193 replies to this topic

[darkestboy]

The TARDIS is marooned onboard a 17th-century pirate ship and the Doctor is soon being forced to walk the plank at gunpoint. But things are about to get much, much worse...

Beset by terror and cabin fever, the pirates have numerous superstitious explanations for the appearance of a mysterious Siren. The Doctor has other ideas but as every plan of escape is thwarted, he must win the trust of the implacable Captain Avery and uncover the truth behind the pirates' supernatural fears - and he must work quickly because some of his friends have already fallen under the Siren's spell...

Hope this isn't too early.

[BristolBoy]

For the "Monster of the Week" episode, I don't think was that bad.

Odd that letting loose a murderous crew of pirates on the stars was seen as a "happy ending".

Where did the Pirate left with Rory/Amy/Toby in the hold go? The one that the kid cut? Silly Editing!

How many times has Rory died/nearly died/fake-out died now?

So it had to be Amy because she never gives up. And she has like 3 goes and starts to cry?

Entertaining filler.

[BlueAngelCV]

Hmm, plenty of swashbuckling fun but a few too many leaps of understanding.

Hugh Bonneville was great, as was his beard!
Liked the Doctor saying ignore all my previous theories (very House).

But how/why did the Doctor make the leap that the siren wasn't killing people so much so that he was prepared to risk himself & Amy?

Also, I may have missed something but has the ship been stationary the entire time they've been scared of the curse? They seemed to suggest everything was happening because they were in the same place as the other ship but surely they wouldn't have been in the same place for long?

Who is eye-patch lady?!

How many times has Rory died/nearly died/fake-out died now?

So it had to be Amy because she never gives up. And she has like 3 goes and starts to cry

This!

Edited by BlueAngelCV, May 7, 2011 @ 1:16 PM.

[darkestboy]

Okay, personally not my fave episode but for me, it fell into the 'better than I expected' category. Nice story, great character moments, good continuity.

Steve Thompson's not the greatest writer out there but this was better than his Sherlock episode and I liked that he didn't go overboard with the pirate humour.

I also liked Avery's issues with his son and the fate that befell him, his kid and his crew was not entirely a new thing on this show but it worked.

Great emotional moments for the Doctor and Amy but poor Rory nearly got killed again? Geez, poor guy but brilliant acting from Matt, Karen and Arthur there.

Eye patch Lady is intriguing me and I hope we soon get confirmation of Amy being pregnant rather than it being teased out like it has been for the last two episodes.

Only real criticism of this episode is Lily Cole. The poor girl didn't get anything to really do, so I couldn't judge her, performance wise but overall, a decent swashbuckling adventure, 8/10.

[derekevans]

I liked it, it was cute. I liked the twist ending of the Siren being a healer not a killer, though I realised long before the Doctor did (which is something I've criticised Moffat's Doctor for before) but it was still a nice twist. It seemed a bit off that the Siren/Healer regarded any tiny scratch as life-threatening to the point of requiring being put on life support. I mean okay fine maybe she isn't programmed to understand human physiology very well, but why could none of the pirates leave? I understand Rory and the boy because they were both dying but most of them weren't.

Overall it seemed very lightweight and more "for the kids" but that's fine for a MotW episode, I guess.

Ooh, eyepatch lady!!

Hugh Bonneville's a great actor but I just can't take him seriously anymore.

Edited by derekevans, May 7, 2011 @ 2:41 PM.

[cutecouple]

I mean okay fine maybe she isn't programmed to understand human physiology very well, but why could none of the pirates leave?

Only reason I can think of is if the pirate ship moved out from underneath the spaceship.

[Beatriceblake]

I liked the episode well enough but for God's sake does someone have to die/ nearly die every single week? It cheapens it a bit. Also it looks like the Doctor and Amy need to have some more wine so they can share their death/ pregnancy secrets with each other.

Edited by Beatriceblake, May 7, 2011 @ 3:04 PM.

[cutecouple]

How many times has Rory died/nearly died/fake-out died now?

We should take up a collection to get him a big orange parka.[/southpark]

[John Potts]

While I realise its very hard not to be derivative, it gets a bit poor when you're stealing plot ideas from Star Trek: Voyager (with a touch of War of the Worlds). And really, once you've identified that you're in a hospital ship, put your hand in alien snot and you've seen what the "siren" does with the infected, you really shouldn't wipe your hand on Amy's coat. Though I did love the scene with the Doctor and the Captain in the Tardis when the Doctor's technobabbling away about how he wouldn't understand the controls he simply goes "So - astrolabe, compass, telescope" (it just bugs me when people don't explain because they can't be bothered).

Bristol Boy How many times has Rory died/nearly died/fake-out died now?
So it had to be Amy because she never gives up. And she has like 3 goes and starts to cry?

He's turning into the Harry Kim of Who!
And what bugged me more than anything about the resuscitation scene was that (aside from the fact that Rory should have given more explicit instructions to Amy than "like they do on TV", I accept they might not have time for a long instructory lecture on correct CPR) while Amy was trying womanfully to revive her husband, the Doctor just sat and watched - couldn't he have done the heart compressions while Amy did the breathing?

[derekevans]

Oh I forgot the Eleven/Bonneville TARDIS scene, that was great!

It is LOLsome that Rory's l33t nursing skilz basically just involved saying, "do it like they do on the telly."

[ceindreadh]

So the reason Rory started choking when removed from stasis was because he was effectively drowned when put in stasis in the first place. And the TARDIS with all its tech and gadgetry doesn't have any sort of, I don't know, futuristic medical tools and things that might be of some use in resusitating a drowning victim?

I enjoyed the ep, but didn't feel one bit of tension during the whole 'let's resusitate Rory' scene.

but why could none of the pirates leave?

The Captain's son couldn't leave (although again, couldn't the Doctor rustle up a course of antibiotics to help him?) and the Captain wouldn't leave. Maybe the rest of the pirates decided to try their luck in another universe.

[sparklegem]

John PottsAmy was trying womanfully to revive her husband, the Doctor just sat and watched - couldn't he have done the heart compressions while Amy did the breathing?

Not only that, but when Rory comes back and starts coughing, no water comes out of his lungs? And I don't understand why they took the time to carry him into the Tardis before trying to resuscitate him. I think that whole scene was only written for emotional effect and none of the practical details were paid attention to. As much as it might have annoyed some people, though, I have to say the long pause after Amy had given up and the long shot on Rory's body in the Tardis actually had me worried he was actually dead, which is not an easy task given how many times each of these characters has died or nearly died, so kudos to the editor/director there.

ceindreadh
So the reason Rory started choking when removed from stasis was because he was effectively drowned when put in stasis in the first place. And the TARDIS with all its tech and gadgetry doesn't have any sort of, I don't know, futuristic medical tools and things that might be of some use in resusitating a drowning victim?

Yeah, I didn't understand why the Doctor couldn't help Abigail with her incurable disease in Christmas Carol, either. I don't understand what capabilities he has when it comes to medicine-y type things. He has little bio-gadgets a la the red lights he implanted in everyone's hands in Day of the Moon, he can scan for pregnancy, can mess with the genetics of the Dalek's creations in Evolution of the Daleks, and can cure pretty much every disease by mixing together a bunch of brightly colored solutions in New Earth, and yet he can't save a drowning victim or someone with an unspecified disease like Abigail. It seems like he can do really high-tech and biochemistry-related things, but not anything biomechanical or less high-tech?

I thought the editing on the episode was kind of weird, which hurt the building of suspense and sense of danger. And I also thought that there were too many implausible leaps of understanding--how did the Doctor know that he wasn't killing them all when he told them to go with the Siren?

But overall it wasn't a bad episode and the concept was cool--I love when everything is not as it seems and everyone has their beliefs challenged. Loved how the Doctor kept telling everyone to ignore his latest theory every 5 minutes.

Edited by sparklegem, May 7, 2011 @ 3:55 PM.

[Limber]

What a fantastically stupid episode.

Sure, don't even bother to try and dive in and save Rory - much better idea to nick yourself and hope that the siren-mermaid isn't really killing everyone. And it's nice that Rory is under the impression that Amy will never give up on him, but it looks like 20 seconds of (deeply flawed) CPR is good enough for her! The Doctor doesn't seem much bothered either; after all, though the TARDIS is largely valued as a time machine, it's also an actual vehicle, and while Amy was doing her 20 seconds of CPR the Doctor could easily have set course for any hospital after the 20th century. Drag Rory out of the TARDIS, stick him on a gurney, and he probably won't die!

And a kid's stowing away for a month on the pirate ship his dad captains, but still thinks his dad's a naval officer. But no, surprise, he's actually the pirate captain of the pirate vessel, and he is also quite unreformed, so it makes perfect sense for the Doctor to hand over a ship full of alien tech to a crew of hooligans who are probably now killing wealthy people in the Sirius system.

That was RUBBISH. Hugh Bonneville's TARDIS explanation and Eyepatch Lady notwithstanding, I just read this as a wholly unsuccessful episode.

Edited by Limber, May 7, 2011 @ 4:13 PM.

[Sohei]

Fun fact: Avery was real;

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Henry_Every

And he even vanished after capturing the Moghul's Treasure, too! A case of a writer doing his research far more than he had to.

[Limber]

A real pirate who was also an Atlantic slave trader. Good news, Sirius system!

[EnglishMuffin]

While I realise its very hard not to be derivative, it gets a bit poor when you're stealing plot ideas from Star Trek: Voyager

I thought it was very Voyager too! (Except nowhere near as good.) And very "Parting of the Ways", when people are apparently being killed but are actually being transported somewhere else. But there's nothing wrong with being derivative as long as what you end up with is a good episode... sadly for me this was a very long way from being a good episode.

[NIccibee]

How many times has Rory died/nearly died/fake-out died now?

Oh I know and I didn't even care the first time.

apart from that, yeahhhh, space pirates are always ok, Amy was quite crap at fencing which made me laugh. In fact I loved the opener, with the papercut and 'you're a dead man'.

There was loads I like, I just really can't get behind Amy and Rory's relationship and I keep getting hit with it.

[cutecouple]

Not only that, but when Rory comes back and starts coughing, no water comes out of his lungs? And I don't understand why they took the time to carry him into the Tardis before trying to resuscitate him. I think that whole scene was only written for emotional effect and none of the practical details were paid attention to. As much as it might have annoyed some people, though, I have to say the long pause after Amy had given up and the long shot on Rory's body in the Tardis actually had me worried he was actually dead, which is not an easy task given how many times each of these characters has died or nearly died, so kudos to the editor/director there.

I thought Rory was dead as well. The emotional effect point seems spot on to me. Nitpicking for correctness puts the scene in the sickbay, and I thought the current CPR technique was chest compressions only.

[Limber]

I thought the current CPR technique was chest compressions only.

It is. Amusingly, the best possible advice for a total novice is to do chest compressions to the beat of "Stayin' Alive". A supposed nurse telling his wife to do what she's seen on TV is completely depressing - that's the first thing you have to break people of when teaching CPR, all of those crap techniques they've picked up from the telly. Ironically, this show has now added to that misinformation.

...actually, if they had had Amy doing compressions while desperately sing-muttering "Stayin' Alive", I think I would have forgiven the rest of the episode entirely.

Edited by Limber, May 7, 2011 @ 7:37 PM.

[cutecouple]

That would have been brilliant.

[Mormegil]

Where did the Pirate left with Rory/Amy/Toby in the hold go? The one that the kid cut? Silly Editing!

I had to go answer the phone and presumed he had been taken while I was away, wasn't till I came on the web that I saw he just vanished.

Could be bad editing but then again there were a number of times last episode that chunks of time were edited out of our viewing and we only knew because Amy had more marks on her.

The Pirate was taken by the Siren (he's on the spaceship with the others at the end) but maybe something else happened that made us the Viewers forget seeing it.

[ceindreadh]

It is. Amusingly, the best possible advice for a total novice is to do chest compressions to the beat of "Stayin' Alive". A supposed nurse telling his wife to do what she's seen on TV is completely depressing - that's the first thing you have to break people of when teaching CPR, all of those crap techniques they've picked up from telly. Ironically, this show has now added to that misinformation.

...actually, if they had had Amy doing compressions while desperately sing-muttering "Stayin' Alive", I think I would have forgiven the rest of the episode entirely.

I thought it was 'Nellie the Elephant' you're supposed to use.

As for Rory telling Amy to do like on TV. Didn't the Doctor move out of earshot at some point before Rory was unhooked. I figured he'd done it to give them a chance to say last goodbyes, and that that was when Rory actually explained to Amy what to do.

But it still doesn't make sense, I mean, surely if your life depends on somebody being able to do CPR, then you'd tell everybody in the immediate area *how* to do it properly in the hopes that at least one of them would remember all the steps.

[derekevans]

Ooh, this reminds me of last season when everyone was arguing over whether certain goofs (like the Doctor's jacket changing in the Weeping Angels episode) were intentional or not. Moffat's a smart writer and he likes to seed episodes with things whose significance doesn't become apparent until the end, so I really hope The Case of the Vanishing Pirate does turn out to be more than an editing goof.

[Limber]

I thought it was 'Nellie the Elephant' you're supposed to use.

You probably can; as long as it's around 100 beats per second you're good. Try it out sometime, it's way faster than most people would instinctively space compressions. (You can also use "Another One Bites The Dust", if you're not particularly fond of the patient.) And you basically do it until you wear out; I remember a story last year about a guy who collapsed in a crowd, and the crowd tag-teamed compressions for over an hour... and he survived. So 20 seconds worth of compressions teamed with completely incorrect mouth-to-mouth (all that air will have gone straight out his nose) doesn't say much for Amy meriting the faith Rory has in her.

Anyone have kids who watched this? For all the piratey bits, I found myself thinking that this story was way too convoluted for a kid to enjoy. She's in the water, no in a reflection, no she's a doctor, wait there's another ship, that guy who exploded into dust is actually still alive, etc.

I really hope The Case of the Vanishing Pirate does turn out to be more than an editing goof

If it turns out that the Silents (Silence?) are randomly kidnapping tertiary characters out of all of the Doctor's adventures, I will be very impressed.

Edited by Limber, May 7, 2011 @ 7:51 PM.

[BuggieGirl]

I did love when Avery ran into the hospital place and yelled "Toby!" and Amy ran in and yelled "Rory!" and the Doctor ran in and yelled, even louder, "THE TARDIS!" and proceeded to hug it.

[December13]

Well, it was... hmm... interesting ep. The Pirates of the Caribbean meets Andromeda (or Star Trek, as others already mentioned). Speaking of the Pirates, I do recall kind of similarity between the way "illness" was manifested on DW and on the PotC: black spots on hands. So, that part, however small may be, really annoys me - couldn't they find a different sign?

Oh, and while I was watching the ep., all I could think of was how awesome it would be if River popped up!

[Mxytdvc]

So random question about CPR....aren't you only supposed to perform it it someone's heart has actually stopped? So does that mean Rory's heart had stopped in addition to filling up with water and the siren-nurse purged the water, but not restarted his heart? Because I know that a lot of time "on tv" they go "OMG, he's not breathing, do CPR!" when all that is really needed is rescue breathing, or pretty much every kid in the world would need to have had CPR any time they held their breath, and people wouldn't be able to swim because of the whole not breathing for small bit thing.

For the most part, I was "meh" about this one. And I'm pretty sure we lost some scenes because that other pirate fell off the screen after being attacked by the kid, which I have to say might set a record for Chuck Cunningham syndrome (even though he isn't a regular).

I also agree that Rory might be the new Kenny. Any time he's in mortal danger I know he'll be fine because he's come back every other time.

Edited by Mxytdvc, May 7, 2011 @ 8:01 PM.

[Kontrast]

Speaking of the Pirates, I do recall kind of similarity between the way "illness" was manifested on DW and on the PotC: black spots on hands. So, that part, however small may be, really annoys me - couldn't they find a different sign?

Well, a black spot is a well-known sign meaning "marked for death" since the book Treasure Island first came out, so why should they invent a new mark?

As others have said, for a monster of the week episode it was entertaining enough. Not the best but okay.

Why the Doctor can't cure thyphoid etc.? I always assumed that he had kind of a first directive that meant he couldn't cure something that was incurable at the time. Sketchy theory at best, but all I can think of.

When it comes to CPR, I've long since stopped pointing out the inconsistencies. Forget how it is performed, the really unrealistic part in every movie/TV show is what it is for. There's only a very small chance of bringing someone back by performing CPR, it's only meant to keep a body alive until the real emergency services arrive.
Also, of all the people surviving due to CPR on TV, I've never seen one puke his guts out, which is pretty much a guaranteed side-effect of CPR in real life.

Edited by Kontrast, May 7, 2011 @ 8:08 PM.

[cutecouple]

When it comes to CPR, I've long since stopped pointing out the inconsistencies. Forget how it is performed, the really unrealistic part in every movie/TV show is what it is for. There's only a very small chance of bringing someone back by performing CPR, it's only meant to keep a body alive until the real emergency services arrive.
Also, of all the people surviving due to CPR on TV, I've never seen one puke his guts out, which is pretty much a guaranteed side-effect.

Thanks for the FYI.

[Limber]

So random question about CPR....aren't you only supposed to perform it it someone's heart has actually stopped? So does that mean Rory's heart had stopped in addition to filling up with water and the siren-nurse purged the water, but not restarted his heart?

Good point. Yeah, to do CPR implies that he'd drowned and his heart stopped, then the siren drained the water and so now he's just in cardiac arrest?

Even though that doesn't really make sense, does it. Does the siren just keep people in stasis? So Toby's typhoid won't get any better but won't get any worse, but Rory's heart would... wait, though, she'd clearly restarted it in the hospital-ship, because otherwise he couldn't talk. So she must've started his heart again and cleared out his lungs (otherwise he couldn't have spoken), so I have no idea why unhooking him resulted in his heart cutting out immediately.

Augh, I hate this episode!