Doctor Who: Curse Of The Black Spot Review (4/5)

To me, The Curse Of The Black Spot was a story of two halves- one half was brilliantly executed, while the other left something to be desired. This split was a result of several factors: after two episodes packed to the brim with character, comedy, scares and plot twists writer Steve Thompson was always going to have a hard time following up, and frequently there's the sense that this could have been a two-parter or extended episode as so much time is spent on the mystery of the Siren (modelled beautifully by Lily Cole, I'm sure most men will agree, and another example of the huge budget of confidence that seems to have been given by the BBC for stunning special effects) that the sub-plot of Captain Avery reconciling with his stowaway son doesn't get much time to feel as if it has the heart or substance of characters like Churchill and Father Octavion from last year's run. On top of that, while the reappearance of the Eye Patch Lady was a welcome nod to the series arc ("You're doing fine, just stay calm"...is she Amy's midwife for giving birth?) and the importance of the Doctor's future death and Amy's positive/negative pregnancy were reiterated, the scenes felt tagged on to what was essentially a standalone episode and as such made it feel somewhat disjointed. And of course, Rory 'died' then came back once more, which would have had a lot more effect if that hadn't happened twice before, but to his credit director Richard Senior managed to hold the shots of the lifeless companion long enough to make me wonder if he might really have bitten the dust (I look forward to seeing Senior's work on Episode 13 this Autumn!). Overall, while it didn't match up to the quality of the opening two-parter and some story elements didn't get time to develop, The Curse Of The Black Spot was still a compelling, quite dark romp and a nice stepping stone for Neil Gaiman's HUGE episode next week!