Doctor Who Recap: “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”

by Sarabeth Pollock:

Doctor Who Recap: “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”
Original Air Date (BBC): Saturday September 8, 2012
Series 7 Episode 2

I have been excited about this episode of Doctor Who since the BBC previewed it in Hall H at Comic Con.  It was brilliant to watch the clip on the big screen, and Matt Smith’s enthusiastic “I know! Dinosaurs, on a spaceship!” sent the audience into an apoplectic round of applause.  Needless to say, I have been waiting for this episode, and writer Chris Chibnall did not disappoint.

We start our adventure in 1334 BCE, Egypt.  A breathless Queen Nefertiti tries to keep the Doctor from leaving her.  His psychic paper sent him a message that has him excited.  But Nefi isn’t ready to leave quite yet….

Jump to 2367 AD, International Space Agency.  There’s a ship the size of Canada heading for Earth.  Attempts to contact it have failed.  If it continues on this course, Officer Indira must file missiles at it to defend the planet.  This doesn’t sit well with the Doctor.

The Doctor encounters John Riddell in the African Plains, circa 1902.  Riddell is a big game hunter, and he can’t resist the Doctor’s promise of adventure.

Next we see the Ponds in their living room, holding a ladder while Rory’s dad, Brian, fixes an overhead light.  Rory tries to offer advice, which his dad dismisses.  On the contrary, Brian chastises Rory for wiggling the ladder, while he offers high praise to Amy for holding her side so still.  Obviously Rory has been trying hard to curry favor with his dad.  They’re interrupted, however, when they suddenly hear the familiar whooshing sound of the TARDIS.  The Doctor sweeps them onto the TARDIS, eschewing a long and formal greeting because they have arrived….

….On some kind of spaceship, one, notes the Doctor, that has spiders on it.  You never saw spiders on the Enterprise, so obviously something is amiss on this vessel.  But then the Doctor spins around and confronts an intruder—Brian.  But Brian’s not an intruder, Rory interrupts, he is his dad.  Greetings are exchanged—“this is the gang, I’ve got a gang,” the Doctor tells the Ponds.  Rory has to quickly explain it all to a befuddled Brian as they explore the ship.  The newlyweds didn’t go traveling in Thailand, Rory, tells his dad…they were traveling on with the Doctor.  Suddenly a large door opens, and the Gang stands by to see what happens.

There before them stand two dinosaurs—species Anklyosaurus, the club-tailed dinosaurs, thank you very much!—about to charge.  As Amy tries to pull the Doctor away from the sight of such exciting creatures, he utters the line we have been waiting for: “Dinosaurs, on a spaceship!”

Big game hunter Riddell (now we know why the Doctor brought him along) wants to take out one of the dinos with his knife, but the Doctor stops him.  These creatures are extinct—they must be preserved.  Of course, this doesn’t mean much to Riddell, who wants to know who will preserve the human gang on the ship from extinction.  The Doctor finds a computer screen and starts searching for the engines. Suddenly, he, Rory and Brian materialize on a very familiar-looking beach.  (Bad Wolf Bay, anyone?)  It appears that they are on earth, but something doesn’t seem right.  The Doctor takes off to study the rocks nearby, telling Rory and Brian to dig.  No problem for Handyman Brian, who carries a collapsible trowel in his pants…because that’s normal….  Guess what?  There is a floor under the beach.  Hmm.

Somewhere else on the ship, a man is watching from some kind of sick bed.  He demands that the Doctor be brought to him.

Elsewhere, Amy, Nefi and Riddell search the ship for clues.  Riddell has no idea that he is in the presence of two very strong women, and he digs himself a huge hole when he informs them that he doesn’t take orders from females.  Amy tells Nefertiti that she learned all about her in school.  Nefi is famous.  Amy informs Riddell that a hunter who kills defenseless animals doesn’t even register in the history books, which probably had members of PETA jumping for joy.  Nefi wants to know if Amy is a queen…. Of course she is!

Back on the beach, the group finds a computer screen in the rocks.  They were sent to the beach because the Doctor asked to see the engines, and this massive ship has hydrogenerators that pull energy from the crashing waves.  That’s good to know, but what they really need is the control room.  Especially because there are pterodactyls flying toward them….  What’s fun about the scene is watching how easily Brian adapts to being part of the group.  The Doctor says run, so off they all go into a cave…where they are trapped by two very cross robots.

Amy, Nefi and Riddell enter a room overtaken by a jungle.  Amy takes charge and starts pushing buttons on the computer console.  Traveling With the Doctor 101: push any and all available buttons.  Soon Amy loads the ship’s data record, where it is revealed that the ship was actually a Silurian ark carrying cryogenically frozen cargo.

The Doctor tells the cross robots that they belong on the “naughty step” for capturing the group.  Brian wonders if they have an escape plan, but Rory tells his father that being caught will allow them an opportunity to learn about their captors.  The Doctor beams with pride at his protégé.  How far Rory has come!  Suddenly a big lumbering Triceratops approaches them.  The Doctor’s eyes fill with warmth as the creature approaches and accepts the Doctor’s fond caresses.  He’s like a giant Saint Bernard, and just like a member of the canine family he starts sniffing Brian’s crotch.  Have you got any vegetable matter in your trousers? asks the Doctor.  Brian stares at him.  No, he replies, he just has his balls.  Wait, what!? Rory covers his face with his hand while the Doctor’s eyes become as wide as saucers.  Brian holds up golf balls.  He has golf balls in his trousers.  Good thing, too, because Tricie wants to play fetch.  Once the dinosaur has been dispatched to chase Brian’s balls (sorry, I couldn’t resist), the Doctor turns to the robots. “Take us to your leader,” he commands.  That was too good for him to resist.

Amy discovers that there are fifty species on board the Silurian ark, and only one of those species is having trouble acclimating.   The ship’s mission is to repopulate these previously lost species, but something went wrong.  When Nefi and Riddell stop bickering and start flirting, Amy becomes exasperated and tells them that she won’t tolerate flirting companions.  Et tu, Amy?  Nefi and Amy soon realize that the thousands of life forms that had been on the ship initially have disappeared, and now there is a spacecraft at the center of the ship.  This ship has been boarded by something else.

The lilting notes of the Fantasia Suite fill the air as the robots guide the Doctor into a room.  Rory and Brian are locked outside the door.  A man is lying on a hospital bed, wheezing in pain.  His name is Solomon and he’s the captain of the ship.  Three raptors attacked him and the robots saved his life, but the dinosaurs chewed through his bones and he can’t walk.  He needs a doctor.  That’s when the Doctor realizes that Solomon thinks he’s a real doctor, a Doctor Doctor.  Once he takes stock of the situation, the Doctor agrees that his wounds are “very nasty,” but before he heals Solomon, he wants to know more about the dinosaurs.  Solomon isn’t playing games.  He tells the robots to injure the older human, so the robots open fire on Brian.  “Fix me,” Solomon warns, “or the next bolt will be fatal.”  Nurse Rory jumps into action, threatening the robots (scaring one to the point where a little oil dripped out…).  While his father may carry a trowel in his pockets, Rory travels with a medical pack.  This is a chance for Rory to show off his nursing skills to his father, and even better he gets to do it in space.

While the Doctor works, Solomon explains that his ship became embedded in the vessel.  His job is to find things of value across time and space and sell them to the highest bidder.  He can even tell the Doctor how much he’s worth…but the scan doesn’t recognize the Doctor.  “That’s me, worthless,” agrees the Doctor, sounding more like Nine than Eleven.

Amy calls Rory’s cell phone, and she tells the Doctor that the ship is a Silurian ark, and that it’s full of life pods.  Solomon confirms that bit of information, only he goes a step further and says that he systematically jettisoned the pods from the ship, leaving a trail of “dust and bones.”  He wanted the dinosaurs so badly that he went from committing piracy to committing genocide.  The problem is that he can’t control the ship.  He thinks he can threaten the Doctor, but what Solomon doesn’t know is that the ship is heading back to its place of origin—Earth—and the Earth, to protect itself, is prepared to fire missiles at it.  Solomon is effectively a prisoner on the very ship he hijacked.  The Doctor is able to gather up the Williams men and escape, with the two bumbling robots in hot pursuit.  The trio catch a ride on Tricie (“they’ve stolen a dinosaur!” the robots shout), who happily fetches the ball for them, which in turns helps them to escape.

Meanwhile, the ISA is monitoring the situation.  The ship has entered Earth’s atmosphere and they must launch the attack.  Indira tells the Doctor goodbye, despite the Doctor’s impassioned pleas to save the precious cargo onboard.

Riddell finds a locker full of stun guns.  He and Amy arm themselves.  Nefi asks Amy is she is the Doctor’s queen, and Amy tells her that she’s Rory’s queen (but she asks to keep that on the down low, because Rory would never let her live that down).  Does the Doctor have a queen, then? Nefi wonders.  Well, actually, yes, he does, but that’s an entirely different story….

Rory tinkers with the computer screen.  Doesn’t this ship have defenses? He wonders.  The Doctor pauses, then he becomes jubilant as an idea pops into his head.  He’s so excited that he plants a very sloppy kiss on Rory’s mouth, which shocks the hell out of Rory (the Doctor is, after all, his son-in-law).

Solomon shows up and acknowledges that the missiles have been launched.  He plans on leaving the Silurian vessel to be destroyed while he escapes on his own ship.  That would mean that the dinosaurs would also be killed, but they aren’t valuable anymore.  Solomon has set his sights on the Queen of Egypt herself, Nefertiti.  When the Doctor refuses to give her up, Solomon gives a signal to the robots, who shoot and kill Tricie.  The Doctor is horrified.  “You must be proud,” he sneers at Solomon.

Amy, Nefi and Riddell suddenly materialize with the rest of the group.  Solomon makes his wishes known, and Nefi decides to go with him to save the others.  The Doctor protests, arguing that he can’t keep her safe if she leaves.  But she demands that they let her go.  The Doctor has helped her save her kingdom, so she believes that she owes him this favor.

Once Solomon leaves with Nefi, the group teleports to the control deck.  The Doctor is concocting a plan on the fly, one that requires him to save the ship, save the dinosaurs, rescue Nefi, and protect the gang.  He sends Riddell out to monitor the dinosaurs while he asks the Ponds to clear away the cobwebs.  Riddell goes out into the outer chamber, and he finds himself face to face with a pod of raptors.  The scene is very reminiscent of ever raptor encounter in Jurassic Park.

The Silurian vessel requires that two people with similar DNA operate the flight control mechanisms on the ship.  That’s why Solomon couldn’t pilot the ship.  Brian has a plan—he and Rory share DNA so they can drive the ship.  The Doctor makes a joke about it being so easy, monkeys could fly the thing…which they are.  Ha ha.  As he works, the Doctor asks Amy about her job.  He’s multitasking.  She tells him she quit her job because it’s too hard to keep it up when all she’s ever doing is listening for the familiar whoosh of the TARDIS.  She wonders if the longer absences between visits are an attempt to wean the Ponds away from the Doctor, which the Doctor scoffs at (talk about foreshadowing…).  The Doctor promises Amy that she’ll be with him until the end of him.  His eyes darken when she says that it could be vice versa.  Amy goes out to help Riddell with the raptors, telling him to “shut up and shoot.”  Brian and Rory delight in flying the ship together—“we’re flying a spaceship!” Brian exclaims.

Meanwhile, the ISA confirms that the missiles have locked onto their targets and will arrive in seven minutes….

Flying a spaceship, according to Brian, is better than golf!

Nefi has had quite enough of Solomon’s patronizing.  She knocks his cane out from under him as the Doctor arrives to save her.  “Don’t mess with an Egyptian queen,” he tells Solomon.  The Doctor switches the signal so that the missiles will lock onto Solomon’s ship instead of the Silurian ship.  Solomon thinks the Doctor is bluffing, but the Doctor is very, very angry.  “Enjoy your bounty,” he tells him before he seals the hatch and sends Solomon’s ship out away from the Silurian ark.  The missiles lock on and Solomon’s ship is destroyed.

Crisis averted, it’s time to return the dinosaurs.  Amy and Rory don’t want to go on a lengthy adventure.  They need a few months.  Brian, however, has a few requests.  The scene cuts to Brian sitting on the doorstep of the TARDIS eating his lunch above the Earth’s orbit.  Amy and Rory look out from behind him, and behind them, the Doctor looks out at them with concern.  Something is coming….

Next we see John Riddell outside his tent.  He’s smiling.  Nefertiti steps out of the tent, wielding the stun gun/rifle and bearing a smile of her own.

The Ponds hang another postcard on the wall.  So far they have pictures of Brian at several major monuments around the world (and presumably from different time periods).  The newest one features the dinosaurs on Siluria.

So, fellow Whovians, what did you think of tonight’s show?  Last week you’ll recall that the Doctor Who title sequence had changed so that the font resembled a Dalek.  Tonight the font resembled dinosaur skin.  Cool!  I’ll admit, this episode had me laughing a lot, but when Tricie died I was near tears.  Damn you, Stephen Moffat and Chris Chibnall, for playing with our emotions!  That was just as sad as when the ant died in Honey, I Shrunk the Kid!

It would seem that the stage is being set for the show to go in a whole new direction.  There was some pretty intense foreshadowing between the Doctor and the Ponds, and this week Solomon’s computer was unable to figure out the Doctor’s value.  His memory was wiped out of the Dalek hive last week, so it looks like something big is coming.

As always, I am eager to know your thoughts.  What do you think about all of the foreshadowing in tonight’s episode?

Until next week….Geronimo!

Sarabeth Pollock is a contributor for DarkMedia. She covers True Blood, Doctor Who, Fringe and American Horror Story, as well as the True Blood comics and whatever movies and books happen to catch her fancy.  She’s an avid writer, reader, and pop culture fan, with interest in everything from True Blood to Doctor Who to Anne Rice to Deborah Harkness.  Follow her on Twitter at @SarabethPollock and check out her blog at http://sarabethpollock.wordpress.com