REVIEW: Doctor Who – The Curse of the Black Spot

This week’s installment was fun self-contained pirate adventure. These aren’t usually my favorite types of episodes but The Curse of the Black Spot was fairly satisfying (although Enlightenment from the classic series will always be the high water mark for Doctor Who pirate stories). Amidst all the swashbuckling, we get some progression of the overarching plotlines of the current series.

Spoilers ho!

I really enjoyed the nature of the Siren and the concept of two ships sitting on opposite sides of the mirror between dimensions. This was a conceptually strong episode but I’m impatient and want to see what’s coming next with The Doctor’s death, Amy’s pregnancy, River Song and the little girl/timelord/astronaut. We did get another appearance of the mysterious woman that’s checking in on Amy and this idea of what’s on the other side of the mirror idea might play into what’s going on. Even if that’s not the case, the woman sliding open “windows” to interact with Amy is a creepy and disconcerting way to lay bread crumbs along the way.

The most confusing part of the episode is the questions it raises about the nature of Rory Williams. We were told he was an Auton that overcame his programming at the end of last season, but he seems very human here. It was never explicitly stated at any point that he was made human again when the universe was remade in The Big Bang. It’s hard to know what this means not only in terms of his experience with the Siren, but as to whether he can be the father of Amy’s child. Aside from whatever is up with Rory, the only things remotely negative about the episode were a virus/bacteria mixup (and that’s a particularly grating pet peeve to me) and some of heavy handed exposition with the “consent form.”

Next week we get something fans have been looking forward to for months as award winning writer Neil Gaiman (Sandman, American Gods) brings his brilliance to Doctor Who. I’ve been intrigued by what Gaiman could do with the show since his episode was announced and an early (and spoiler free) review of the episode suggests it will be one for the ages. If you’ve never seen the show, this might be the episode to watch. The Doctor’s Wife airs Saturday, May 14th at 9PM on BBC America. The first four seasons since the 2005 relaunch of Doctor Who are also available for streaming through Netflix if you want to play catch up.