The Gudkov Review: The Curse of the Black Spot!

Dr Who 6.3 Review - “The Curse of the Black Spot”

I think I have decided to keep these reviews simple and to the point, specifically, what I liked, what I hated and “The Ongoing Mystery of the Little Girl and The Crazy Eye Patch Lady”.

So avast ye mateys and sail with me into this week's episode, “Curse of the Black Spot”.

What I Liked:

The Tardis once again referred to as a ship (I think that not since the William Hartnell days has the Tardis been referred to as a “ship” - I could be wrong though).

“Where is it (the Tardis)?”

“It was towed.”

To be totally honest, aside from the Doctor satisfying his ongoing hat fetish by wearing a tri-corner pirate hat for a little bit. There really wasn't too much to like about this one. It was an OK episode, not horrible and not great either.

What I hated:

Evidently it (along with the Doctor's 11's hat fetish) is to be a running joke this season, but the Doctor not knowing how to fly the Tardis, or at least not knowing how to fly it very well works fine when River is there to throw the right switch, but a 17th century pirate captain? A 17th century pirate captain who doesn't seem all that overwhelmed with what he just walked into? A compass is a compass and an astrolabe is an astrolabe huh? I mean they are making it look like the only one who can't fly the flippin' Tardis is the Doctor.

The little boy being killed. Yeah yeah yeah I know he wasn't killed, but at the time that “The Siren” touched him and he disappeared everyone who had done that was assumed to be dead.

Pirates in Space!!!!!!!!

The whole Rory almost dying thing. Was there really any chance that he was actually going to die?????? I almost had a flashback to “Lost” when Jack Shepard went crazy and started beating on Charlie Pace's chest in his effort to bring him back to life. I was waiting for Amy to start the same thing. Maybe it was the fact that both dead guys had British accents. It was not a good flashback.

Anyway, onto The Ongoing Theory of the Little Girl and the Crazy Eye Patch Lady

Here's my theory at this point. The Crazy Eye Patch Lady is Amy and the Little Girl is her daughter. OK, maybe the little girl being Amy's daughter is not that big of a surprise, I mean that was a picture of her in that bedroom surrounded by pictures of that little girl. But I think that the Crazy Eye Patch Lady is being generally supportive of Amy in a way that, to me, seems like she is talking to her younger self. It's pretty obvious that she knows where/when Amy is.

What scares me is this:

That the Crazy Eye Patch Lady will turn out to be the daughter. That she is what the daughter looks like after the regeneration and 1000 years in the future (my time frame of choice). How this fits into the killing of The Doctor back in Utah 2011 I haven't even begun to try to figure out. But here's what she has said so far:

Episode 2

No, I think she's just dreaming (seems like she is telling someone who is behind her).

Episode 3

It's done (slightly garbled and I could be wrong). You're doing fine. Just stay calm.

It could go either way, Amy's Daughter or Amy, I am really thinking it's the little girl by her reference to Amy as “she”.

I am getting a VERY weird feeling that, much like The Master was able to turn off his regeneration process after being shot by his wife, the Doctor did much the same thing, but instead of actually dying, he put himself into a state of suspended animation and will be able to wake up, even with the fire burning all around him. This leads to a very silly joke with him jumping up off of the pyre and into the Tardis swimming pool, which we will finally get to see.

As to who actually kills the Doctor, I think it's Amy's daughter, but in adult, eye patch wearing form. He just went about that whole thing a little too knowingly. The apology, to me , felt like he was apologizing for what they were about to go through, but he had a bigger purpose behind his charade.

I know that only one thing will make me almost give up on Dr Who and that is this, that somehow this entire season is nothing but “The Dream of the Fetus”. I just have this sneaking suspicion, and I am not the only one, that what we are seeing is Amy's fetus' “time head” for lack of a better way to explain it, getting into the heads of our heroes, much the way that the Dream Lord messed around with the in “Amy's Choice” and that we are witnessing he dreams.

If this season turns out to be that I will personally go to England and revoke Steven Moffats's BBC Writer's membership card – and that will take a lot since I loved “Coupling”, “Hyde” and “The Curse of the Fatal Death” LOL.