The TARDIS follows a distress signal and lands on a pirate ship in the 17th Century which is being visited by a spectral figure they call a Siren who marks injured people with a black spot before making them disappear. This turns out to be an automated medical aid from a crashed space craft travelling through mirrors which act as a portal from a 'bubble universe'.
This episode has filler written all over it. It follows an epic two parter and this seems intended as a bit of light relief but it does not really work on that level for me because it has too much dark and sad elements to be particularly fun and amusing. The humour is not all that good when it occurs anyway, in my opinion. It doesn't fit the category of a dark drama either because it is quite flimsy and rather too silly to work on that level either. It is not awful, it just is very underwhelming and average for my tastes.
In the end it all just does not ring true for me and is not very exciting. The threats turn out to be not threatening, things are resolved in an unsatisfying way and the whole thing seems far too fake and contrived. Just a Pirates of the Caribbean knock-off.
This episode also features yet another apparent death for Rory which is his 4th and the 11th faked death of either the Doctor or his friends in the 17 episodes so far since Steven Moffatt became showrunner! Incredibly Rory would have ANOTHER fake death in the next episode making it 3 episodes in a row Rory 'dies' and 6 episodes in a row one of the TARDIS crew dies! I find it quite bizarre to so hugely overuse this plot device. Instead of falling for the tears and grief of Amy as Rory seemingly died I just groaned before the predictable event of him coming back to life AGAIN!
The endearing Hugh Bonneville is very good as ever but is slightly miscast as a greedy pirate I think. His supposed wickedness predictably ends with a change of heart. It seems pretty far fetched that he is quickly able to cope with piloting space ships as well.
Overall this is just a disappointing episode, not dreadful and it passes the time but I find it very unimpressive compared to usual Doctor Who.
My Rating: 5/10.
This episode has filler written all over it. It follows an epic two parter and this seems intended as a bit of light relief but it does not really work on that level for me because it has too much dark and sad elements to be particularly fun and amusing. The humour is not all that good when it occurs anyway, in my opinion. It doesn't fit the category of a dark drama either because it is quite flimsy and rather too silly to work on that level either. It is not awful, it just is very underwhelming and average for my tastes.
In the end it all just does not ring true for me and is not very exciting. The threats turn out to be not threatening, things are resolved in an unsatisfying way and the whole thing seems far too fake and contrived. Just a Pirates of the Caribbean knock-off.
This episode also features yet another apparent death for Rory which is his 4th and the 11th faked death of either the Doctor or his friends in the 17 episodes so far since Steven Moffatt became showrunner! Incredibly Rory would have ANOTHER fake death in the next episode making it 3 episodes in a row Rory 'dies' and 6 episodes in a row one of the TARDIS crew dies! I find it quite bizarre to so hugely overuse this plot device. Instead of falling for the tears and grief of Amy as Rory seemingly died I just groaned before the predictable event of him coming back to life AGAIN!
The endearing Hugh Bonneville is very good as ever but is slightly miscast as a greedy pirate I think. His supposed wickedness predictably ends with a change of heart. It seems pretty far fetched that he is quickly able to cope with piloting space ships as well.
Overall this is just a disappointing episode, not dreadful and it passes the time but I find it very unimpressive compared to usual Doctor Who.
My Rating: 5/10.