A hounded pirate on board a pirate ship is cursed with the damned affliction, The Black Spot on his palm, which spells doom as the siren (Lily Cole) takes all who bear said spot. Captain Avery (Hugo Bonneville, in a not so Downton Abbey role) says he's a dead man. The siren's song can be heard and the Captain ties the cabin door shut with a medallion for protection. The pirate is taken and disappears, without leaving behind any bones or blood. The Doctor (Matt Smith) and the others emerge from below, "Yo, ho, ho, or does anybody actually say that." The TARDIS saw that the ship was in trouble. Captain Avery calls their predicament being, "becalmed." I.e. there's no wind for the ship to sail. The Doctor is ordered to walk the plank and Amy (Karen Gillan) is called a doxy. Amy is taken below where she finds the swords hidden away and dresses in the coat and hat. So she started it off, well the rest of it, with the pirates getting cut, including Rory (Arthur Darvill). The Captain fears the sword will kill them all, it will, but not in the usual way. "One drop of blood and she'll arise out of the ocean." Referring to the siren as the demon, she can smell the blood and they've all been marked for death. Including Rory.
The Doctor attempts to console him, it's good that if something's going to kill him, he'll have a note to remind him. Rory is transfixed by her song and calls Amy beautiful, "Cuddle me shipmate." The siren makes men fools and she arises out of the ocean for the token extra to be taken; but not Rory who just wants to touch her. If Rory's been affected too, then why not take them both at once. The siren glows red when threatened so no wonder she was called a demon as she resembles one. Rory could have been taken ages ago when he's left to stand around alone - but again he's not.
Captain Avery states the legend, the siren hunts ships with treasure, which should have been an obvious indication of why she appears. The Doctor doesn't believe she's a curse and says humans are big on curses, so they don't have to offer explanations. The Captain's big on guns too, so he's overcompensating as Freud would say. A pirate gets bitten by a leech and is also taken. Rory was completely mesmerized by her and wanted to be taken by her, so why was he screaming here - and yet again he's saved. The Doctor thinks she's using water as a portal. He puts on a hat and tells the Captain, "worried cos I'm wearing a hat now." Yes, but it's not a Fez ! The Captain's son, Toby (Oscar Lloyd) is found as a stowaway. His mother told him his father was in the navy. He also bears a black spot. The Doctor comments she's coming for the sick and the wounded, which is a clue and they need to get to the TARDIS. It's not a curse.
The Doctor tells Amy and Rory, "We've all got to go sometime." To which Amy and Rory can only look at each other. They've already seen him go. The Doctor tells the Captain he lied when he said 'his was bigger', the ship that is, cos the TARDIS is bigger. The TARDIS refuses to move and the Captain calls it "becalmed." Then gloats, which the Doctor observes. The TARDIS disappears, why, was it too in need of healing and repair. Captain Avery only wants his treasure back. The siren appears in the reflections - not the water. "Still water is nature's mirror." They need to destroy everything with a reflection, including mirrors, which can be said, is where the Doctor's bad luck may have began. The Doctor believes she attacks ships filled with treasure, as he's now made the connection to what the Captain said earlier. They need to throw the treasure overboard including the crown. The siren can be heard again. Amy dreams about the eyepatch woman from episode 2. Suppose that's Amy having the baby, or someone having a baby. The Doctor looks out and senses something's staring back at him.
The wind picks up and they man the sails. The siren takes Toby and Rory falls overboard where he drowns. The Doctor thinks the siren must be released to rescue Rory as it's intelligent. The others are probably still alive and they must let the siren take them. They agree by pricking their fingers. None of them acted all foolish here. They awake on another spaceship which is trapped in a temporal rift, enabling them to step from one universe to another. The reflections are now gateways. A distress signal is heard. Always have to be on another spaceship. The crew were staring at them, which is why the Doctor said he's being watched. The crew died from bugs, a human virus. He gets "sneeze" on his hand, "alien bogies!" The siren is a stowaway.
They come across the rest of the crew, Toby and Rory. Not forgetting the TARDIS. See wasn't it in need of healing to have ended up on the sickbay too. Or did it just hone in on the distress signal of this other ship. The siren is keeping everyone alive. The black spot isn't a curse, but a tissue sample, her song is an anesthetic and she maintains them in statis. The siren is a virtual doctor. Amy needs to reason with her to help Rory. He can't leave with them as he'll drown. He's a nurse, as he mentioned last week too, so he can teach her CPR. Amy asks why she has to be the one to do it, why not the Doctor. Rory knows she'll never give up. The Doctor needs to send the ship into space and Toby has typhoid fever so he can't go back either. The Captain agrees to stay with him on the ship and the siren can look after him. "Point me to the atom accelerator." They sail into space, crew abound.
The Doctor calls her Amelia when he's worried about her and he always worries about her. Amy has a flashback, or flashforward to the Doctor dying. Rory says they can't tell him, it's his future. How did Rory know she was thinking about the Doctor dying when he says this to her. The scan on Amy still reverts between positive and negative. So, not much happened this episode, it was just meant to be a fun-filled ride, partly anyway. Many pirates abound lately, to coincide with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and everything has to be black and cursed too. Curse of the Black Spot, Curse of the Black Pearl.
I preferred the excitement of the first two episodes and this one was bit tame in comparison, time to take a breather before the next thrilling instalment.
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