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

What ye be thinkin' about this here episode?

  • ARRGH!!! Pirate Amy has the best booty!

    Votes: 15 12.3%
  • Cutlasses are COOL!

    Votes: 44 36.1%
  • Mermaids?

    Votes: 42 34.4%
  • Sinking by the prow

    Votes: 15 12.3%
  • This ship is helpless

    Votes: 6 4.9%

  • Total voters
    122
Special episodes aside ("A Christmas Carol" and "Time"/"Space"), The Eleventh Doctor has picked up a new hat in each new story.
Really? I only counted the Fez, the Stetson, and this one; what else did he wear last year?
Erm, I meant to say "each new story since last year's finale." Damn brain not working properly with fingers. :scream:
 
Ok, I'm going to ask a real stupid question but I think it deserves asking.

Why doesn't the "Doctor" know basic CPR, especially interacting with humans for so long? Why couldn't the "Doctor" save everyone because, well, he's the "Doctor". Just what kind of "Doctor" is he?

He seemed to have considerable medical knowledge in The Empty Child IIRC.

Wasn't it Tennant or Eccleston who told Rose "I think you need a Doctor".

I was looking up some "Doctor Facts" on wikipedia last night and ok, so he might be a Doctor of Space and Time. The thing is though like Count Zero said, the Doctor has shown to have some medical knowledge in the last 6 seasons (Which from my perspective is what I'm looking at) and it annoyed me to no end that the "Doctor" just stood there looking helpless and defeated. I know the character changes, but I would say it felt out of character for him to be that way, and it almost ruined the episode for me. I know I'm not as huge a Doctor Who fan as most around here and they probably know more about the Doctor than I ever will, but that whole scene felt wrong and fake.
 
I think it was just a general problem of that episode. They wanted to have certains specific things to happen, which is fine, but it often came off as rather contrived and stale. For example, I already knew how the father-son storyline would develop the moment the boy showed up. I also knew pretty soon that none of the people 'killed' by the siren were actually dead.
It's a pity, it could have been a great episode, normally you can't go wrong with a haunted ship story.
 
I've decided I hate Steven Moffat Who.

I've decided I'm starting to get annoyed by Moffat Who, but then I was often annoyed by RTD Who and was still able to enjoy it so the more things change...

I've noticed on some other forums I pop by that that view is increasing. A fair number of people are of the opinion that Moffat's an arrogant ass trying to be clever just to prove he's clever.

I happen to agree with this sentiment and, while I never thought I'd say this... I almost miss that other guy... R2D2 or whatever his name was.

This is starting to remind me of this thread from a few years ago.
 
Why doesn't the "Doctor" know basic CPR, especially interacting with humans for so long?
The two hearts thing makes it so complicated.

As for Moffat Who. We still haven't had an answer how Amy doesn't know about the Daleks, so some answers better be in place by the end of this season. It is getting a little frustrating, in a Lost kind of way (that is not a compliment) and better be resolved in some epic way sooner rather than later.
 
We still haven't had an answer how Amy doesn't know about the Daleks, so some answers better be in place by the end of this season. It is getting a little frustrating, in a Lost kind of way (that is not a compliment) and better be resolved in some epic way sooner rather than later.

That doesn't actually need an explanation beyond what we've seen, she didn't remember them for the same reason she didn't remember her parents. That's all been dealt with and concluded last season, this isn't some sort of dangling mystery and it isn't like Lost at all.

The only real mysteries from last season that need explaining are the two obvious ones... who is River, what's the deal with the Silence/TARDIS exploding. Anything else is either unnecessary or gravy, comparisons with Lost don't make any sense.

Alidar Jarok said:
I'm going to go with people not being able to be happy. After all, the first two episodes were criticized for being too packed and complicated. This pirate episode was criticized for being too simple and boring. Is there a happy medium? Yes. Is it realistic for all episodes to be within such a narrow range? I'm going to say no.

I dunno, while I'm sure there's some crossover I'd wager that a lot of the people complaining now aren't the same ones complaining before. At the end of the day, you can't please everyone. Personally I enjoyed the RTD years well enough though there was a lot that I found annoying and unlikeable... and season 5 was absolutely my favorite overall Who season so far. And aside from this ep (there's always bumps in the road), I'd say 6 is shaping up just as nicely for me.
 
I'm going to go with people not being able to be happy. After all, the first two episodes were criticized for being too packed and complicated. This pirate episode was criticized for being too simple and boring. Is there a happy medium? Yes. Is it realistic for all episodes to be within such a narrow range? I'm going to say no.

There's nothing wrong with a simple episode but cripes, at least make it consistent with the show! This episode was an embarrassment. The fresh alien "bogeys" gag might have been funny if they hadn't come from aliens that supposedly decayed ages ago! Do they really think the audience is that stupid? The TARDIS sickbay was used last year, the Doctor said he could save an almost dead Amy if he had the time, yet he sits there stupidly while Amy attempts CPR? For that matter, how was Rory talking if he had water in his lungs? Or did the water somehow magically get back in there once he was removed from the machine? There's a vast difference between simple and badly written. So many DUMB things in this episode that make me wonder if the writer had ever watched a minute of Doctor Who in his life. Or how he even got to be a professional writer for that matter. Anyone proofreading that script should have picked it apart. I'll take a packed and complicated Moffat written episode any day.
 
She knows about the Daleks because she met them.
Yes, but she didn't know about the Daleks before that. The Doctor was very puzzled about that since they'd invaded Earth. Twice.

The time crack erased all that. She also couldn't remember her parents. Why didn't Henry Van Statten remember the Dalek's invasion? Are they ever going to explain that?
 
I'm going to go with people not being able to be happy. After all, the first two episodes were criticized for being too packed and complicated. This pirate episode was criticized for being too simple and boring. Is there a happy medium? Yes. Is it realistic for all episodes to be within such a narrow range? I'm going to say no.

There's nothing wrong with a simple episode but cripes, at least make it consistent with the show! This episode was an embarrassment. The fresh alien "bogeys" gag might have been funny if they hadn't come from aliens that supposedly decayed ages ago! Do they really think the audience is that stupid? The TARDIS sickbay was used last year, the Doctor said he could save an almost dead Amy if he had the time, yet he sits there stupidly while Amy attempts CPR? For that matter, how was Rory talking if he had water in his lungs? Or did the water somehow magically get back in there once he was removed from the machine? There's a vast difference between simple and badly written. So many DUMB things in this episode that make me wonder if the writer had ever watched a minute of Doctor Who in his life. Or how he even got to be a professional writer for that matter. Anyone proofreading that script should have picked it apart. I'll take a packed and complicated Moffat written episode any day.

Yeah, I find it quite interesting that this guy also wrote the substandard middle episode of Sherlock that was awfully simplistic and obvious compared to the other two. I can let the writer off things like the missing pirate, cos that was obviously a production issue (although surely they had time for a rewrite?)

I'm afraid to say that some blame has to lie with Moffat, my understanding is that like RTD before him he has input into all scripts except those from the really well regarded writers, plus he hires the writers, so his fingerprints are on this same as RTDs were on substandard episodes of his tenure.

I know RTD/Moff kind of fill the same role, but I really do think one thing the classic series did right was to have a script editor who oversaw things like this.
 
I think its just because the showrunner fulfils that role, it's just that I think now the showrunner has a million and one other things to do as well as checking scripts.
 
They do still have script editors (RTD mentioned them in his book) but they don't shape the direction of the series or perform rewrites anymore as that is now the showrunners job.

They seemed more concerned with continuity and consistency of character plus suggesting ways to possibly improve the script or make things clearer when RTD described them.
 
Something I find interesting here in this poll is the results of the poll so far. Even with the concerns voiced, 85% rate it average or better. My take? That's not bad at all, nowhere near say... "Fear Her".
 
That seems to hapen on all the DW forums. Never understood why. I guess fans are just naturally more vocal when they dislike something.

As I said before, I had my quibbles, but all in all it was an entertaining little episode. Certainly a nice break from what looks to be a fairly heavy season.
 
Was there a mention made on how "Black Spot" was originally supposed to air much later in Series 6?
 
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