Doctor Who, S7 Ep2 – Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Nick Hornby’s protagonist in High Fidelity has certain rules for a successful mixtape. And let’s be real, Doctor Who is like a mixtape of timelines and genres. One of the rules of a mixtape, by Hornby’s definition is that, “You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention … and then you’ve got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch…” If “Asylum of the Daleks” was the dark “corker” of an opening as it were, then Chris Chibnall definitely upped it a notch with “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”.

[Insert obligatory warning of forthcoming spoilers here.]

You might remember Chris Chibnall from the Silurian centered episodes of season five, “The Hungry Earth” and “Cold Blood”. You may also remember him from the spaceship-on-a-collision-course episode “42” from season three. He also did some work for the spinoff series Torchwood as well as the recent prequel to season seven, Pond Life.

The Doctor Who Scooby Gang

“Dinosaurs” starts at, or near, full throttle by whipping us about time and space several times long before the title sequence. When we begin we are in Egypt 1334 BC just after The Doctor has saved Queen Nefertiti and her people from a “weapon bearing giant alien locust”, a tale that I would really love to see. Then it’s 2367 AD amongst the Indian Space Agency asking The Doctor and Nefertiti for aid in dealing with a Canada sized spaceship on a collision course with Earth.  After that we are taken to a campsite in Africa 1902 where we meet Inspector Lestrade  John Riddell, big game hunter.  Finally we find ourselves materializing in the Pond’s home present day as Brian Williams, Rory’s dad, fixes the lights.

So let’s roll call on this impromptu Armageddon crew of Armadillos, we’ve got an ancient Egyptian Queen, an African big game hunter from the 1900’s, A modern day male nurse, his currently unemployed wife, and his handyman father. Oh and let’s never forget The Doctor. I kind of wish K-9 was here to round out the team. Oh well.

Look, titles!

Jurassic Who

So The Doctor and his gang are on board the Canada sized ship only to find that it is inhabited with dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! This all comes as a shock to Pa Williams, simple man that he is. And even more shocking is that they only have six hours to find out what’s going on aboard the ship before missiles. Missiles!

If this break down reads rather quickly, it’s because this episode is very much with the fast pace and little on the story telling. Here, the action tells the story.