By Will Barber – Taylor

Brian Williams: “What sort of man doesn’t carry a trowel?”

The Doctor, Amy, Rory, Queen Nefertiti , Ridell and Brian Williams, (Rory’s rather bemused father) depart on a mission to save planet Earth from a spaceship flying towards the planet. They soon discover a cargo that is unique in the universe: living dinosaurs. Can The Doctor save Earth and save the dinosaurs before Earth defence forces destroy the ship?

A mixture between “Primeval” and “Indiana Jones”, “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” is in fact much better than I originally thought it would be.  A mixture between good CGI and a rather nicely paced story means that “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” keeps you hooked to the end. My only two niggles are, firstly, that there were too many companions. We had not just the Ponds, but Rory’s father, Ridell the big game hunter (played excellently by Rupert Graves) and Queen Nefertiti. All the characters were played excellently by the actors but most of them were not needed. Indeed, it did feel that characters had been created simply for the sake of it; luckily for the actors, almost equal screen time was given to all the “gang”.

My other niggle was the robots. They did not at all seem necessary and though played well by David Mitchell and Robert Webb, again they seemed like pointless characters and were simply there for comic effect.  Apart from that, the episode was very good and I look forward to more Chris Chibnall penned episodes.

David Bradley was fantastic as the villain of the piece, Solomon. Although we were not really given any back story, Bradley plays to the strengths of the character making him slightly more sinister. This stems mainly from the scene where he first encounters The Doctor. Bradley plays the scene brilliantly, making sure that the character is not just a cardboard cut-out villain. Solomon is a true villain and does not want to seek redemption. However, the fact that The Doctor kills him rather cold bloodedly at the end is particularly out of character and did not fit in with the light heartedness of the rest of the episode.

All in all, “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” is a good episode with some nice twists and turns; however, this reviewer feels it would have been a lot better if some of those little darlings had been killed before it was broadcast.

NEXT TIME…

A Town Called Mercy

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