[Doctor Who Review] Curse of the Black Dot
"Yo ho yo ho!"
Pirates and Doctor Who. Not since #2 or #6?
The first episode of the season not written by Stephen Moffat and it's a fun episode until the last fifteen minutes when the budget runs out.
A ship is stranded at sea, no wind and being haunted by what could be described as a mermaid but like any Doctor Who story it's not.
The Doctor and Co. arrive unseen until the credits and for once are not the ones knowing everything. This is an excellant step in the right direction personally. Many times the Doctor arrives knowing everything so this was welcome sight.
Amy as a pirate. I'd like to see Amy's trophy wall at the end episode with stuff she's grabbed during their travels. The cutlass would have been a great addition even if the wardrobe department has gone back to dressing her like she's in high school.
I can see SDCC now being littered with Amy as Scully (completely with marks) and Pirate Amys. Oh, security is going to love those cutlasses no matter how fake they are.
Setting the episode onboard a pirate ship was fun since it wasn't a rock quarry or a third world country faking to be old England.
The problems are not the actors or the script, it's the budget for the Sci-Fi sets. Doctor Who has always been a bit on a shoe string budget in the first place and while the recent years has seen some nice sets, this time the alien space ship was dull. The mummified aliens were great because even if you cheap out on mummified aliens they still look good because they are mummified after all. The alien snot was the best thing of those sets.
And, how can the Doctor not know CPR? The TARDIS doesn't have medical bay?
The one eyed woman in the window returned this week and I find myself thinking: Hurry it along. The cracks in the universe during certain episodes was fine since it foreshadowed things to come. But, the cracks are not a one eyed woman with a metal eye patch that talks and that just ratches up the curiosity factor.
I realize we all survived Rose popping in and out trying to warn #10 during season 4 but at least it was someone we knew and we knew it was bad because the door between universes were closed. But this plot of Amy's kid (I assume) aka River (I assume) being watched over by a Nanny (Am I reaching?) and popping in and out of Amy's life (I guess?) is gonna get old since we have 4 more episodes until the show goes on hiatus until...September.
This almost felt like a filler episode that could have been Episode 11 right before the big two part season finale.
Next Week: The Doctor's Wife written by Neil Gaiman.
Originally published at RKB Writes. You can comment here or there.