The Doctor and his Companions are off on a storyarc-less adventure on the high seas! They arrive on board a pirate ship whose crew is slowly being taken by a Siren-like creature. Once they are injured, even in the slightest way, they are marked with the black spot; she appears (I almost wrote "Apparates") and sings to the sailors, enchanting them. At her touch, they apparently explode. The crew get picked off rather quickly, despite having been becalmed for eight days. At one point, Rory gets a superficial cut, but Amy and the Doctor prevent him from being taken by the Siren. Pretty soon it's just the Captain, the Doctor, Amy, Rory, Toby (the Captain's stowaway son) and two other pirates. After discovering that the Siren can get in through water, they barricade themselves inside the armory.
The Doctor and the Captain make their way to the TARDIS, who is also becalmed, and disappears (or "Disapparates", if you prefer) as they watch. One of the crew members leaves the armory to pilfer the loot, and he is taken by the Siren. It is then that the Doctor then realizes that it's not water that calls the Siren, but reflections. And, OH NO! The Captain's pendant is gone! They rush back to the armory just as Toby starts to polish the pendant. The Doctor starts breaking out all the windows and throwing all the treasure overboard, but the Captain secrets a crown inside his coat. He LOVES treasure!
Well, then a huge storm whips up, and as Toby brings his father his coat, the crown rolls out and Toby is taken by the Siren. Then Rory gets knocked overboard. The Doctor, Captain, and Amy all cut their hands so that the Siren will come take them. She arrives, and they all reach out to her.
They all wake up on the floor of a space ship. All of the crew members are lying on beds, hooked up to machines. The Doctor figures out that the Siren is really some kind of hologram, and the space ship had been becalmed just like the pirate ship. And reflections were a way for the hologram to get through. She was rescuing all of the people who were injured, even if it was minor. However, she doesn't know how humans work, so she can't actually heal them, just keep them in stasis. Amy wants to take Rory back to the TARDIS, so she gives her consent to the hologram. Before unhooking Rory, he wakes up and tells her that she'll have to do CPR, which Amy says she doesn't know. But he trusts her. So she unhooks him, they get back to the TARDIS, and Amy performs CPR. After a minute, though, she gives up. And then, miraculously, Rory spits out water and is okay.
Before they leave, the Captain says he's not leaving his son. So, he decides to fly the space ship away (a ship is a ship, after all). All the crew members (that we'd met) and Toby all stand around his chair.
Repeat Ideas:
Hmm. I couldn't come up with any repeat ideas, as this is the first time we've seen a watery tart charming things with her singing ... hang on a minute ...
1) A watery tart charming things with her singing. We JUST watched Abigail charm the shark and control the fog with her singing. Yes, it was a few months prior to this episode, but it was only FOUR episodes ago!
2) A medical specialist who didn't know how to heal its patients? I have four words for you - ARE YOU MY MUMMY?
3) When they find the aliens in the space ship, the Doctor makes a comment along the lines of, "have you ever looked in a mirror and thought you were seeing a different world?" This is a bit too similar to the line in Family of Blood, "He trapped her inside a mirror ... If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you just for a second, that's her. That's always her.
4) In case you haven't been keeping count, this is the third time that Rory dies. Fourth, if you count his fake death in Day of the Moon.
Dislikes:
1) The crew gets picked off so fast. Seriously, are there THAT many injuries on a ship? At the rate that everyone is getting injured, the whole crew should have been gone days ago.
2) The Siren doesn't come for Rory until he realizes that he's been cut. That's convenient.
3) The original concept, that the Siren could travel through water, was a MUCH better concept than traveling through reflections.
4) How does the Captain knows that Toby is his son? He's clearly never met him, as Toby says, "[Mother] told me all about you, I should be proud to know you".
5) When the Doctor and the Captain leave the armory to go to the TARDIS, the Captain slips and almost cuts his hand. I have a hard time believing that a man who spends his whole life at sea could be that clumsy.
6) When they first enter the armory, there are two crew members besides Amy, Rory, and Toby. But, a few minutes later, there is only one. Where did the other crew member go?
7) Why did the Siren take the TARDIS? I understand that the TARDIS is alive, unlike the ship, but is there something wrong with the TARDIS besides being becalmed? I doubt it. They only made the TARDIS disappear so that they could get Rory onboard. If it was going to disappear, it should have happened before this.
8) If there are all these pieces of reflective treasure laying around, she would have total access to the ship. But, because you have to see a REFLECTION, then the treasure would have been fine being kept locked up somewhere. There was no need to throw it all overboard.
9) The Doctor calls the Siren to them by opening up the barrel of fresh water during the storm. DURING. THE. STORM. I've never been on a ship during a storm, but I'm guessing that the water isn't exactly reflection-friendly when the ship is being tossed about and there is no moon.
10) When the Siren takes the Doctor, Amy, and the Captain, they wake up on the floor of the space ship. Why aren't they in a bed like everyone else?
11) They find the aliens, and the Doctor touches them, then exclaims, "ew, alien bogies!" Wait a minute ... if the ship was becalmed for eight days, then the alien space ship must have been there for at least eight days, too. The aliens must have died pretty soon after landing there, since they're all still strapped in to their seats, and, if the Captain was able to fly the ship away, it wasn't becalmed. So why are their bogies still fresh?
12) How did the Doctor get consent from the Siren to take the TARDIS away? And how was Toby sitting up with the Captain when he flew the ship away? And all the other crew members? Did he give his consent? Is there some kind of long extension cord stretched between the bridge and the sick bay that's keeping Toby alive? I'm so confused.
Likes:
1) I did like how the Captain kept saying, "a ship's a ship". I love it when people from the past are able to grasp modern concepts. After all, they weren't stupid, just had no exposure to modern technology. It drives me crazy in books and movies when someone time travels to the past and everyone is terrified of technology. Overall, the Captain was a really good character.
Bottom line: most of this story didn't make sense, but it was kind of fun.
And now, Davy Jones has a question for Rory:
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