In all honesty, I have some very mixed feelings about this episode.
For the first half hour, this is a pretty good episode - never mind the obligatory mention of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. There are some pretty surreal, almost chilling moments that happen, there are some clever touches, great lines, and it's a pretty solid episode. Performances are good, and the plot moves in a nice, what-the-heck-is-going-on manner.
But the last fifteen minutes - it seems like a non-stop collection of classic Who references, as well as a call-back to Whithouse's past Who work.
It's always tough writing a negative review - in my recent column for Comic Related, I was asked why I thought Torchwood: Miracle Day was so bad, because the person enjoyed it....which leads to one of my biggest pet peeves.
Just because someone likes a show does not necessarily mean that they have to like every single episode. Some episodes work, others don't - this is an episode that works well for a point, and then seemingly drops the ball.
But there's one good thing about this episode - I'm now finding Curse of the Black Spot not so bad....