Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

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.