‘DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Dinosaurs with the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory

This ‘Doctor Who’ episode is by Chris Chibnall, and it literally features ‘dinosaurs on a spaceship’. I’m glad this episode did what it did in terms of its title compared to other stories like ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’. 😀

Chris is well-known for writing the Silurians’ return in ‘The Hungry Earth’/’Cold Blood’ and he was head writer on the first two seasons of ‘Torchwood’. Here, Chris writes a rollicking and bonkers adventure with Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory.

Our heroes find and investigate a spaceship containing dinosaurs on its way to Earth. It turns out to be a Silurian Ark, as the Silurians were looking for a new home assuming Earth would be destroyed.

A futuristic human military space station intends to destroy this spaceship before it crashes to Earth. The Doctor learns of this mystery and gets help from Amy, Rory and new friends who join them.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory are joined by Riann Steele as Queen Nefertiti of Egypt and Rupert Graves as African explorer John Riddelll. They’re also joined by Mark Williams as Brian Williams, Rory’s dad.

Not only do our heroes find dinosaurs on board, but also paranoid and badly mannered robots. They’re owned by David Bradley as Soloman, who’s got a ship that boarded the Silurian Ark first.

It was great to see Mark Williams as Rory’s dad, Brian Williams. Mark had played Maxwell Edison in the ‘The Eternal Summer’ (the second story in ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’) with Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton.

Mark plays Brian so well, who is a loveable dad for Rory. He’s initially shocked that he and Amy have travelled in time and space with the Doctor. But he helps out in saving the world and rather enjoys it

One my favourite scenes with Brian is where he sits in the TARDIS and looks at a view of the Earth with sandwiches and tea. It’s refreshing to have Brian as a new member of the ‘Doctor Who’ family.

It was equally great to see David Bradley as Soloman. David has been in a BBC production of ‘Our Mutual Friend’ with Paul McGann and he later played William Hartnell in ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’.

Soloman is a wretched old man in command of a star ship. He seems to be on the verge of death at first before it turns out he’s a vagabond who killed the Silurians aboard their Ark when he boarded.

Soloman wants the dinosaurs and Queen Nefertiti of Egypt too. He kills a Triceratops to get what he wants from the Doctor. The Doctor soon stops Solomon and saves the dinosaurs and Nefertiti.

This is a really enjoyable ‘Doctor Who’ episode. It has moments of laughter and sadness. I enjoyed it when Brian was sniffed at by Tricey the Triceratops and when the Doctor, Rory and Brian ride on her.

There are some nice character touches to Amy and Rory’s characters. Chris Chibnall writes well for Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill’s characters compared how they were in their outings in previous seasons.

I liked it when Amy works things out and has to content with Nefertiti and Riddell as her companions beside her. This is a very thrilling ‘Doctor Who’ episode and is certainly something worthy to enjoy.

The DVD/Blu-ray special features for this episode are as follows. There’s the ‘Raptors, Robots and a Bumpy Ride’ behind-the-scenes featurette.

‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ rating – 9/10

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The previous story For the Eleventh Doctor was ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ (TV) For Amy was ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ (TV) For Rory was ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ (TV)	The next story For the Eleventh Doctor is ‘The Eagle of the Reich’ (Comic) For Amy is ‘The Eagle of the Reich’ (Comic) For Rory is ‘The Eagle of the Reich’ (Comic)
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