Curse of the Black Spot

[ericadawn16]

Dear F-List,

If you are one of the people who complained that Doctor Who ripped off Pirates of the Caribbean last night, then I KNOW you have never read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Also, if you consider yourself a fan of pirates or Pirates of the Caribbean and have not read it, I will find that sad. It is the book that all pirate culture since has been based on. There would be no Pirates of the Caribbean series if not for Treasure Island.

P.S. Will people please stop calling Rory an Auton and wondering how he could possibly die and/or create sperm? HE'S HUMAN NOW!

Especially the sperm part, it makes me feel like I'm in a British remake of Mallrats, or an update of Spaced, either way, stop it.

Comments

[wldcatsprstr-14.livejournal.com]

If you are one of the people who complained that Doctor Who ripped off Pirates of the Caribbean last night, then I KNOW you have never read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I was one of these. But I'll say again--it wasn't the plot line that was the issue. The ep was a bit failtastic but that wasn't the issue. It was the fact that the spoken lines were almost verbatim from what is in PotC. Believe me, I read a LOT of fanfic lol. I can tell the difference between when I'm put off by a similar plot line (which I almost never am because it's fanfic) and when I'm put off because the characters' words sound exactly like something else I've read. It was really how lazy it seemed that bugged me--it was like there was no originality in it at all.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

There are people who think Rory's still an Auton? *boggle*

The issues I had were Rory wanting his kind of flaky wife who apparently doesn't actually know how to do CPR to do it rather than the Doctor, who's bound to have learned it at some point (possibly from his time at UNIT), and the Doctor GIVING A CREW OF PILOTS A SPACESHIP. Pirates with a canny and adaptable captain. Oh, Doctor, not the wisest of moves.

And yeah, maybe a bit derivative, but pirate stories usually are. It was fun.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

What amuses me is the timing of the episode. It clearly IS capitalizing on POTC just from that alone. I haven't seen it (though I did see previews), and I can tell THAT, LOL.

[teamharkness.livejournal.com]

It WAS a little Pirates of the Caribbean, but I don't really mind that at all. I've been a fan of the PotC movies since the first one came out and I'm not at all bothered that this was en homage to the movies. It's not the first time Doctor Who has had whole episodes en homage to movies (I.E. the Space Cantina where Jack was sitting? Star Wars). So it's not that big of a deal. To me at least.

And Doctor Who is supposed to be a kids show so why not? I rather liked it. It wasn't greatly action packed, it wasn't too complicated, it was perfect really. A nice filler episode after the seriousness of the last two.

Haters gonna hate.

As far as Rory, I don't think people believe he's still an Auton, but he did say himself that he still remembered those 2,000 years. So that's going to come into play somehow the rest of the season.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

I thought it was deliberately alluding to (aka 'ripping off') POTC, even in the music, but I really liked that about it. Amy makes a good Elizabeth.

[trektotorch.livejournal.com]

I guess those that think Rory is still an Auton weren't paying attention during the episode where he became human again. I think Rory wanted Amy to do the CPR on him because of their "love" connection. I am having a bit of trouble getting into this season's episodes. I don't know why--may the whole "we have a secret and can't tell the Doctor" thing. If the Doctor really dies (future) he is in this current body, yet, I believe, he still has a couple regenerations to go.

[futurekind.livejournal.com]

They were spoofing PotC a bit, the same way they were spoofing X-files in the previous episode and Indiana Jones in the series finale. But yeah, it's pretty annying how the Peoplez of the Internetz seem to think PotC invented pirates. It was a joke on the whole pirate meme, it even had space pirates, chrissake.

I point and laugh at people who think Rory's an Auton. Come on, Big Bang was not that complicated.

[madkatstar-pir8.livejournal.com]

"Ripped off" sounds a little harsh. I loved the episode, but there were some similarities I noticed. And yes, I HAVE read Treasure Island. I read it as a kid and again in high school and It's still one of my favorite pirate books.

However, in Treasure Island, the black spot only appears on a piece of paper. The idea of the black spot appearing supernaturally on one's hand is a POTC thing only, as is the idea of it signaling a monster of some sort to coming take the person away.
Also, the scene where Toby finds out his dad is a pirate was just like Will. It was almost exactly the same.

But it didn't bother me. I just sort of went "oh, haha, that's so PotC!" and continued enjoying myself. The rest of the episode is plenty different enough anyway. And I can't complain about Amy's outfit being so similar to Liz's because Amy wears it pretty well too. And I love them both. ;) I just saw the few similarities as being more like an homage to PotC.

[biggles1025.livejournal.com]

I HAVE read Treasure Island and I still think they were homaging/referenceing/paying tribute to/captialtizing on POTC. Just doing a pirate-themed episode wouldn't have made it so blatant, but there were waaaaay too many POTC-ish things in there for it to be a coincidence. And I believe they did it all on purpose. But I wouldn't say "ripped off." I'd say "homaged," as I did above. ;)

But my own problems with the episode can all be chalked up to the way things are on DW these days, not any kind of similarities to POTC.

[captaintish]

LOL, people are calling him an Auton?

[meshell-mybell.livejournal.com]

I'm in with the group that thinks that poor Rory is quickly becoming the 'Kenny' of the TARDIS.

'They killed Rory! You Bastards!!!'

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Well, I definitely need to watch again. I just thought it was a fun romp. It wasn't the best episode ever but I enjoyed it. However, I had also just watched a classic episode from 1964 so my expectations might have been lowered.

[wldcatsprstr-14.livejournal.com]

Oh I won't say I didn't enjoy it. I did. There are few eps of DW that I don't enjoy. But I still make it my business to point out the fail. That's half the fun lol.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

I suppose partially...

It was supposed to air in the fall and they moved it to now because all the other episodes are heavy drama and this one was lighter. I know this isn't bullshit because the last two episodes were crazy dark and the next episode is written by Neil Gaiman.

Plus, they were overdue for real seafaring pirates, in almost 48 years, they've had Trojans, Vikings, cave people but no honest to goodness seafaring pirates.

Then, again, I know the head has definitely seen POTC since he created characters named Captain Jack and Sally Sparrow but for other episodes.

Also, why has no one complained that Bones, The Glades and Castle all had buried treasure plotlines in the last twelve months? I found that way lazier.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

At first, I thought the music was similar but then I thought about the POTC music was inspired by the old sea shanties and things so it was possible they were both inspired by the same things and not each other.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

Though it wasn't just the tune that was similar, it was also the orchestration...

[zakath-nath.livejournal.com]

It wasn't a great episode but I enjoyed it. It's not a rip-off at all but the allusions to PotC are clearly assumed and it's fine like that. No "oh, we make a pirate story the same year the new PotC is released? It's not deliberate".

The title is an evident wink to the first movie, the music in the end is very "Zimmerian", the black spot appears like in DMC (even if T&T thought to Treasure Island when they wrote DMC. But in DW, no ink and paper) etc.

So it's not an insult to the writer of this episode to said that he was inspired by PotC and not by Treasure Island. But it wasn't plagiarism. The references to the movies were there to be spotted.

(However, the resolution wasn't original: rather similar to the nature of the threat in The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dance. People didn't complain about that?)

[maddarilke.livejournal.com]

I honestly haven't been paying attention. When did Rory become human again? LOL

[goldenmoonrose.livejournal.com]

If you are one of the people who complained that Doctor Who ripped off Pirates of the Caribbean last night, then I KNOW you have never read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Yep, had to educate a friend about that, that the black spot was from Treasure Island.

That having a pirate episode is copying POTC is such a lame complaint.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

I know!!!

Everyone complained about the POTC "plagiarism" but when the Doctor wanted the other doctor to realize Amy was married to Rory and it was just like Nancy and Jamie?

NOT A PEEP!!!