Captain Avery

The Doctor, after receiving a distress call, materialises the TARDIS in the hold of a 17th-century pirate ship stranded in the middle of the ocean due to the lack of wind. Its captain, Captain Henry Avery, and what is left of his crew, fear a seductive siren-like creature that marks those injured with a black spot on the palm of their hands, then appears and apparently kills them - but leaving no trace of its victim.

After being accused of being stowaways, The Doctor is forced to walk the plank while Rory is held captive and Amy is placed back in the hold. There she discovers a cutlass and a pirate outfit.

Just as The Doctor is about to fall into the sea Amy starts to tussle with the crew. But in the swordfight, a pirate and Rory both receive cuts from Amy’s cutlass. When a black mark appears on their hands they start to act strangely. Then the siren appears from the water and the injured pirate is seduced into touching the siren. When he does he disintegrates in a cloud of smoke.

Walking the Plank

To prevent Rory ending up the same way The Doctor orders everyone inside the ship, believing them to be safe away from open water, but the siren appears through seeped water and takes another crew member when he becomes injured by a leech in the water.

The Doctor, Amy, Rory, Captain Avery and the remaining crew then secure themselves in the ship’s magazine where it is dry. There, they discover Captain Avery’s son, Toby, who had stowed away aboard the ship, unaware that his father is a pirate, and so of his illicit deeds. Though uninjured Toby has come down with a fever and it is discovered that he shares a similar black mark on his palm.

Amy is Captured

The Doctor and Captain Avery, after a brief conflict over who is in charge, leave the others to try to bring the TARDIS to them. While they are gone the remaining pirates start to fight amongst themselves so creating more victims for the siren.

Meanwhile The Doctor and Captain Avery make it safely inside the TARDIS. But The Doctor finds that his time machine is acting haphazardly and they are forced to evacuate it before the TARDIS dematerialises to an unknown location. As they return to the others, The Doctor realises that the siren is using reflections to appear to them, such as that created by still water or the shiny metal and gems of the treasure acquired by the pirates. Realising the others are in danger they race back to warn the others. On there way they discover that a mutiny is taking place - but Captain Avery puts a stop to it resulting in the last of the pirates succumbing to the siren. The Doctor then starts to destroy any reflective surface on the ship and he insists that all of Avery’s treasure is thrown overboard.

A storm then begins, and Captain Avery has Amy, Rory, and The Doctor help him to hoist the sails to allow them to leave. However, in the chaos, Toby, while trying to bring his father his coat, drops a polished crown from it. The siren then emerges from it and Toby disintegrates when the small boy comes into contact with the siren. Then as the storm rages Rory is hit by a yardarm and falls into the ocean. Amy attempts to jump in after him but is stopped by The Doctor who rationalises that the siren has shown intelligence and will likely get to Rory before he drowns. The Doctor convinces Amy and Captain Avery to prick themselves to allow the siren to take them as well so they can negotiate with it.

Amy to the Rescue

They soon find themselves aboard an alien spaceship, its crew long dead from exposure to an Earth virus. The Doctor surmises the spaceship, the source of the distress signal, is trapped at the same time-space coordinates as Captain Avery’s ship. Furthermore, the siren uses mirror-like portals to travel between the two ships.

As they explore further they discover a room where all of Captain Avery’s men, including Toby and Rory, are in medical care, along with the TARDIS. As deduced by The Doctor they were taken by the siren, the black spot being a tissue sample for reference. However, when they try to rescue Rory, the siren appears and turns violent on them. The Doctor realises the siren is a medical program, seeking to heal the injured crew.

The Doctor and Amy manage to convince the siren to turn Rory over to their care, while Captain Avery decides to stay with his son and his crew in the spaceship. He is unable to go back to England himself while the spaceship will care for his crew. The pirates therefore start to explore the stars in the spaceship.

Using Rory’s nursing knowledge, Amy and The Doctor are able to revive Rory after he is removed from the life support. As they continue their journey in the TARDIS, Amy confides to Rory that they still cannot talk to The Doctor about his future death, while The Doctor secretly carries out another pregnancy scan on Amy. But like before the results prove inconclusive.