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Doctor Who: The Curse of the Black Spot/The Doctor's Wife

Filed in: Doctor Who.

Following on from the season opener are two self-contained stories: The One with the Pirates and The One Written by Neil Gaiman.

"The Curse of the Black Spot", or "Doctor Who in a Bit of Running About on a Boat" lacks a bit of something in that the pirates don't really feel very piratey. It's possible we've been spoiled by Disney and Hollywood in general, but it seems like there should have been a lot more yo ho hoing. Henry Avery, played by Hugh Bonneville, is supposed to be a fearsome pirate captain, and we're told he's killed many men, but he just seems too nice. More about this story and "The Doctor's Wife" under the cut...

I feel like "The Curse of the Black Spot" would have been considerably shorter had the Doctor stopped blindly formulating theories and simply pointed his sonic screwdriver at the siren — it's already been established that the sonic screwdriver also acts as a scanner, so it doesn't seem like there'd be any reason for him not to use it, other than he would realise the siren's true nature some 30 minutes too early. That said, "Curse" is still a fun story in its own right, and in a weaker season would have been one of the better episodes.

Unfortunately it was sorta blown away by being followed by "The Doctor's Wife", in which the TARDIS's "soul" is ripped from it an stuck in the body of a woman so we can get lots of lovely interaction between her and the Doctor. As Amy says later in the episode when the Doctor introduces her "Did you wish really hard?" The TARDIS's ability to interact with the rest of the cast was brief, but full enough of characterful moments that it didn't feel like the opportunity was wasted in any way. House was also a great villain, and I'm sad we didn't get to see more of Auntie and Uncle.

Posted June 12, 2011 6:57 PM

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