Gallifreyan Pancakes

So here are my thoughts on 'The Curse of the Black Spot':

Okay I have a fair bit to grumble about and a bit to praise so I'm going to break it down into topics:

Script
Now last year I had the greatest of joys in watching Sherlock, A Study in Pink and The Great Game were brilliantly interesting as well as being funny and though provoking... and then there was The Blind Banker a story that didn't seem to fit, that felt as though the writer was working off cliff-notes of the other two. Needless to say when I saw this same writer, Steven Thompson, was back for writing duties this time around I was a little apprehensive... And in all honesty, while there were good moments the script over all felt like a mess, this rising action but no crescendo or fall, and random bits of fan bait interjected with nonsense. Let me dissect that:

For random rising with no fall, lets take the conversation between Captain Avery and his son as an example, they talk and the son realizes his father is not the honest trustworthy man that he believed in, and most people would assume this ties into the growth of Avery as a character in the episode. However aside from the Doctor berating Avery for his greed later, I never see the pirate actually come to terms with this and try and resolve things with his son. True he does choose to leave his life behind to be with his son and travel the stars, but is that repenting or even punishment?

Now to the fan baiting... I think we know what I'm talking about... Amy dressed as a pirate. Why? What purpose did it serve to have her dress up as that? Also he said take her to the Gallery... so the pirate throws her down the stairs and leaves her with the weapons???

And finally nonsense, now you're telling me the Doctor would have not looked at all the OBVIOUS MEDICAL EQUIPMENT!! and thought to himself, 'hey maybe this thing is a doctor??'... I mean there is suspension of disbelief and then there was this.

I will admit some of the lines were quite good, but then again I put some of that down to the acting rather than the writing... I'll get into that later.

The Doctor
Matt Smith was at his usually top form, although I will say that once he entered the Siren's ship, his usual manic and engrossing energy seemed to disparate, while I enjoyed his hug of the TARDIS, the rest of his time seemed to be spent thinking and then brooding.

That said the ending of the episode, which was obviously inserted by Moffat, had the Doctor as he should be when concerned, cornered and confused. He drew me and made me interested in how this will be solved.

Also when I said before that I thought the actors were making some of the poorer lines better, I was referring to Matt's first appearance in the episode. That level of comedy after a death, and a very serious introduction, can be dangerous. Not only can it put the audience off side, but it can also set the wrong tone for the rest of the episode. However the way Matt changed his face and gave such a regretful 'Does no one say Yo Ho Ho?' was not only comically brilliant, but it almost seemed to give the scene before the respect it deserved. Without such a competent actor, and director, that line could have easily been bungled.

Rory
I should be very well known by now that I love Rory. To me Rory is my companion, the one I will look back on in 10 years and go, 'that was the guy I wanted to be'. So giving Arthur Darvill early on some good comedic time as he went very Doctor-esque about wanting a beard, was really nice to see. However as we reached the end and Rory became more of a Damsel in Distress, I became less pleased. The dude has helped the Doctor repair the TARDIS, he spent 2,000 years guarding the box of the woman he loves. Do you really think he would just be sitting still and not trying to help when he has his wits about him?

Also, did we really need to kill Rory AGAIN? I know this one was only for a moment, but seriously, this guy has died 3 times now, it's starting to get REALLY old.

Amelia (Amy)
Is Amy just a plot point this season?? Seriously, she seems to have lost most of her own character, simply becoming the girl who see metal eye-patch ladies, and might be pregnant. She doesn't have any real character out side of being the 'flirty companion'. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it just seems like no-one knows what to do with her. Aside from planting herself at the center of the plot as well as getting captured, what did Amy do in that first episode? And in this one, aside from dressing her as a pirate and getting her to bring Rory back to life, it seemed like Thompson didn't know what to do with her. And in retrospect, I guess that is what annoyed me so much about the CPR on Rory point, it just felt like an arbitrary 'give Amy something to do' point. This isn't to say Karen Gillian is a bad Actress, far from it, I found that resuscitation scene, aside from the other problems, quite compelling, and it was her acting that did it for me.

Other CharactersCaptain Avery was or only other main character in this episode, and aside from grasping the notion of the TARDIS batter than a 1960's FBI agent (Who would have been living with SciFi so would have been better prepared to understand) was a very fun character, Henry Bonnington, did a wonderful job making the Captain not only emotionally likable, but also a true pirate rather than a good man trapped in his own dealings. His son was obviously there as only a character to be used as emotional baggage for Avery's arc... although what that arc was still confuses me? He didn't seem any better or worse a person by the end, so why the bother changing him? Also I know this is griping, but the Doctor told Avery his son couldn't be saved because he had Typhoid fever and thus would need to stay on the ship... HOWEVER, Typhoid fever would be treatable in either: A. Modern day earth or B. Future Earth or even C. A futuristic alien planet. So why couldn't the Doctor just take them there in the TARDIS?

The Siren was more of a nothing villain, there was no real tension when she appeared, and when she took someone I felt no loss, even with Rory, only because by then it became apparent that these men weren't really dying. Also I want a show of hands, who else realized that she was an on-board doctor when our Doctor said the aliens were dead from diseases?

Also of note, the Doctor identified that she only takes the sick so she wouldn't just take something that people were wanting to escape in... So why did she take the TARDIS? Is the TARDIS sick? Food for thought perhaps.

Threads
I swear this is the last point... but it is really 2 points :D

The woman with the metal eye patch was back in this episode... I don't know what to make of this one, I assume she is something in Amy's head, but unless something happened to Amy during that missing period between episode 1 and episode 2 then why would she suddenly be seeing her now?

That Pregnancy is beginning to interest me, once again this is an instance of Matt Smith selling me on something I otherwise would find annoying and silly. Matt's entire persona and proformance in that final part where he is looking at the pregnancy test results again is just BRILLIANT! He plays the sad old man guardian who jut wants to help a person in need SOOO well that I don;t even care how badly he is trying to hammer this stuff in.

With those 2 things said I will bring up one last thing (so yeah I lied about those being the last things :P) In season 5, the continued appearance of those cracks was a polarizing thing, some of my friends extremely disliked it, screaming for the days of Bad Wolf and Vote Saxon to come back, whilst others (myself included) thought it was fine and only served to prove how all encompassing this situation was. I think this seasons links are much better, in that they have been made a lot more interesting and personal, since they don't just get thrown as reminders at the audience, but they are shaping how the TARDIS crew interact.

Okay, that's it I'm done dusted and out. Please respond and question/yell at me. Phew, hopefully next weeks Gaiman episode won't have me so annoyed.

TREAT!!! (How the episode should have ended [As made by me])