Skip to content
TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Written by

Chris Chibnall

Directed by

Saul Metzstein

Runtime

45 minutes

Time Travel

Future

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

By Royal Command, Dinosaurs, Doctor kisses, Robots

UK Viewers

7.57 million

Appreciation Index

87

Synopsis

In 2367, the Indian Space Agency is on high alert as an unidentified spaceship hurtles towards the Earth. The Eleventh Doctor assembles a team to investigate, including the legendary Queen Nefertiti, a big game hunter named Riddell, Amy, Rory... and Rory's father, Brian. Materialising aboard the mystery ship, they're surprised to find it populated by dinosaurs. With time running out before the ship is blasted out of the sky, the Doctor must confront a vicious criminal named Solomon, as the lives of his companions and the dinosaurs hang in the balance...

Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat

Characters

How to watch Dinosaurs on a Spaceship:

Reviews

Add Review Edit Review

2 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

The pre-credits sequence is excellent, a bit more frenetic than we are used to from Chibnall. It's great seeing the Ponds at home, with Mark Williams as Rory’s dad; a fantastic piece of casting. At this late point in Amy and Rory’s time on the show they could just be looking to wrap everything up, so it's fantastic that they are still pushing their relationship somewhere new. This dynamic, building on Pond Life, and the character interactions lift what is otherwise a bog standard plot.

I love the dinosaurs, I love the spaceship, I hate the comedy robots. It is the only time Mitchell and Webb have been in Doctor Who and it feels like a waste of their talents to play unfunny robots. Poor Robot Webb’s unfunny robot barely even says anything. You only know who it is from context.

There is a huge ensemble cast. Solomon is an interesting enough baddy. Queen Nefatiti and the gamekeeper guy are very good. The show absolutely survives on the character moments. Although the cringey flirting which penetrates every part of this period of Doctor Who does not leave this episode untouched.

This is in the most part a more child friendly episode, with the major exception of the implied threat of assault (keeping it vague) from Soloman to Nefatiti. I’m not sure how I feel about little girls watching that exchange, even if she does get her comeuppance. The way the Doctor heartlessly kills Soloman at the end also feels a bit off; regardless of how bad he is.

At the start of the episode I was thinking this might have been Chibnall’s best pre-13th Doctor story but it quickly falls down. Mixed!


This was a daft but pretty fun romp. However, it tried to cram in far too much for me to rate it too highly. Introducing Brian was a great move but Nerfertiti, Riddell and the two Robots were completely pointless really and a waste of some potentially good guest stars.


Open in new window

Statistics

AVG. Rating564 members
2.89 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating1,310 votes
3.89 / 5

The Time Scales

AVG. Rating180 votes
3.35 / 5

Member Statistics

Watched

1235

Favourited

37

Reviewed

2

Saved

2

Skipped

0

Owned

9

Quotes

Add Quote

(Brian produces a trowel and starts digging in the sand.)

RORY: Did you just have that on you?

BRIAN: Of course. What sort of man doesn't carry a trowel? Put it on your Christmas list.

RORY: Dad, I'm thirty one. I don't have a Christmas list any more.

DOCTOR: I do!

Open in new window

Transcript Needs checking

[Egypt, 1334 B.C.]

(The Doctor rushes to the TARDIS.)

DOCTOR: Bye, then. Lovely meeting you. Sorry about the mess.

(He is restrained by an elegant woman in a sheer gown and tall blue headdress, who pushes him up against the TARDIS door and strokes his hair.)

NEFERTITI: You think I'll just let you leave without me, after what we've just been through?


Open in new window