Doctor Who - Series 7 Episode 2 - Video Recap and Review - Dinosaurs On A Spaceship

Another week, another Doctor Who that plays more like a well-crafted action movie than the thinking-man's sci-fi show it so often is. Case in point, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," or what could have just as easily been called "Jurassic Ark," as it weaves a Silurian space ark, shiftless space pirates, Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, and a rather posh big game hunter into a fast-paced story on a spaceship the size of Canada. It's been ten months since The Doctor (Matt Smith) last visited the Ponds, and in that time he's foiled a locust attack in Egypt circa 1334 B.C., earning him the affections of Queen Nefertiti (Rian Steele), while later stopping by the African plains circa 1902 A.D. for advice from his hunter friend John Riddell (Rupert Graves). The issue in question? The titular spaceship, which is careening towards Earth in 2367 A.D., and will be blown to smithereens in six hours by a military force tasked with the protection of Earth, unless The Doctor can infiltrate the ship and figure out what's going on. Queen Nefertiti and John Riddell are up for an adventure, and The Doctor is on the case - but not before making a quick stop to pick up the Ponds (in traditional Doctor style, he fails to phone ahead, or given any kind of forewarning whatsoever). Of course, in his haste, The Doctor fails to realize that he hasn't just brought Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) on board, but also Rory's handyman father, Brian Williams (Mark Williams), who'd been helping around the house.

What "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship" does so well in between its bigger moments are the character beats that tell you everything you need to know about the characters' relationships without directly telling you much of anything at all. For much of the episode, there's a bit of a disconnect between Rory and his father, with Rory finding it hard to understand why his father carries around all these pointless tools with him at all times, while Brian doesn't understand why his son wouldn't carry these tools - never mind how surprised he is to find that his son, a hospital nurse, would actually carry around a first aid kit. Father and son clearly love and respect one another, but they don't really have anything they share together. That's why the climax, in which Rory and Brian's shared genetic link allows them to pilot the crashing Silurian ship together, is so satisfying. It's an action sequence, yes (and an awfully convenient one, to boot, since they'd have been royally screwed if a father and his son hadn't been there), but it's framed around personal stories, making the sequences that much more enriching for the unspoken character conflicts they resolve. As The Doctor parks the TARDIS above the Earth, father and son (and Amy) share an unspoiled view of their home planet below. It's a beautiful, understated resolution to the story, and is a fine conclusion to the episode, in its own right.

However, that still leaves The Doctor and Amy's conversation, where Amy is convinced that the increasingly infrequent visits from The Doctor is an attempt on his part to wean them off of him before breaking off completely. The Doctor promises that this isn't the case, that the Ponds have their own life and he wanted to give them a chance to live it. He declares that he'll still be around, adding that the Ponds will be with him til the end of his days. "Or vice versa," Amy adds, jokingly. But the heartbroken look on The Doctor's face indicates that perhaps it's The Doctor who's trying to wean himself off of the Ponds. Matt Smith, even more so than David Tennant, I'd wager, plays "the heartbroken Doctor" the best. Maybe he just has a mopier appearance, or maybe it's in the contrast to the exuberance of his usual, cheery persona, but Smith nails that quietly devastated look, as if to ask Amy not to force him to consider the possibility of her no longer being around. He needs the Ponds to keep him in line (which really is his reasoning behind having companions in the first place), but he doesn't want to be the one to get them killed. Yet it doesn't seem like The Doctor can really help himself, where the Ponds are concerned. Besides, as Amy says, "I can't not wait for you. Even now." Amy Pond, always the girl who waited. And The Doctor, ever the Raggedy Man.

The bulk of the action, however, is not focused on these character moments, but instead on the titular spaceship, which is a Silurian Ark bearing precious cargo, i.e., dinosaurs. As the gang discovers, the ship had once been populated by Silurians, until they mysteriously vanished. The Doctor discovers that a space pirate named Solomon (David Bradley) boarded the ship, discovered the cargo being carried, and decided to take the ship for himself, jettisoning the Silurians onboard in an act of genocide. However, Solomon became a prisoner on the ship when he tried to change course without the proper protocols, and now he needs The Doctor to fix his mangled legs, the result of an unfortunate raptor attack.

Solomon is a pretty good one-off villain here, since it isn't only genocide that makes him treacherous, but his tendency to treat living things as a commodity to suit his ends, as he does towards the end of the episode, when he starts shooting dinosaurs until Queen Nefertiti agrees to come with him as his "property." Solomon was generally just despicable, and I wouldn't have minded seeing him turn up again, though I didn't much care for his wise-cracking robot henchmen, who gave me weird Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen flashbacks.

Ultimately, "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship" sported the bravado of some of The Doctor's more brazen adventures, and gave him a suitably treacherous villain to stand nose-to-nose against. The finale is jam-packed, with Amy and Riddell shooting velociraptors with huge tranq guns while Rory and Brian pilot the doomed ship, along with The Doctor rescuing Nefertiti and redirecting the military missiles to come after Solomon's ship instead. There was so much going on that the story threatened to run off the rails towards the end, but it held together nicely. Solomon is dead, the ship is rescued, the Ponds return home (though The Doctor seems a little heartbroken at the Ponds' decision not to come with this time), and Brian travels to Siluria with The Doctor to return the dinosaurs. Speaking of which, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the visuals in this episode. The combination CG-Animatronic triceratops is marvelous work for a television show, to say nothing of the exterior shots of the Ark itself, with Earth in the distance. I would imagine that the show, seeing a surge in popularity, including its mainstream acceptance stateside, has led to an increased effects budget. This is exciting strictly for the possibility of more visually ambitious stories. Doctor Who is already pretty ambitious in scope, so it can only be a good thing that showrunner Steven Moffat might be able to have his grander visions for the show realized.

Next week, it looks like we're headed to the Old American West, which should give The Doctor suitable opportunities to crack wise. It will be a tall order to live up to after you've had dinosaurs on a spaceship.