Yo ho, yo ho, a Time Lord's life for me!
May. 8th, 2011 12:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tardis_stowawayTonight, there was Doctor Who on a pirate ship. To repurpose Benjamin Franklin's comment about beer, this is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy*. Mind you, it wasn't a terribly good episode in most ways, but I'm not going to let a little thing like that get in the way of my enjoyment.
*Note: Moffat is very much not God, though when he okayed a pirate episode he might have shared the loving us and wanting us to be happy. For now.
As if the combination of Doctor Who and PIRATES wasn't enough to win vast amounts of my shallow affection, there was also shirtless Rory! Considering this and Rory's hot sixties suit last week, I am very appreciative of the fact that Karen Gillan's legs have been joined by fanservice for those primarily attracted to men. Meanwhile, Amy looked ridiculously good (and super pleased with herself) in her pirate outfit, and the Doctor had Captain hat envy and then too-briefly acquires one of his own.
There were a bunch of problems with Curse of the Black Spot. There was almost no characterization on any pirates besides the captain and his son, and they were mostly a pile of cliches. Team TARDIS also seemed a little bit off at times. Since when is the Doctor so grossed out at alien boogers? This is the man who was grinning when he was swallowed and vomited up by a space whale. Also, I find it very strange that the Doctor ran out of the TARDIS when she started dematerializing uncontrollably. If he stayed in the TARDIS, wherever they ended up he'd eventually get her started back up and be able to return to the pirate ship for Amy and Rory (though he might need to pick up River if he wanted to arrive on time). When he left the TARDIS and she dematerialized away from him, he was stranded on the slow path. The fact that it worked out okay doesn't change the fact that this was a bad decision. Same with breaking the mirror. The pieces are still reflective, ya brainless bilge rat of a Time Lord.
The plot was rather silly and nonsensical. Most of the plot holes I could easily ignore, but the deal with Amy having to give Rory CPR and certain death if she failed was just too stupid to overlook. YOU ARE TRAVELING WITH A MAN CALLED "THE DOCTOR." LET HIM DO THE FUCKING CPR. If the Doctor wanted to let Amy do it herself, he could at least have coached her through it! She needed way more chest compressions in between those rescue breaths. (To be fair, most TV CPR is crap. At least Amy looked like she was working hard.) Also, surely the TARDIS has a medical bay that could be of some help in this situation.
Enough complaining! "Curse of the Black Spot" gets filed with "The Beast Below" in the category of Dumb Episodes I Love Anyway. Here are some reasons why:
-The TARDIS is a stowaway on the pirate ship. THEY REALLY DID WRITE THIS EPISODE JUST FOR ME.
-"Toby!"
"Rory!"
"My TARDIS!"
Eleven/TARDIS OTP!
-Eyepatch Woman is back! She's already dressed to fit in among pirates. Her random appearances and mysterious statements remind me of Cheese Man from the BtVS episode "Restless."
-Team TARDIS sharing some of my pirate-related glee and tendency to make silly jokes like the Doctor's "Yo ho ho!"
-The Ponds are both wearing plaid. I am torn between awwww and *barf* at the matchy-matchiness.
-AMY POND IS WIELDING A CUTLASS. YOUR LOGIC IS IRRELEVANT. Also, "What kind of rubbish pirates are you?"
-Confused Alien Medical Program Appears Villainous is not a new sci-fi trope (see The Empty Child), but I still like it.
-The Doctor's explanation of the TARDIS controls to the pirate captain and the captain's breaking it down to nautical terms amused me greatly.
-Less a squee than an observation, but Amy's spine is still pregnant with the Heisenbaby.
-We end with Space Pirates! Pirates in Space! Shiver me timbers!
-NEXT WEEK IS NEIL TIME. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH CAPSLOCK IN THE WORLD TO EXPRESS MY EXCITEMENT.
*Note: Moffat is very much not God, though when he okayed a pirate episode he might have shared the loving us and wanting us to be happy. For now.
As if the combination of Doctor Who and PIRATES wasn't enough to win vast amounts of my shallow affection, there was also shirtless Rory! Considering this and Rory's hot sixties suit last week, I am very appreciative of the fact that Karen Gillan's legs have been joined by fanservice for those primarily attracted to men. Meanwhile, Amy looked ridiculously good (and super pleased with herself) in her pirate outfit, and the Doctor had Captain hat envy and then too-briefly acquires one of his own.
There were a bunch of problems with Curse of the Black Spot. There was almost no characterization on any pirates besides the captain and his son, and they were mostly a pile of cliches. Team TARDIS also seemed a little bit off at times. Since when is the Doctor so grossed out at alien boogers? This is the man who was grinning when he was swallowed and vomited up by a space whale. Also, I find it very strange that the Doctor ran out of the TARDIS when she started dematerializing uncontrollably. If he stayed in the TARDIS, wherever they ended up he'd eventually get her started back up and be able to return to the pirate ship for Amy and Rory (though he might need to pick up River if he wanted to arrive on time). When he left the TARDIS and she dematerialized away from him, he was stranded on the slow path. The fact that it worked out okay doesn't change the fact that this was a bad decision. Same with breaking the mirror. The pieces are still reflective, ya brainless bilge rat of a Time Lord.
The plot was rather silly and nonsensical. Most of the plot holes I could easily ignore, but the deal with Amy having to give Rory CPR and certain death if she failed was just too stupid to overlook. YOU ARE TRAVELING WITH A MAN CALLED "THE DOCTOR." LET HIM DO THE FUCKING CPR. If the Doctor wanted to let Amy do it herself, he could at least have coached her through it! She needed way more chest compressions in between those rescue breaths. (To be fair, most TV CPR is crap. At least Amy looked like she was working hard.) Also, surely the TARDIS has a medical bay that could be of some help in this situation.
Enough complaining! "Curse of the Black Spot" gets filed with "The Beast Below" in the category of Dumb Episodes I Love Anyway. Here are some reasons why:
-The TARDIS is a stowaway on the pirate ship. THEY REALLY DID WRITE THIS EPISODE JUST FOR ME.
-"Toby!"
"Rory!"
"My TARDIS!"
Eleven/TARDIS OTP!
-Eyepatch Woman is back! She's already dressed to fit in among pirates. Her random appearances and mysterious statements remind me of Cheese Man from the BtVS episode "Restless."
-Team TARDIS sharing some of my pirate-related glee and tendency to make silly jokes like the Doctor's "Yo ho ho!"
-The Ponds are both wearing plaid. I am torn between awwww and *barf* at the matchy-matchiness.
-AMY POND IS WIELDING A CUTLASS. YOUR LOGIC IS IRRELEVANT. Also, "What kind of rubbish pirates are you?"
-Confused Alien Medical Program Appears Villainous is not a new sci-fi trope (see The Empty Child), but I still like it.
-The Doctor's explanation of the TARDIS controls to the pirate captain and the captain's breaking it down to nautical terms amused me greatly.
-Less a squee than an observation, but Amy's spine is still pregnant with the Heisenbaby.
-We end with Space Pirates! Pirates in Space! Shiver me timbers!
-NEXT WEEK IS NEIL TIME. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH CAPSLOCK IN THE WORLD TO EXPRESS MY EXCITEMENT.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 10:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 02:30 am (UTC)Crazy theories that are likely to get jossed are half the fun of big story arcs like this. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 02:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 02:51 am (UTC)I was thinking back to Day of the Moon, when Amy got kidnapped and needed rescuing by the Doctor, River, and Rory. Amy's initial cell phone photo was her only major contribution to beating the Silents (unless I'm forgetting something), and while she found the little girl she wasn't able to remember enough of the encounter to be useful.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 10:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 01:07 am (UTC)AMEN.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 02:38 am (UTC)WHY SO LONG UNTIL SATURDAY, UNIVERSE?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-11 12:07 am (UTC)HURRY UP, FREAKING WEEKEND
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 05:07 am (UTC)*snort*
You are right. AMY POND AND CUTLASS, WIN/WIN - Y/Y!
It's hard to believe, but this little spun-sugar frivolity made me go all meta, thinking about the "nobody dies, ever, if we can possibly help it" ethos of the Eleventh Doctor's run.
I loved it. I know it sucked, but I loved it anyway.
I am such a cheap date.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 01:28 pm (UTC)I have to say the CPR climax annoyed me, though. I disagree that it was necessarily the Doctor who should have done the CPR (if he's a certified doctor of anything I doubt it's medicine), but hello, you're on the TARDIS? It's a real stretch of the imagination that a dimensionally transcendent timeship strong enough to pull an M-class planet out of orbit wouldn't have medical facilities. Also, as a nurse Rory should know better than to put someone in the hot seat just because they're the loved one of the patient. But then, Moffat seems to blur the lines between "making a leap of faith for love" versus "making an incredibly irrational decision for love" a lot, it's true.