The Curse of the Black Spot

If somethings going to kill you it's nice that it drops you a note to remind you.

The Curse of the Black Spot is generally viewed rather negatively by fandom. While I do not view it as poorly as others do, it is a bit disappointing mostly due to the potential it had.

The story, such as it is, is that the Doctor, Rory and Amy land on the pirate vessel Fancy which is being haunted by a ghost-like siren. When anyone is injured in any fashion, a black spot appears on their hand, the apparition appears and that man disappears. In the course of the hi jinx, the pirate captain (the actual pirate Captain Henry Avery) discovers his son has stowed aboard. Eventually, they discover that the Siren is an alien medical hologram that is transporting wounded crew members to the ship's sick bay. Captain Avery takes command of the alien vessel with his son and crew and flies the galaxy while the Doctor and his companions leave in the TARDIS, which had actually materialized in phase with the alien vessel.

You would think that Doctor Who and a pirate story would go well together. Even more so when you get Hugh Bonneville to play Captain Avery so that there is both that British nobility and sad depth that Bonneville is so good at portraying. But from the get go the story suffers from two real problems. The first is the tendency to go for the silly gag. The set up with a siren who appears to be consuming a crew on a stranded vessel would lend itself to some good scares, but any time there his a hint of fear, there is a silly note that is struck that just saps the mood. Without adding real fear to keep the tension up, the siren starts to lose her scariness.

The other problem is the pacing. There are odd cuts made in this story. Some allow scenes to go on too long. Others are too short. What's more, as the silliness ebbs the tension, the scenes on the ship start to feel very long and boredom starts to set in. Then there is a slap-dash end where everyone gets zapped and the mystery is solved. There is almost no time spent on the alien vessel and the story just comes to an abrupt end.

Now, much of the acting is good and seeing a more established actor like Hugh Bonneville was very nice. The set looked good and it never lost the feeling of being a ship stranded at sea. In fact, the sea-going ship looked better than the alien vessel, which was a bit minimalist. But one of the worst crimes a story can commit is to be boring. It's not horrible, but it doesn't really give you much of a reason to go back and watch it.

Overall personal score: 2 out of 5