Doctor Who - Dinosaurs on a Spaceship Review

This week’s episode had everything anyone could ever want in an episode of Doctor Who.  Including: Dinosaurs, Nefertiti, and the return (sort of) of one of my favorite aliens on the series!

 
Cut for Spoilers and Speculation on future episodes


The Doctor was rolling with quite the gang of colorful characters outside of usual companions Amy and Rory.  First we have Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt.  I thought she was fantastic this episode, she wasn’t going to take anyone’s bullshit and was willing to sacrifice herself to ensure the Doctor would be able to leave safely.  I also loved the moment where she asked Amy if she was a queen and Amy immediately said yes because who wouldn’t have done the same? 
 

We also met John Riddell, a big game hunter who the Doctor has apparently adventured with at least once before.  Yes he was a sexist walking innuendo but he was also from the early nineteen hundreds so this shouldn’t come as a surprise.  As such I’m sure Nefertiti’s decision to remain with him instead of going back home to her boring husband will be controversial in the fandom.  But consider that he spent the entire episode with both Amy and ‘Neffi’, as well as fought side by side with Amy at the end. Perhaps these two HBICs changed his attitude a smidge. 
 

Our final new companion for the episode was pulled into the situation quite on accident, Rory’s father Brian Williams.  A man very set in his ways who loved golfing and hated travel.  He proved himself invaluable time and again just like his son has, and by the end it was clear his small time with the Doctor has changed him.  I loved the postcards he sent Amy and Rory from around the world at the end as well as the Doctor’s own postcard which put a nice bow on this episode’s story.  He reminded me of Wilfred Mott by the end and it would be really awesome to see Brian Pond... I mean Brian Williams on the TARDIS again in the future.
 

Of course, having Brian along again reminds us that we only have a few episodes left with the Ponds.  According to the episode it’s been ten months since Asylum of the Daleks, at least for Amy and Rory, which leads Amy to admit to the Doctor that even now she still waits for him.  After the Doctor proclaims she’ll be with him until the end of him, and she says that it could be the other way around it’s really hitting the point home that the end of the Ponds is more likely than not going to be a sad one. There’s only been one companion who’s left the Doctor on her own terms and that was the ever delightful Martha Jones.  So unless Amy decides she’s done with the Doctor, it’s clear her story is going to end in tragedy.  Also the moment where Rory is helping his injured father with some medicine was amazing.  To see that when he travels with the Doctor he’s on the lookout for new technology and healing methods was a great reminder that he is a nurse and will always be one.
 

One thing from the episode that really excited me was the return of the Silurians, at least in the form of their technology.  When I started watching and saw what the tech looked like onboard the spaceship it reminded me of how the Silurian technology looked like on the show before.  Sadly our villain of the episode, Solomon, slaughtered all the Silurians who were aboard the ark.  Hopefully we’ll see them again soon, or at least the lovely Vastra.

  

Overall ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ was a fun action-packed hour that wasted no time jumping into the action, which I think will be a theme for the rest of this first part of the season.  Next week on Doctor Who we have ‘A Town Called Mercy’, where clearly someone has been peeking at the Doctor’s Christmas list.  The wild west, a cyborg gunslinger, and the Doctor gets his Stetson back!