Confronted with a title like "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" for the latest episode of Doctor Who, what are we to expect? Is this going to be like the movie SNAKES ON A PLANE starring Samuel L. Jackson, which I never bothered to see? What, after all, was it going to be except for Mr. Jackson shouting "Get these {expletive} snakes off my {expletive} plane!"? Was it going to be like Series 5's "The Vampires of Venice", which had no vampires? Like Series 6's "Let's Kill Hitler" in which show runner Steven Moffat's script did no such thing? Or like his Series 6 script "The Wedding of River Song" which he insisted couldn't be anything else, because he would never mislead his audience? An accurate come-on or a blatant lie, like the title of this review?
Well, there is a spaceship and there are dinosaurs on it: lots of dinosaurs. I suspect that the production office cut a deal with ITV's PRIMEVAL. Otherwise they went way over budget for the excellent CGI critters.
Now that I've answered that question, how was the episode as a whole? The first twenty minutes are brilliantly confusing as the Doctor discovers that a spaceship is about to crash into the earth in the 24th century and brings along Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, an English big-game hunter, Amy Pond, Rory Williams and Rory's befuddled dad -- the last by accident -- to help him investigate a Silurian ship with no Silurians on it, all before the planetary defenses blow the ship up. It's a beautiful set-up and very enjoyable.
Unhappily, while the rest of the episode maintains the breakneck pace, there are too few grace notes. There is simply too much plot for a one part show and probably not enough for two. In the days of the original series, this might have been handled better, as the serial format based on twenty-five minute episodes would have managed this nicely as a three-parter -- one and a half episodes in the new format.
Still, the show is very amusing, if not among the best of the revived series. Matt Smith's Doctor is ever more alien and amusing and the characters introduced here interact well, if a bit telegraphically. I expect the settled fan to be pleased and any new viewers to be intrigued.
Well, there is a spaceship and there are dinosaurs on it: lots of dinosaurs. I suspect that the production office cut a deal with ITV's PRIMEVAL. Otherwise they went way over budget for the excellent CGI critters.
Now that I've answered that question, how was the episode as a whole? The first twenty minutes are brilliantly confusing as the Doctor discovers that a spaceship is about to crash into the earth in the 24th century and brings along Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, an English big-game hunter, Amy Pond, Rory Williams and Rory's befuddled dad -- the last by accident -- to help him investigate a Silurian ship with no Silurians on it, all before the planetary defenses blow the ship up. It's a beautiful set-up and very enjoyable.
Unhappily, while the rest of the episode maintains the breakneck pace, there are too few grace notes. There is simply too much plot for a one part show and probably not enough for two. In the days of the original series, this might have been handled better, as the serial format based on twenty-five minute episodes would have managed this nicely as a three-parter -- one and a half episodes in the new format.
Still, the show is very amusing, if not among the best of the revived series. Matt Smith's Doctor is ever more alien and amusing and the characters introduced here interact well, if a bit telegraphically. I expect the settled fan to be pleased and any new viewers to be intrigued.