By Ross Hughes

After last weeks finale shocker, it was back to the single story episode of Doctor Who in which the trio on board the Tardis go all Pirates Of The Caribbean on us, without a Jack Sparrow in sight!

Its quite easy to criticise Stephen Moffat for leaving all fans in limbo after the stunner of last week!  I mean I guess it was not one fan out there who wished that the story would carry on from when we saw that young girl regenerate in front of our eyes, but anyone who has been accustomed to American serials over the years will know that this is standard practise.  The likes of Fringe have always had a main plot arc to their series and teased the viewers by dropping hints at what was really going on while showering the fans with standalone stories with a few drops of the overall plot mixed in!  This episode was no different and it goes to show how far the great old Doctor has come over the years since the RTD era!

To be fair, The Curse Of The Black Spot was not the Doctor at its best, but it still was an enjoyable romp that thrilled my children more than the heavy handed plot from the opening two parter!.  From the off we were swept in to the high seas where pirates on board a ship were being terrorised from the creature of the deep, in the shape of the beautiful Siren played by Lily Cole. a mermaid type demon who rose from the sea to take the souls of from all those who were cut and drawn blood!

In the middle of this chaos arrived the Doc, Amy and Rory who get sucked into the danger after Rory himself gets cut and draws the attention of the mad she bitch!  Can the Dr save the day?  Well not quite!  It seems that this season we have a much more confused man driving the Tardis!  His deep thinking and brains seem to be missing as he goes from one theory to another without ever being in control!  It got me wondering if there is a long term plan being created here!  What? I do not know, but I get the sense that we are not seeing the bigger picture of what is happening here!

For the story at times it did not hold together as well as I hoped!  I cringed when Amy started sword fighting with the pirates and once again Rory was placed in danger for what seems the umpteenth time but the glue that held it all together was Matt Smith who is slowly becoming my favourite Doctor of all time!  His running around and crazy manic routine is just a joy to watch and some of his lines he delivered were rip roaring funny!  There is also this edge to the character that I have not seen since the Tom Baker era, in which he plays this bumbling fool but then stops dead and becomes really dark!  I loved the end when he again stares at the scan on the monitor that once more displays two results that show Amy is pregnant and then not!  He does not say nothing but his eyes show how worried and confused he is by what is happening at the moment!

Back to the show though and Matt was helped throughout with a great performance from Hugh Bonneville as Ship Captain Avery whose greed cost him not only his wife but nearly his son, and there was some wonderful imagery at times especially when the Siren turned from clear to red (when angry) which brought back memories of those evil spirits at the end of Raiders Of The Lost Ark!  and did anyone else notice the “fairy tale” theme running through out?  We had some lines that riffed from the likes Goldilocks, the kiss of true love, and to mermaids, maybe it was just me reading too much into it, but does it suggest a similar theme to last years finale where Amy wished for the Doctor to come back!

The mixed offering of what the Doctor offers continued, I can see more younger fans lapping up this while more of the adults will be questioning the childish tone of it all, but its impossible for the show to keep every fan happy!  There was an appearance from that eye patch lady again which made me sit up in excitement, but overall this 45 minute episode was more in tune of keeping the core base happy, it was good but never reaching the heights it can, but at least next week shows a more darker vibe!

 The Odd! 

Did you spot them?