Inspirations: Curse of the Black Spot

The Curse of the Black Spot is a prequel to the 1966 William Hartnell story The Smugglers, only in that it shows an adventure with pirate captain Henry Avery. It's claimed in the Season 3 story that he is long dead - but of course it may simply be that he's off exploring outer space with his son and his final Earthbound crew.

Like The Smugglers, it is also very much a genre-history story, in that it tries to cram in lots of stereotypical pirate lore - from fiction and real life.

Henry Every, aka Avery, who was known as "King of the Pirates", was born in August 1659.

Like many of his contemporaries, he started off as a legitimate sailor serving with the Navy, but realised over time that he could make more money on the wrong side of the law. His first move was into the slave trade - so it's disturbing that the series makes him out to become a friend of the Doctor's.

Piracy followed a successful mutiny and seizure of the Charles II, which became the Fancy.

The mention of the Grand Mughul's treasure refer to events in 1695 when Avery captured a pair of Indian ships laden with loot - the biggest prize ever won by any pirate captain.

Whilst the fate of most pirates is known - killed in action or captured and executed - Avery simply disappeared after 1696. One rumour had it that he died in poverty back in England after being embezzled of his share of the treasure.

Another rumour had him settle in the Americas. Coins from the treasure have turned up in Rhode Island, and it's known that some of his crew made it to New England.

Whilst known to have married, there is no record of him ever having any children, let alone a son named Toby.

Interestingly, if you do Google Images for Avery, Hugh Bonneville in this story seems to have been adopted as an image of the historical figure (left):

The "Black Spot" derives from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, which includes the most famous literary pirate - Long John Silver. The spot in the novel is a mark on a piece of parchment which signals that the person given it is doomed to die.

Walking the plank is a popular form of execution for pirates in fiction (previously seen in The Pirate Planet and Enlightenment), but it has its roots in fact.

It was used both by and against mutineers (mentions going back to the mid-18th Century), only becoming popular with pirates in the 19th Century.

The Siren proves to be a misguided automated medical system - something we'll see again very soon in the second half of the series.

In Greek mythology - namely The Odyssey - they appear to be beautiful women with alluring voices. They enticed sailors to their doom as their ships crashed onto the rocks. Their voices were also said to drive people insane (as in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad). In ancient times they had the upper portions of women, with the lower parts those of a bird - with or without wings.

It was only later in the Medieval period that they transformed into mermaid-like creatures with fish tails.

A Cornish mermaid tale - the Mermaid of Zennor - was one of the main inspirations for the writer, Steve Thompson.

Rory dies yet again, and is brought back to life yet again, and we have an appearance by the mysterious Eye-Patch Lady, who will form part of the story arc for the first half of the season, which was to be split in two sections either side of the Summer.

Next time: The Doctor finally gets to meet the true love of his life...