Review: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

I really need to learn how to do those damn cut-outs for spoilers.


Fair warning: spoilers follow.




































Okay, that ought to do it.

Still there?

The second episode of Series Seven of "Doctor Who" was entitled "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and it is true to its title.

It was written by Chris Chibnall, who has written a few tepid "Doctor Who" episodes ("Cold Blood" and "The Hungry Earth") as well as some "Torchwood" stuff.

Not really putting him in my list of favorites for "Doctor Who" writers.

This ep redeemed him in my eyes.

So on to the spoilery stuff.

The Doctor is in ancient Egypt and hanging out with Queen Nefertiti when he receives a signal. He quickly leaves, but Nefertiti accompanies him. The Doctor does a stopover in Africa(?) where he picks up his friend, the big game hunter Riddell (played by "Sherlock" actor Rupert Graves) before picking up the Ponds.

A slight snag: Amy and Rory are getting a visit from Rory's father Brian. And Brian gets pulled along on the trip.

The "gang" winds up on a derelict spacecraft on a collision course with Earth. The Doctor is going to try to stop the ship from hitting the Earth before the Earth's forces blast it with missiles.

Oh, and the ship has dinosaurs on it.

Hijinx ensue.

Turns out the ship is Silurian in origin. There's no longer Silurians on board, though. A disreputable sort of fellow named Solomon (who looks human, but apparently isn't) and his bickering robots took over the ship and removed (read: killed) the Silurian crew. He's planning on selling the dinosaurs.

There's a bit of back-and-forth as well as some father-son bonding with Rory and Brian.

Of course, things end pretty much as one might expect. It's a bit darker than the re-imagined "Doctor Who" has generally been in that the Doctor gets pretty hard-core, albeit justifiably so.

Personally, I liked the episode a lot. I enjoyed the pacing, the plot, the twists, and the fact that there was a truly despicable villain in the core of the story. One of my complaints about the revived series is the lack of truly despicable villains, especially under Moffatt's reign.

This episode brought some of that magic back.

Good job, Mr. Chibnall. I hope your next endeavor is just as solid.