HADS (HOSTILE ACTION DISPLACEMENT SYSTEM) WARNING: While great care has been taken to avoid huge plot points and major spoilers there are still story details that are discussed below. If you have not seen this event yet and wish to remain spoiler-free, then this article may not be your cup of tea. You have been warned, proceed at your own risk, tip your waitress, free TARDIS valet parking.
TARDIS SCANNER – What Happened?
It’s the 17th century and there is a siren picking off wounded pirates from Captain Avery’s ship. Of course, the Doctor, Amy and Rory happen along and, of course, all is not as it seems. Should any of the crew become injured in any way, a beautiful siren, complete with lilting singsong, rises from the depths to dipatch the poor soul. As would happen, Rory becomes injured soon after arrival and his friends and, reluctantly, the pirates attempt to help him avoid his fate. Eventually, the Doctor and the Captain figure out how the Siren is infiltrating the ship. After the Captain’s stowaway son and a drowning Rory are taken by the “stroppy, homicidal mermaid”, the real story is discovered as the group discovers the ship within a ship and the true fates of the Siren’s victims. One it is all sussed out, the Doctor and companions head back into time and the Captain and crew head out into space!
PERCEPTION FILTER – Analysis
There is no timey-wimey involvement this week, but a bit of multidimensional starship action and this also happens to be one of the rare Doctor Who episodes where no one dies. It begins with a sort-of tribute tribute to Pirates of the Caribbean and ends with a sort-of tribute to Blake’s 7, two things that are perhaps not too dissimilar, when you think about it. Add to that a nice little twist on Star Trek: Voyager‘s EMH and you have a very enjoyable episode of Doctor Who.
This episode is more or less a standalone story, apart from Amy’s odd sighting of the eyepatched lady and the reminder of her weird pregnancy/non-pregnancy. It’s adventurous with a fair amount of humorous bits and good level of menace and danger. In short, it harkens back to the Doctor Who days of yore, where everything wasn’t tightly interconnected. This was a refreshing and welcome change from the season openers’ menace and seriousness and I’m ready for a few more episodes like this. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly love the interconnectedness and ongoing, serialized plots of new Doctor Who, but also long for more of the “adventures through time and space” of the original series. At least with this year’s first three episodes, I’ve had a piece of cake and have eaten it, too.
My only gripe is with the near-death of Rory and the way in which he was ultimately saved. While I appreciate the dramatics of it all and, maybe, the necessity in strengthening the relationship between the Ponds, are we really expected to believe that the TARDIS doesn’t have some sort of state-of-the-art medical bay or even and advanced emergency medical kit handy in the console room? I know a sickbay was seen in The Invasion of Time, possibly other times as well and there has been mention of a medical kit in Shada, at least, if not on a few other occasions. Anyway, we’ll leave this to the need for dramatics and move on, shall we?
TARDIS INDEX FILE – Things of Significance
This week is rather lite on significant happenings, apart from Amy seeing the lady with the cybernetic eyepatch (which seems fitting in a story full of pirates) and a reminder of the fluctuating state of her possible pregnancy.
Oh, we did hear the TARDIS’ Cloister Bell (signifying extreme emergency) for the sixth time since the show’s return, seven if you count the first Children in Need mini-episode. That’s nearly twice as many times as we heard it in the original series, for those playing at home.
CHAMELEON CIRCUIT – Unanswered Questions
Where are Captain Avery and his crew heading in the spaceship?
See last week’s unanswered questions as they are all still hanging about, er, unanswered.
TRANSLATION CIRCUIT – Answered Questions
No questions of significance are answered this week (see above about this being a standalone adventure).
TIME-SPACE VISUALIZER
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The Doctor (MATT SMITH) receives a distress signal from an old friend. Could there really be another living Time Lord out there? Hopes raised, he follows the signal to a junkyard planet sitting upon a mysterious asteroid in a Bubble universe, populated by a very strange family. The Doctor, Amy (KAREN GILLAN) and Rory (ARTHUR DARVILL) are given the warmest of welcomes by Auntie (ELIZABETH BERRINGTON), Uncle (ADRIAN SCHILLER) and Nephew (PAUL KASEY). But the beautiful and insane Idris (SURANNE JONES) greets them in a more unusual fashion – what is she trying to tell the Doctor? As the Doctor investigates, he unwittingly puts his friends in the gravest danger.