6x03 The Curse of the Black Spot (Grading/Discussion) (SPOILERS!!)

[Allyn Gibson]

You can't have the regulars going around seriously injuring each other for the sake of a scene.

The thing is, the way that scene was shot, with Amy doing the compressions on something below the camera's field of vision, they could have just used a CPR dummy for the compressions and made it look authentic.

Also, I wondered why the Doctor couldn't have rigged the sonic screwdriver to deliver a defibrulation jolt. Last week we saw him gunning down Silents with it, surely the sonic has a defib setting.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

On a different note, I'm having a real problem with the Schroedinger's Pregnancy.

If Amy's pregnant, she should be roughly five months along, thanks to the three month jump in "Day of the Moon."

Is Amy doing all the things as a pregnant mother that she should be doing at five months? Should the Doctor have thought it amusing that she was swinging from the ropes this week? Is Amy abstaining from alcohol?

Yes, it's interesting that Amy is simultaneously pregnant and not. But now that she's well into the second trimester, the Doctor desperately needs to tell Amy because she stands a real chance of harming (or even having already harmed) the unborn child that may exist. Keeping this knowledge to himself isn't just stupid. It's dangerous, cruel, and inhumane.

 

[Shatnertage]

I liked it.

I've kind of adjusted my expectations for the show--I'm expecting to not understand a lot of stuff that will probably turn out to be very clever on second viewing, like the Borg eye lady showing up momentarily. I'm not looking for taut, self-contained drama. Basically, I'm in Lost mode, more enjoying it for what's happening onscreen than for the overall story.

 

[StCoop]

Yes, it's interesting that Amy is simultaneously pregnant and not. But now that she's well into the second trimester, the Doctor desperately needs to tell Amy because she stands a real chance of harming (or even having already harmed) the unborn child that may exist. Keeping this knowledge to himself isn't just stupid. It's dangerous, cruel, and inhumane.

First Law of Moffatworld: Looking "cool" trumps everything else.

I think the fact that his children seem to have a large say into what goes into an episode plays a large part in this.

Making the show for Children: good.
Being made by Children: Not so good.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

When done *correctly*, straight-arm CPR often cracks the ribs. You don't want to either a) encourage the kiddies to try it, or b) injure the actors by doing it that way...

(FWIW, Rory should have his nursing qualifications revoked! the chest compressions are the important bit, not the mouth-to-mouth, which is just a screen cliche used cos they're a romantic couple, and in real life CPR's mainly effective in keep the circulation going until the patient can be properly defibrillated - it doesn't cause the heart to start beating, or breathing to start...)

Isn't the rule still 10 to 2 and 5 to 1 if you're doing it by yourself? She seemed to at least be doing the proper count.

 

[Hennessy Badger]

You can't have the regulars going around seriously injuring each other for the sake of a scene.

The thing is, the way that scene was shot, with Amy doing the compressions on something below the camera's field of vision, they could have just used a CPR dummy for the compressions and made it look authentic.

Exactly. Arguing the show couldn't have given a more accurate depiction of CPR out of fear of harming the actors is a lame defense. There have been hundreds of episodes of ER where mock-CPR was performed - and as far as I know, no extras have ever been seriously injured because of it.

As for the episode itself, I think this is easily the weakest outing of the 11th Doctor so far, and probably one of the worst of nuwho. I don’t blame the actors, although none of them gave shining performances. I just think this was a so-so script filmed without any care or enthusiasm.

That missing pirate death scene is just lazy editing. I don’t care what other cuts had to be made, that death scene should have been left in. The production must think very little of the audience if they thought, “Best case scenario they won’t notice. Worst case scenario, they’ll notice but not care.”

Allyn Gibson’s comment that it felt like watching a middling Star Trek: Voyager episode is spot on! But I would excuse the occasional Voyager dud because they had to produce 20-something episodes a season. DW does about half that. So (fairly or unfairly) I expect better quality than what we got this time around.

 

[JRoss]

Defib only works on an erratic heartbeat. When there's no pulse you need epinephrine. It was very obvious by Amy's angle that she was essentially straddling Rory's stomach, pushing with bent arms and no force.

Correct placement is with the outer part of the right palm where it meets the wrist at the solar plexus, with the hand placed so that the palm is straight with the center of the rib cage. And now they've changed the standards so that it's 100 compressions a minute. They realized that all that stopping to breathe into a person with no pulse is extremely counter productive.

 

[Sindatur]

It was pretty average for me, but, that's actually high praise from me, since I was looking forward to nothing in this episode. I have no interest in Pirates, no Amy Fantasies, and I really I'm really enjoying the mystery arc of this season.

The Siren looked great, though, she looked like an actress straight out of a Black and White Swashbuckler film. The people clamoring for a break from the arc and craving a stand alone got it, but, we get arc hints/themes... The Eye patch Lady, kids are definitely a theme of this Series, the Doctor's joke to Rory about getting a note from someone aiming to kill you. I was expecting to enjoy this episode even less, so, all things tolled I was happy, despite it being an average episode.

 

[Worf2DS9]

I don't know if this was mentioned elsewhere, but as with "The Impossible Astronaut", there's a "prequel" scene for this episode too.

Anyway, unlike the last two eps, I'm in no rush to rewatch this one before next week's. I liked the actor playing the pirate captain -- he has a cool voice -- but otherwise I felt the ep was dark, claustrophobic (yeah, yeah, I know it's a pirate ship) and not very engaging. Did all of this have to happen during one night? Might have been nice to have a "breather" during the day and have them do some location shooting on a real ship out in the water in the sunlight. I think that might have given the ep a bit more life.

And it seemed odd that after a brief moment of surprise, the pirate captain took the TARDIS control room in stride. A ship's helm is a ship's helm. And as bonkers as it was, it was kinda neat seeing the pirates flying off in a space ship. Arrrr!

Next week looks better for sure.

 

[David cgc]

(FWIW, Rory should have his nursing qualifications revoked! the chest compressions are the important bit, not the mouth-to-mouth, which is just a screen cliche used cos they're a romantic couple, and in real life CPR's mainly effective in keep the circulation going until the patient can be properly defibrillated - it doesn't cause the heart to start beating, or breathing to start...)

It's been a while since my CPR class (well before the revised instructions to just concentrate on the chest and forget the rescue breathing came out), but I seem to recall the procedure was different if the person had a pulse but no breathing, especially if it was a drowning (and given how Rory reacted when the life support came off, his heart still seemed to be going). I do remember that Amy definitely should've been doing something to help clear the water from his airway, though I can't remember if it was tilting his head back or to the side, and don't have anyone to ask. Never a lifeguard around when you have a stupid question...

 

[Jax]

Average episode, nothing really special in it and not exactly spare of plot holes but not a bad 45 minutes either. I would like to know how come when Amy, Doc and the captain were transported to the ship why were they not placed in the sickbay and allowed to walk freely around the ship ?

The later time and yo/yo saturday weather helped the overnight ratings...

6.2 million watched episode three of Doctor Who according to unofficial overnight figures.

Figures across the board were up on the previous week with Britain's Got Talent once more winning the day with 10.4 million watching. Doctor Who had an overnight share of 30.5% of the total

So 7.5 to 8 million I would guess for the final ratings

 

[Marc]

Average episode, nothing really special in it and not exactly spare of plot holes but not a bad 45 minutes either. I would like to know how come when Amy, Doc and the captain were transported to the ship why were they not placed in the sickbay and allowed to walk freely around the ship ?

The later time and yo/yo saturday weather helped the overnight ratings...

6.2 million watched episode three of Doctor Who according to unofficial overnight figures.

Figures across the board were up on the previous week with Britain's Got Talent once more winning the day with 10.4 million watching. Doctor Who had an overnight share of 30.5% of the total

So 7.5 to 8 million I would guess for the final ratings

just don't tell the daily fail

 

[Lonemagpie]

(FWIW, Rory should have his nursing qualifications revoked! the chest compressions are the important bit, not the mouth-to-mouth, which is just a screen cliche used cos they're a romantic couple, and in real life CPR's mainly effective in keep the circulation going until the patient can be properly defibrillated - it doesn't cause the heart to start beating, or breathing to start...)

It's been a while since my CPR class (well before the revised instructions to just concentrate on the chest and forget the rescue breathing came out), but I seem to recall the procedure was different if the person had a pulse but no breathing, especially if it was a drowning (and given how Rory reacted when the life support came off, his heart still seemed to be going). I do remember that Amy definitely should've been doing something to help clear the water from his airway, though I can't remember if it was tilting his head back or to the side, and don't have anyone to ask. Never a lifeguard around when you have a stupid question...

If it's a drowning it's totally different - turn him on to the recovery position and use the arms to lever any water out of the lungs first...

 

[StCoop]

If it's a drowning it's totally different - turn him on to the recovery position and use the arms to lever any water out of the lungs first...

Not that Rory had any!

 

[exalted one]

I'm sorry to say it, but this is the first Matt Smith episode that left me seriously disappointed. It was even worse than the underground lizard people.

Everybody lives. Just this once, everybody lives.... yet again.

 

[Arrqh]

Yes, it's interesting that Amy is simultaneously pregnant and not. But now that she's well into the second trimester, the Doctor desperately needs to tell Amy because she stands a real chance of harming (or even having already harmed) the unborn child that may exist. Keeping this knowledge to himself isn't just stupid. It's dangerous, cruel, and inhumane.

The Doctor pretty clearly can't be held responsible for any of Amy's actions up until the end of Day of the Moon, which is the bulk of that time. Not to mention, at 5 months she should be visibly pregnant which she clearly is not. There doesn't even appear to be an actual fetus physically in her womb at present to be harmed by anything.

 

[RevdKathy]

Interstingly, the Doctor has had references to Every/Avery before (yes, he was a real historical figure, a 'Robin Hood' type sailor who lead mutiny and became a pirate, before disappearing completely.)

In the 1966 story "The Smugglers" (sadly all four parts missing) Avery himself doesn't appear. The story focussed around locating his lost gold. It was the first story to be filmed on location - in Cornwall.

It was also extremely unpopular, with poor ratings.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

A decent episode, but not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It's certainly no "Victory of the Daleks," "Fear Her," or "Love & Monsters." A lot of great one-liners and brilliant acting from the core cast, but I'm also getting tired of the "Rory is dead!" stuff.

There were a lot of scenes where the protagonists stood and watched things happen: when the black sailor went to his doom, when the kid stabbed the sailor. Why didn't they do anything? And if the TARDIS is about the dematerialize, why on Earth did the Doctor leave it?

Yeah, all of this bugged me, especially The Doctor fleeing the TARDIS as it dematerialized. Very unlike him.

 

[od0_ital]

Didn't care for it at all.

 

[Winterwind]

Incredibly average bordering on boring. I started dozing off while watching. At 1PM.

So far this season, I haven't been impressed. A good line here, a good scene there but nothing strung together consistently enough to make me rate the season so far above a 5-6/10.