The Curse of the Black Spot (TV story)

The Curse of the Black Spot was the third episode in the sixth series of Doctor Who.

Synopsis
The TARDIS is marooned onboard a 17th-century pirate ship whose crew is being attacked by a mysterious and beautiful sea creature. Becalmed and beset by cabin fever, the pirates have numerous superstitious explanations for the Siren’s appearance. The Doctor has other ideas, but as his theories are disproved and every plan of escape is thwarted, he must work to win the trust of the implacable Captain Avery and uncover the truth behind the pirates’ supernatural fears – and he must work quickly, for some of his friends have already fallen under the Siren’s spell…

Plot
On a becalmed ship, a man with a minor cut is brought to the captain, Henry Avery. Avery says that he is a dead man after a black spot is found on the man's palm. They give him a sword and force him outside, tying the door shut with a medalion,. An eerie song and glow come from outside. The wounded man is heard screaming as the glow and song stop. When the crew leaves the cabin, Avery remarks that his disappearance is the same as 'all the others', with no sign of what happened. A banging is heard below the deck; a wooden grille is flipped open to reveal the Doctor, Amy and Rory, with the TARDIS behind them. The Doctor greets the pirates with "Yo! Ho! Ho!" but then wonders if any pirate actually says that.

They are taken to Avery's room. The Doctor says the TARDIS picked up the ship's distress signals (after trying to re-phrase his sentences for a technology-shy era), though the crew never made any signals. When the Doctor says the trio are sailors, he is held at gunpoint. They must be stowaways, for what ship could board theirs? Avery orders thee Doctor and Rory to walk the plank and Amy to the scullery. No sooner does Doctor notice that the ship is too big for a crew of five than Amy is shoved belowdeck. She emerges in pirate attire, sword and all. She hacks at the crew, who use brooms and mops instead, cutting a man's hand. When she drops the sword, it cuts Rory as well. She is surprised by the overreactions of the crew, and by the black spots which quickly appear on both of the men's hands. The strange song is heard again. Rory and the wounded pirate begin to act like fools. A ghostly, teal woman, whom the crew call a demon, rises from the sea and lands on the deck, stretching out a hand to the men. The wounded pirate takes it and vanishes with a scream. When Rory begins to walk towards her, Amy steps between the demon and him. The demon turns red and hisses at Amy, sending her flying across the deck. As the crew head below with the Doctor, Amy and Rory, the crew refer to the demon as the Siren. she has been taking any crewman with the smallest wound, as if she can smell blood.

Avery chooses to believe the Doctor board them with a ship and again aims a pistol at him, demanding he make it "sail". The Doctor feels they're fighting over who is in charge. A man realises a leech is on his leg. As everyone scrambles out of the water, a black spot appears on his hand. The Siren appears and takes the bleeding man. The Doctor concludes that she is using water as a portal. They all go to the driest room on board: the armoury. They discover Avery's son, Toby, hiding and clearly ill. He says that his mother died the previous winter and he wanted to meet his father, an honorable captain in the Navy. He has the black spot, despite having no wounds. The Doctor concludes that the Siren is coming for the sick as well as the wounded.

Avery and the Doctor head to the TARDIS. The Doctor tells Avery where he may find a kitchen to fill his empty belly and where a bathroom is. Elsewhere, Boatswain and Mulligan. the two remaining sailors, plan to leave the ship, revealing to Toby that his father is a pirate. Still loyal to his father, Toby grabs a sword and cuts Boatswain. Mulligan leaves. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor doesn't bother to explain his console, butAvery has easily figured it out; to him a ship is a ship. The TARDIS begins to dematerialise. Not knowing where it's going, the pair leave, only to see it vanish.

Mulligan, Avery and the Doctor run into each other, and Mulligan is chased into a small cabin, where he burns himself. The Doctor hears the Siren's song and sees a glow from under the door. They enter the room, but there is no water; she doesn't just use water as a portal, but any reflective surfaces. They run back to Amy, Rory and Toby where they realise that the only option is to sit and wait.

As everyone sleeps, Amy sees the Eye Patch Lady looking at them through a hatch in the door. The hatch disappears. As she goes to tell the Doctor, a storm breaks, and all head up to the deck to lift the sail. A crown Avery had been unable to throw away falls out of his coat and the Siren emerges, taking Toby, but the Doctor throws the crown overboard before she can take Rory. However, Rory is knocked overboard and begins to drown; knowing he will die anyway, the Doctor lets the Siren come take Rory after finding another hidden crown. The Doctor decides that the only way to end this is to have the Siren take them as well. The three survivors prick their fingers. The Siren appears and before her song can hypnotise them, they touch her hand and black out.

They wake in an invisible alien ship that is taking up the same space as the Fancy. The Doctor, Amy, and Avery walk through the ship. All its crew died long ago from Earth disease. Their skeletons litter the ship.

They go further into further into the ship, where they find the sick bay where all the Fancy's crew, Toby, Rory and the TARDIS are. Amy tries to unhook Rory from his machine, but the Siren appears and hisses her away. The Doctor realises that the Siren is not a demon, but rather, a virtual doctor who takes the appearance of the species she treats. Amy again tries to help Rory, but the Siren doesn't allow her near him. Crying over the safety of her husband, Amy complains about the Siren not letting Rory's wife take care of him. The Doctor realises the Siren will not let anyone help her, prompting him to have Amy show her ring to her to prove that they're "connected". The Siren produces a glowing yellow arch around her hand and the Doctor explains it's a contract of consent that Amy will take responsibility for Rory. Amy "signs" the contract and prepares to take Rory to the TARDIS.

The Doctor realises that if Rory is disconnected, he will drown. However, Rory is sure that Amy will save him and he begins to instruct her in CPR. Avery tries to make sense of the life support machine Toby is hooked up to. The Doctor explains that if he's taken off life support, he'll die of his fever. Avery decides to captain the vessel and give the Siren others to look after. The Doctor wondering if he can handle such advanced technology. Avery asks where the "atom accelerator" is, assuring the Doctor that he can. Amy and the Doctor disconnect Rory from life support and pull him into the TARDIS as Amy begins CPR to revive him. At first ti seems futile, but Rory recovers after a minute terror.

Back on the ship, Avery takes the captain's seat with Toby, still on life-support, taking co-pilot and the crew behind them. They set off on a journey to see Sirius up close.

In the TARDIS, Amy and Rory says good-night to the Doctor, who calls her Amelia. Amelia notes he does that only when he's worried about her. The Doctor says that he always worries about her, prompting Amy to remember his death. Amy and Rory head off to bed while the Doctor looks at his monitor, watching Amy's pregnancy going between positive and negative. The Doctor can only say "Oh, Amelia".

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * Henry Avery - Hugh Bonneville
 * Boatswain - Lee Ross
 * The Siren - Lily Cole
 * Mulligan - Michael Begley
 * Eye Patch Lady - Frances Barber
 * Toby Avery - Oscar Lloyd
 * DeFlorres - Tony Lucken
 * Dancer - Chris Jarman
 * McGrath - Carl McCrystal

Cultural references

 * The Siren in this episode is based on Greek mythology.
 * The Black Spot is an allusion to the Black Spot in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
 * The title of the story, as well as several mentions of a compass, may be a nod to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and its sequels. Amy fights off numerous pirates like Elizabeth Swann, and the Black Spot appears on the palm of the victim's hand as it did for Jack Sparrow.
 * Having an automated program running the sickbay is similar to The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager, who is also called only The Doctor.
 * Walking the plank is a staple of modern pirate lore, but the practice itself was actually quite rare. Some believe it to be entirely apocryphal, but there are historical instances of it.

Individuals

 * The Doctor again scans Amy using the TARDIS console regarding her pregnancy or non-pregnancy.

Story notes

 * This episode was supposed to air in the autumn half of the series, but was swapped around, along with The Doctor's Wife being fourth instead of third and Mark Gatiss' episode being ninth instead of fourth. This was because Steven Moffat felt Gatiss' episode was too dark.
 * A prequel for this story was released online.
 * Lily Cole is credited as The Siren on-screen, and as Sea Siren in Radio Times.
 * This episode is notable both in that none of the guest cast die and there is no villain of the piece.
 * As with this story, Earth-born diseases were the bane of the aliens in The War of the Worlds.
 * This story bears some resemblance to the Ninth Doctor two-part story The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances. In both stories an automated medical entity is initially perceived as a threat due to its lack of familiarity with human physiology. In addition, in both stories all the characters survive.
 * This episode's original title was Siren.

Ratings

 * 7.85 million (35.5% market share)

Myths

 * The Eye Patch Lady will reappear. This was proven true.

Filming locations

 * Cornwall

Production errors

 * Although Boatswain was marked, he is never seen after Mulligan leaves the hold. In fact after Mulligan leaves, he is shown blockading the door again, but is not seen in there when the Doctor and Captain Avery come back.
 * Like many television shows and films, this episode shows a very unrealistic depiction of CPR. The process of CPR is not intended to revive a victim. The purpose of CPR is to keep a minimum amount of oxygen flowing to the brain to prevent brain damage until professionals arrive to treat the victim.
 * When the Doctor presses the bell the scene is taken from the Eleventh hour as you can tell by his jacket sleeve.
 * When the Doctor takes the hat from the disappeared pirate in the belly of the ship he puts it on, the camera switches away, when the camera switches back he's putting it on again, and then he takes it off, the camera flashes outside the hold and the Doctor is once again taking off the hat.
 * When the Doctor discovers the dead "captain" of the "ghost ship" he scans the body and says that the cause of death was "human bacteria." He then elaborates, explaining that it was "A virus, from our planet. Airborne, travelling through the portal." Viruses and bacteria are not the same thing.

Continuity

 * Amy remembers the Doctor's death. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut)
 * The Eye Patch Lady reappears. (DW: Day of the Moon)
 * The marking of the hand is akin to the green mark individuals experienced before mutating into a Primord. (DW: Inferno)
 * Prior to this occasion, the TARDIS had landed in the hold of the Shadow. (DW: Enlightenment)
 * Captain Avery was previously mentioned in DW: The Smugglers.
 * The TARDIS again seems confused as to whether Amy Pond is pregnant or not. (DW: Day of the Moon)
 * The Doctor was previously forced to walk the plank in DW: The Pirate Planet.
 * The idea that two objects can inhabit the same location, but not being able to have direct travel between them happened durring The Doctor's quest for The Key To Time, where a judicial space ship containing Cessair of Diplos ran aground on top of the The Nine Travellers in Cornwall. The Stones being in our space but the ship being located in Hyperspace, travel being avaliable via use of The Great Seal of Diplos or a machine made by the Doctor and K-9. (DW: The Stones of Blood) 

Home video releases
Released as Series 6 Part 1 with The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon, The Doctor's Wife, The Rebel Flesh, The Almost People and A Good Man Goes to War on 11th July 2011.