Florres
Chris Jarman	...	Dancer
Carl McCrystal	...	McGrath
Lily Cole	...	The Siren

Storyline

On board a 17th century pirate ship sailing the ocean waves, a crew under the command of one Captain Avery are being picked off one by one by a ghostly apparition. They believe it to be a legendary Siren, a beautiful and mesmerizing demon who lures men to their death with its haunting Siren song. She marks her prey before retrieving them with a black spot on their hand, a mark that means certain death. As they are becalmed and stuck in the ocean, all seems lost for the dwindling pirate crew... until three stowaways are discovered with a mysterious blue crate.

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Plot Keywords:

siren | pirate | pirate ship | stowaway | reference to the tenth doctor | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 May 2011 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Cymru Wales

Technical Specs

Runtime:

46 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

Sailors and ship builders in this period went to great lengths to prevent fires in the powder magazines. The magazine room themselves were often built with a separate lamp room that shone light into the magazine via internal windows so that no flames of any kind would be required in the magazine itself. To have the magazine lit be exposed candles would be unlikely and extremely dangerous.

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Quotes

The Doctor: [Amy has appeared on deck dressed in pirate garb and wielding a cutlass] What are you doing?
Amy Pond: Saving your life. You got a problem with that?

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Connections

Spoofs Coma (1978)

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Soundtracks

"Doctor Who Theme"
(uncredited)
Written by Ron Grainer
Arranged by Murray Gold
Performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales

User Reviews

Yeah it's campy. What do you expect.

Of the two reviews currently up, one acknowledges the inherent child-like fantasy that permeates the Dr. Who Universe. The other complains about this point. really, I think I can see both sides of the coin (or pirate medallion. This episode certainly has plenty of plot, and while it doesn't specifically go for silliness, IT is hard to choose a much more romanticized and cheesy topic than English pirates. The more I think about it, the i realize that yes, i acquiesce (I doubt I spelled that right), it could have been much more of a claustrophobic psychological thriller, a la Blink (I don't care what anyone says, the weeping angels and the 3 episodes they've appeared in are far scarier than the silence). But maybe because of the confines of 45 minutes, they had to keep stuff moving at a fairly brisk pace. The quest to make the characters legitimately deep continues, and I think they are getting better at it. Maybe. Also, two thirds the way through, there was a delicious non sequitar cameo thrown in, one that will probably make more sense in the coming months. All in all, a solid, fairly entertaining episode.