3. Curse of The Black Spot
When I first heard that Doctor Who was going to tackle pirates I was incredibly excited. Pirates were the definitive of cool back in the day (2004 to be precise) and the introduction of pirates could have produced some memorable action set pieces and witty dialogue. Sadly, the episode just didnt do anything new, fresh or appealing, instead moving back into exhausting clichés that structured the episode with a lack of any tension. The episode fell into the trap of trying to create tension using The Siren as basis for that. Pirates tales of the mythical creature never really fully convey this device well enough as its the typical supernatural plot line, you know what is going to happen. And certainly the rather baffling ending did nothing to help matters. It sort of felt a mishmash of various ideas thrown together. The tone of the episode certainly favoured more toward children than teenagers/adults. For example the casting of Hugh Bonneville as the ruthless and greedy pirate didnt really seem convincing, especially once his son was found. He was the family friendly pirate. Lily Cole as The Siren did okay, there was no real gritty material to work with and all she really had to do was look ethereal and delicate. Any real fear that would have hoped to have been generated would probably only scare those very young. It wasnt an episode laced with claustrophobic fear. Curse of The Black Spot was one of the few times I can vividly remember watching the clock to gauge exactly how much time had past. Leaving an episode devoid of any tension or enthusiasm leaves it chugging along to the finish. A swell as resorting to already tired plot devices such as 'killing of Rory' when it is obvious a major character would never be killed off in such an arbitrary and innocuous episode, left the episode pretty limp and easily forgettable. A shame.