The Curse of the Black Spot, arr

[johne]

I hope they haven't just unhappened The Smugglers...
]

• ...by dumping Avery's treasure in the sea. I like The Smugglers. (Fortunately, The Smugglers needed an extra pirate of the same name to be handwaved into existence anyway, since its Avery is a few decades before the historical one, so it may escape).
  
• Other bits reminded me of Nightmare of Eden.
  
• And of The Doctor Dances.
  
• And, oddly enough, The Unicorn and the Wasp.
  
• When the Moff was saying this was the darkest series yet, he wasn't kidding; I don't know what the ratio of night to day scenes has been in the three episodes so far, but it feels about 9:1.
  
• It looks as if the monster next week is actually going to have the ability and inclination to talk. Not before time.
  

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[merrythemad]

johne, hahaha I wondered the same thing!
What the heck is going on with the Doctor? In the past three episode he has mentioned mortality at LEAST three times (you only live once and so on). obviously he KNOWS what Amy can't tell him and I wanna know how or why? Did he and Eleven-ty switch places? Does he just know? What the heck is going on, what was in his letter?

I really disliked his decision to leave Avery n Toby behind...why not just take them somewhere where they could be healed? Also ummm doesn't the TARDIS have a med scanner? Did we not JUST see it used? Why stand about biting your nails, Doctor? But I did like the episode, although Moff reusing the confused medtech does tend to wear thin after a time...

Next week though! NEXT WEEK! Irdis biting him, those odd people saying they lived on his back and ate his food (I think I'm having a REALLY hard time hearing this series) it kinda reminds me of the spoilers from the Dream Lord (how could a fellow Gallifreyan stoop so low) and what was it the monster said? They do my will or something? Hmmmm

[jjpor]

*To be fair, the script wasn't actually by Moffat, although he probably should have spotted that the major plot twist was one he'd used himself six years ago...

I...I thought this one was alright. Don't really have any strong feelings on it one way or the other. It felt like a lesser story compared to the opening two-parter, but I guess that was probably inevitable in light of the revelations we got last week. And maybe that I have no particular attachment to pirate stories. They're okay, I guess, but I don't have the predisposition to go "Pirates! AWESOME!" that a lot of people seem to.

Although Amy swordfighting was pretty awesome - you can never have too much swordfighting in Who - and funny because of the way she was only getting away with it due to the fact that the pirates were all terrified of being cut. And Rory - butterfingers! ;D

But I don't know, something felt a bit off to me - the Doctor and companions were a bit like caricatures of themselves at points. There didn't seem to be lot of depth or complexity going on. Maybe it just seemed that way due to the more straightforward, transparent story than we got last week. It could be one that will seem better to me on subsequent viewings.

But... Eyepatch woman, again! Apparently talking to Amy in her sleep, saying "you're doing fine."

And I think that what the Doctor was saying about parallel universes colliding could prove to be very significant later in the series. Just my unspoiled guess, there.

Next week's does look a bit special, doesn't it, even if you didn't know about the Gaiman hype? I'm really looking forward to it, have been for a year. Just hope my expectations and anticipations don't make it seem less special if it's only very good as opposed to most brilliant thing ever...

And, without wanting to stoke any speculations as to the mystery woman's identity - could she have sounded any more Romana-like than she did when she was talking about teenagers fixing motorbikes in their bedrooms? Although...without context I don't know whether the Doctor's thing about "you're not my mother" was meant literally or rhetorically. Hmm... *

[clocketpatch]

I've got dogey internet, it's far too late, and there are two bars left on my battery so I'm not going to give a proper review. But I watched this on Space with my room mates who were confused and judgementful and I didn't hear half the dialogue because of the train which runs by every twenty minutes. One thing though, and please reassure me, please, that this is just a Canadian travesty and not an actual thing...

They changed the opening credits.

I was staring at the screen with my mouth open because they CHANGED THE CREDITS.

There was an Amy-narrated montage of scenes explaining what the show is about... which is, uh, Amy, apparently, and her amazing time travelling friend. Which is, I guess, what the show is about right now, BUT WHAT WAS THAT I JUST WATCHED?!? And it would've annoyed my less except it ate a good portion of the proper credits and the themesong and the vortex and pleasepleaseplease tell me this isn't being ploinked in front of all the episodes now?

Since I see none of you complaining about it I assume not.

A real review is coming. but, for now: I DIDN'T GET MY ELEVEN/RORY SWORDFIGHT!!! I am so very disappointed. Though, on the up-side, shirtless Rory was, quite... well... aside from the whole half-dead with random tubes thing and... I really did want that swordfight you know

[eve11]

From what I understand the Amy montage is played on BBC America but not the real BBC over in Britain. I was kind of hoping it would only be for the first episode but they appear to have put it on all of them? Boo. I actually haven't caught any of the BBCAmerica airings yet; I'm still getting my fix by alternative means.

As for the Black Spot; I liked it more than most people did, it appears. Though I also know that I shouldn't examine it too closely; I guess my expectations were low enough going in that I was pleasantly surprised.