**Spoilers** Series 6, Episode 3 - "Curse of the Black Spot"

pixelburp

Ok, anyone else feel a bit... apathetic ... about this weekend's episode? After the opening 2-parter, and all the drama, tragedy & fallout that came with it, this self-contained adventure suddenly feels like an anti-climax of sorts. A strange little intermission sanwiched between the larger happenings this series.


Anyway, clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVmzGRSdDO4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-qno0KizFQ

Basq

I'd recommend adding ** spoilers ** to the thread title.. just to preempt bitching when it airs.

Looks like a bog standard "escapade of the week" episode!

pixelburp

Hmm good point - do I have ability to change a thread title I started, or just mods?

Banjo Fella

Looking forward to the inevitable "I wear a tricorne now, tricornes are cool."

Basq

pixelburp wrote: »

Hmm good point - do I have ability to change a thread title I started, or just mods?

I notified them there.

pixelburp

pixelburp wrote: »

Hmm good point - do I have ability to change a thread title I started, or just mods?

Press edit, then advanced. That should let you change the title

pixelburp

Papa Smut wrote: »

Press edit, then advanced. That should let you change the title

Ding! Cheers dude, much appreciated

Spoiler away chaps!

Wibbs

Basq wrote: »

Looks like a bog standard "escapade of the week" episode!

me likey them...

The Mad Hatter

When I saw **spoilers** in the thread title, I thought I'd missed the episode. Damn you, Basq!

But yeah, not too hyped about this one. After the highs of the last two, it seems a bit silly and irrelevant.

Aldebaran

Basq wrote: »

Looks like a bog standard "escapade of the week" episode!

I felt the same way before 'Vincent and the Doctor' from last season and that turned out to be one of my favourite episodes, so I'm not going to write this one off just yet. This show can always suprise you.

Mahatma coat

Wibbs wrote: »

me likey them...

Me Too

Still tho, theres not that much room for Running on a Boat

Some of the 'Filler' episodes have been teh best ones of the Season, Blink or the Girl in the Fireplace would both be Filler episodes IMO and are my faves

Killer_banana

Mahatma coat wrote: »

Some of the 'Filler' episodes have been teh best ones of the Season, Blink or the Girl in the Fireplace would both be Filler episodes IMO and are my faves

Oooh I never thought of that...I'm very excited for this one now.

I wonder if Lily Cole gets to actually do anything besides look pretty/be scary. She's a surprisingly good actress, be a pity if she doesn't get to prove that. Well she already proved it in 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Pernassus' but hardly anyone's seen that.

Stark

What time is this meant to start at? These northern ireland politicians are showing no sign of shutting up

pixelburp

Same as advertised - 6.15

Morag

"Like a green singing shark in an evening gown"

Rowley Birkin QC

This has been an incredibly weak episode.

sock puppet

Rory =

Coldzone

Thought the episode was ok nothing spectacular

From the look cant wait for next weeks ep :D

Killer_banana

Not a great episode but a decent adventure of the week. For a second there I thought that they'd actually killed Rory off (don't ask me why since he's 'died' before) and got very very angry.

Next week looks good.

Aldebaran

That wasn't great, but it was always going to be tough to follow two very strong opening episodes.

Although, Amy did look great dressed as a pirate!

Cosmo Kramer

That was a long long way below the show's usual (very high) standards.

Plot holes all over the place.

Daemos

Well I liked it

Killer_banana

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

That was a long long way below the show's usual (very high) standards.

Plot holes all over the place.

There were? What were they? I didn't notice any but I'm usually a bit crap at these things.

Manach

With apologies to Mr Mel Brooks,
"Pirates in space, defending the human race".

Gambler

Yeah, not the strongest of episodes at all.. Roll on next week I guess..

ixoy

Enjoyable filler - nothing special but not particularly bad for an episode following an excellent opening. Some decent moments of humour such as the Doctor's entrance.
Also seems they're running a couple of plot threads in throughout the season - Amy's on/off pregnancy and whoever the hell that woman is.

And it was better than the 2nd Doctor's run-in with pirates!

Aldebaran

What happened to the pirate guy who the kid cut with the sword? When the Doctor and the Captain got back to the armory he seemed to have disappeared, or did I miss something?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Aldebaran wrote: »

What happened to the pirate guy who the kid cut with the sword? When the Doctor and the Captain got back to the armory he seemed to have disappeared, or did I miss something?

Oh yeah, I don't remember that being explained either now that you mention it...

To be honest, I never expected much from this episode, but it was enjoyable for what it was - better than last year's Dalek episode anyway (or at the very least on a par with it)...

Big pile of "meh" tbh. I just wish Moffat would write all the episodes!

ixoy

Aldebaran wrote: »

What happened to the pirate guy who the kid cut with the sword? When the Doctor and the Captain got back to the armory he seemed to have disappeared, or did I miss something?

We wondered that here too but I just assumed we missed something. I mean they couldn't have done a mistake that big surely?

Cosmo Kramer

Killer_banana wrote: »

There were? What were they? I didn't notice any but I'm usually a bit crap at these things.

OK, here goes...

What happened to the pirate the boy stabbed, he just vanished with no explanation, then re-appeared on the spaceship at the end - when and where did the siren come for him?

How come when the three amigos got on the spaceship they weren't strapped in like everyone else - they were just free to wander around when they woke up? Its not like the pirates were seriously ill or more injured than they were, most of them had just cut their fingers? And was this really sufficient reason for them all to be stuck on the spaceship forever, wouldn't their cuts have eventually just healed even if the siren couldn't figure out how to put a sticky plaster or something on them?

And why on earth was the tardis transported to the spaceship, and just left parked next to the injured people - even if we are to decide that it is 'alive' and it was ill/injured and then taken, should it not have been strapped in to the spaceship in some way too?

There may actually be answers in there to some of those questions, I haven't watched it back, but for me the storyline just didn't seem to flow naturally at all. Maybe I've just been spoiled by Moffat's writing in the last couple of years and expect too much every week now including the episodes he doesn't write.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

why did the doctor unleash an advanced spaceship full of pirates onto an unsuspecting universe?

Stark

Not a strong episode although much better than the likes of last year's "victory of the daleks". Hopefully Gaiman delivers next week

bigdaddyliamo

Thank the powers then...I'm not the only one who "missed" the pirate getting deaded!

Also, The thing that annoyed me the most about that ep was how absolutely useless the doctor was in trying to revive Rory. He would move heaven and earth to bring any number of chick companions back but when it came to rory he turns into a puddin...anyone???

bren2001

That was one of the worst Dr. Who episodes ive seen. Lily Cole wasn't allowed to act, she was meerly a figure there for her looks. The Doctors solution was shocking. Lets cut ourselves and assume we don't die. Still looking forward to next week tho.

pixelburp

bren2001 wrote: »

That was one of the worst Dr. Who episodes ive seen. Lily Cole wasn't allowed to act, she was meerly a figure there for her looks. The Doctors solution was shocking. Lets cut ourselves and assume we don't die. Still looking forward to next week tho.

Worse than Victory of the Daleks? Worse than Fear Her? :eek:

Tonight's episode went as I expected though: a filler episode that didn't really go anywhere, and tangentially harkens to the other, larger plot points in the series. Ultimately to be forgotten, but had some nice one-liners & was, at worst, average; there have been far worse of these stand-alone episodes down through the years. The worst thing I could say about it was it's predictability: there were no big surprises, no stand-out characters or twists in the plot. It's a wonder the scripwriter thought "killing" the kid would be a good idea; as soon as it happened I figured it was some sort of teleport & nobody was actually dead after-all.

I did think the idea that Lily Cole was in fact a medical hologram, stuck in a loop, a nice touch. Not sure about letting her act, though her slightly odd, alien appearance anyway did suit the role

Oh and yes, I also spotted the magically disappearing pirate (though he does turn up in the spaceship at the end when the pirates are flying off into space).

Maybe the bigger question is who that one-eyed lady is! The things she has said & the way she phrases them suggest to me "nurse". That's she's looking in on someone and passing comment. Is Amy somehow also in some sort of medical institution? Both there and with the Doctor at the same time? It might explain why she's both preggers & not at the same time.

Basq

pixelburp wrote: »

Not sure about letting her act, though her slightly odd, alien appearance anyway did suit the role

Agreed, she always reminded me of the girl in that Playstation ad a few years back..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHCr3Np8F3c

Everytime I see her, I forget her name and refer to her as "the model with the squished head".

Anyways, standard filler fare - not bad, not great. It was never gonna live up to the opening 2 episodes of the season. I do quite like the Amy/Rory relationship.. I should be tiring of them but they're fun to watch.

And as for the "worst Doctor Who episode ever?" - not even fecking close!

As for Rory:





Next week looked much better from the preview though!

bren2001

Basq wrote: »

And as for the "worst Doctor Who episode ever?" - not even fecking close!

Lets just clarify. I said one of the worst. Not the worst. I thought every aspect of it was bad.

BuffyBot

I tuned out mentally quite a bit. It was what it was, but you wouldn't rush to watch it again.

Bajingo

The whole reflection bit annoyed me..reminded of the angel in Amy's from last season and I was wondering why she didn't just pop out of everyones eyes and kill them? A fair few plot holes..and i'm just nit picking but that isn't how you do CPR :P

Art_Wolf

Meh episode, the only thing I liked was that plugging your ears, aka silence, could protect you from the Sirens (Odysseus).

Yer one with the eye patch puts me in mind of a mental asylum - nurse checking in on a patient... as if this is all happening in Amy's head *shrugs*

pixelburp

Art_Wolf wrote: »

Meh episode, the only thing I liked was that plugging your ears, aka silence, could protect you from the Sirens (Odysseus).

Yer one with the eye patch puts me in mind of a mental asylum - nurse checking in on a patient... as if this is all happening in Amy's head *shrugs*

If that turns out to be the case, then I hope it's a situation of Amy remembering past adventures, than the "it was all a dream" variety. I'm sure Moffat has more sense than to use that terrible old cliché

I reckon she's the next regeneration of the kid time lord

BlitzKrieg

Didnt like it much. Poor script and very uneven flow (started well, but really floundered in the later half) Really felt like a much more toned/dumbed down version of a girl in the fireplace from season 2 which probably made it much harder on the episode to please as there is such a close comparison that is so much better.

off.the.walls

Girl in the fireplace was enjoyable so was this. Its not ment to be epic the entire way through a season its ment to be a fantasy story that gives us some entertainment and thats what this episode did. If you want to pick at every little detail of a episode whats the point in watching if your not going to enjoy it?

ixoy

off.the.walls wrote: »

Girl in the fireplace was enjoyable so was this. Its not ment to be epic the entire way through a season its ment to be a fantasy story that gives us some entertainment and thats what this episode did. If you want to pick at every little detail of a episode whats the point in watching if your not going to enjoy it?

Well people can only turn off their brains to a certain degree. That amount varies from person to person. For some of us here, plot holes and inconsistencies throw us out of the narrative because the narrative is no longer cohesive. Yes, it's a fantastical world but it should have its own interior logic to some degree. Depending on the writer this can vary wildly and this episode did verge from the previous two in how it was formed and the flow of ideas, characters, etc.
Or more simply: If we liked every aspect of every episode of every show, it'd be a pretty boring discussion forum!

Stark

ixoy wrote: »

Or more simply: If we liked every aspect of every episode of every show, it'd be a pretty boring discussion forum!

This.

Like why bother even reading the discussion forum if you don't want to hear the good with the bad. I could write you a quick script that will print out "omg it was amazing yet again" as many times as you want to hear if that's what you prefer to see.

Bajingo

off.the.walls wrote: »

Girl in the fireplace was enjoyable so was this. Its not ment to be epic the entire way through a season its ment to be a fantasy story that gives us some entertainment and thats what this episode did. If you want to pick at every little detail of a episode whats the point in watching if your not going to enjoy it?

Being a fan of a show doesn't necessarily mean liking every episode, this wasn't a great episode for me but I had to watch it first to find this out. Being epic isn't necessary but this episode just wasn't well written which I think all episodes should be.

Like why bother even reading the discussion forum if you don't want to hear the good with the bad. I could write you a quick script that will print out "omg it was amazing yet again" as many times as you want to hear if that's what you prefer to see.

This applies to you more than anyone no one has said anything against people liking this episode, you should take the bad with the good if you are going to take part in the discussion.

bren2001

ixoy wrote: »

If we liked every aspect of every episode of every show, it'd be a pretty boring discussion forum!

I'm willing to sacrifice Boards.ie so that I like every aspect of every episode :pac:

Wibbs

ixoy wrote: »

Or more simply: If we liked every aspect of every episode of every show, it'd be a pretty boring discussion forum!

Or it depends on who likes what too. My take is that Doctor Who has become a two tier show(V broadly and V IMH). A "creature of the week" episode, or a "puzzle" episode. The series arc can be dropped into both, but sits more naturally in the latter. The puzzle episodes in general tend to appeal to a different person than the creature of the week ones. I'd say the latter appeals more to the general and/or "driveby" audience, the puzzle ones to the Whovians?


I liked the episode well enough, but it was very much all on the surface episode.. Yea I'm with ye all, the plot holes and inconsistencies were a bit much alright. The biggest for me was the whole "it's teleporting them, not killing them". Then the waking up on the other side unhindered.

off.the.walls

oh no i can respect that there were bad bits in this episode but sometimes i come on here and theres discussions going on about the most minascule mistakes in episodes. I think i can just turn my brain off to much hahaha.