Episode Recap: Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
By Brent Vickers at September 10, 2012 | 5:35 pm | Print
Title: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (Series 7, Episode 2)
Original Airdate: September 8, 2012
Synopsis: The Doctor, along with Amy, Rory, Rory’s father, Queen Nefertiti, and a big game hunter named Riddell have just over 6 hours to steer an unoccupied spacecraft away from Earth before the Earthlings fire missiles at it to blow it up, however the spacecraft isn’t unoccupied: it contains the last remaining dinosaurs in the universe, but it also contains something else…something sinister.
**Spoilers Follow**
Review: The episode opens in Egypt 1334 BC: Doctor being seduced Queen Nefertiti. Cut to 2367 AD: The Doctor and Queen Nefertiti are on a ‘friendly Earth’ spaceship, whose headquarters are located in India, and an unoccupied ship is headed towards Earth; there is 6 hours and some change for the Doctor to explore it until the humans blow it up. Cut to the African Plains 1902 AD: The doctor recruits a hunter named John Riddell, played by Rupert Graves (known for his role of Lestrade on Steven Moffat’s other critically acclaimed show, Sherlock). Cut to modern time: Rory’s dad, Brian, played by Mark Williams of Harry Potter fame, is at the Pond’s house helping out with home maintenance when the TARDIS materializes around then and brings the group (they’re a gang now—that’s new!) back to 2367 AD to explore the abandoned spaceship and, after accidentally opening a door releasing a bunch of dinosaurs onto the ship, are soon split into two groups of three: Brian, Rory and the Doctor accidentally teleport themselves to a different part of the ship with a beach, meanwhile Amy, Nefertiti and Riddell are stuck exploring around where the TARDIS landed.
Two very snarky robots take the Doctor, Rory, and Brian hostage after some Pterodactyls chase them into a cave. Meanwhile Amy, Nefertiti, and Riddell discover a video sphere with a Silurian message and soon find that the Silurian’s built the ship and it is an ark built by them to house the dinosaurs.
The robots take the Doctor to see a man named Solomon, who knows who the Doctor is, and is hospitalized after a raptor attack. The robots saved Solomon and have been caring for him. The trouble is that Solomon assumes that because of his namesake, the Doctor is a medical physician. Solomon turns sinister very quickly, which does not bode well for Rory or his father, and does not please the Doctor, and Solomon is on the quick route to learn the hard way that you do NOT upset the Doctor unless you want unimaginable pain.
Unfortunately for the robots and Solomon, they harmed Rory’s father, so we get to see the return of Rory the Warrior, or as I like to call him—Badass Rory. Badass Rory is simultaneously being Rory the Nurse for his wounded father (it isn’t a wonder he’s such a fan favorite, he’s a lover and a fighter, a killer and a healer). This episode was a great character dissection for Rory, as we get to see where he comes from with the presence of his father—we get a look at a different side of Rory than we have seen before.
After healing Solomon’s legs and discovering they are on a Silurian ark, the Doctor discovers that Solomon had been not only “experimenting on the Silurians,” but eventually just massacred them all, planning to take the dinosaurs for himself and use them for fame, fortune, power, glory–he’s planning on selling the dinosaurs, but he has no idea how to control the ship. This does not please the Doctor—genocide that is, personal subject for the Time Lord.
The group reunites after a distressing message from India–the missiles have been launched. Solomon demands Queen Nefertiti in exchange for the dinosaurs, which she gives herself up without a second’s debate because well…she’s a badass. Immediately after, Solomon teleports himself, his robots, and Nefertiti back to his ship, and now the Doctor and his gang (still new!) are stuck on a vessel with no idea on how to fly it, missiles heading their way, and raptors closing in on them. Amy and Riddell arm themselves with giant stun guns to hold off the raptors while the Doctor and Rory try to figure out how to get the ship to safety and still save the dinosaurs.
It turns out that the only way to steer the ship away is to have two pilots with the same genetic make, luckily Rory’s dad is there so Rory and his father can steer the ship away, and the Doctor just uses the ships teleportation device to get onto Solomon’s ship and get Nefertiti back. However, Who fans will be familiar with the fact that the Doctor never kills, except remember how genocide is a personal subject for him…well even the Doctor will break his mercy streak for a man who slaughters the innocent.
To sum it up: Solomon is a really bad guy. Amy’s quit modeling and has a new job (and she looks really badass shooting giant guns at dinosaurs), and Rory’s dad got to see what Rory and Amy are really doing when they “go traveling.” The Doctor takes the honing device from the dinosaur ship and puts it on Solomon’s ship before teleporting back with Nefertiti and launching it off, saving the dinosaurs and people on board the other spacecraft, and killing Solomon.