Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Of all these 'movie' episodes, this is the one that seems to be most stridently demanding our attention. "Dinosaurs!" cries the Doctor. "On a spaceship!" And to be fair, it's an arresting and effective bit of marketing, especially given the show's demographic. When were dinosaurs ever not cool? Well, the churlish answer would be January-February 1974, but we don't need to talk about that. The boys (who got to see Jurassic Park on the big screen earlier this year and were appropriately freaked out, just as I had hoped) had been looking forward to this one for weeks, and all their memories of and predictions for this half-season have revolved around it. What I'm saying is that I have listened to lots of conversations in the last few weeks that went like this:

"There's a Dalek one, isn't there?"

"Yes, that's before Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. It must be the first one. And then is it the cube one?"

"I think the cube one is after Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. And the cowboy one is after Dinosaurs on a Spaceship too."

"Yes. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is definitely before the cowboy one. And the Weeping Angels are last."

"So it goes, Daleks, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, the cowboy one, funny cubes, Weeping Angels?"

"Yes. I can't wait for Dinosaurs on a Spaceship."

"Me too. When does Clara turn up?"

So despite my haughtiness, I have to admit that just the title alone is a slick and irresistible bit of promotion that gets kids watching the show, and this is obviously brilliant and a far cry from the days when trying to make people tune in meant producers shoving Ken Dodd in front of camera. The kids love the dinosaurs, the kids love the robots, the kids love Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.

I like it too. I didn't think I did, but that's because the boys had persuaded me that Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was about dinosaurs on a spaceship - and it's not really, not in the same way that Tomb of the Cybermen is about a tomb full of Cybermen, for example. The dinosaurs are a hook, part of the setting, and they don't influence the plot. In fact they don't really do anything except occasionally harass the Doctor and his friends and try to look as convincing as possible while they're at it. 

No, this episode is an odd little melange of ingredients that surprisingly mix together very nicely. Presumably 'Rory's dad, an Edwardian big game hunter, Queen Nefertiti, Solomon, a dash of Silurians, the Indian Space Agency, robots and dinosaurs on a spaceship' wouldn't fit on the poster.

Mark Williams' Brian is a joy: cup of tea in hand and a trowel in his pocket, it's great to have him aboard. It's good for the show to have parental characters join in the adventure from time to time. The kids love seeing 'boring grown-ups', people who look and sound like their parents or grandparents, getting whisked away in the TARDIS. Brian is lovely, copes wonderfully, and has his mind expanded as a result. The shot of him sat in the TARDIS doorway, watching the Earth with his thermos, is every bit as lovely as when Wilf spied Donna through his telescope. 

The addition of a pair of historical characters, Riddell and Nefertiti, also shake things up nicely. Riddell, played charismatically by Rupert Graves, offers the chance to roll our eyes at some old fashioned opinions and see how far we've come. Nefertiti, queen of ancient Egypt, hints at achievements long since lost. It's fun to include them, and play them off against each other, but Nefertiti - a real and incredibly famous person - is especially welcome. Having her tag along for outer space hijinks is a refreshing change on the modern Who tradition of encountering the great and the good in their own setting. And, in a nice twist, it is her celebrity that provokes the showdown with Solomon. 

David Bradley makes a real meal of the slaver Solomon, turning a so-so villain into a horribly memorable bastard. There's something truly foul and unpleasant about the man and it is his presence on the spaceship that stops this episode from stagnating into a cutesy-pie runaround. His treatment of Nefertiti - actual and threatened - takes Doctor Who (at least in the minds of any adults watching) towards notions it hasn't dared hint at since poor Barbara's time. But for me his most chilling line is the one he uses on the Doctor: "I feel like you're judging me." There's so much in there, thanks to a wonderful delivery, that upsets, but for me it boils down to the idea of a very dangerous man who thinks he can do what he likes. Some have criticised the unusually merciless way in which the Doctor deals with him, but in this case I really don't mind at all. 

As for the rest of it, I like the stupid camp robots (although why would Solomon put up with them?), and I love the Indian Space Agency - just a little detail, but it broadens and deepens the Doctor Who universe. Amy has a wonderful few scenes in the middle where she effectively gets to play the Doctor. Gillan is brilliant here and, with a lightness of touch, offers us an Amy who really has outgrown her Time Lord: confident, relaxed, playful, competent and very funny. 

Oh, and the dinosaurs are pretty good really.


NEXT TIME...