Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Doctor Who: Series Seven: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

In his latest adventure, Doctor Who discovers a space ship full of dinosaurs hurtling toward the Earth in a not too distant future. The government on Earth wants to destroy the ship with missiles. The Doctor doesn't want that to happen, so he pulls a group together to investigate. The group includes regular companions Amy and Rory, a big game hunter, Queen Nefertiti, and Rory's dad, who happened to be changing a light bulb when the Doctor grabbed Amy and Rory. They investigate, discovering no crew and lots of dinosaurs running wild. They divide up (by accident) and the Doctor's group is found by a pair of bumbling robots. The robots take them to the fellow who's taken over the ship and gotten rid of the crew. He's a sort of bounty hunter who wants to sell the highly valuable animals on board, but why isn't he flying to the destination he really wants to go to?

The episode is full of humor. The plot seems a little all over the place at the beginning but comes together nicely at the end. This episode reminds me of the old Doctor Who back in the 1980s--there's a wacky combination of different elements through time (prehistoric animals, ancient Egyptian queen, 1950s-era game hunter, etc.); the dinos are treated mostly like pets or rides, like a kid would want. The only difference is the high quality of the special effects. It's a fun adventure in a grand style.

The next episode is set in old-West America, with the Doctor as a gunslinger.

For parents, there is some innuendo-laced dialog in this episode.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is available from the BBC web site for a few more days or from iTunes or from Amazon Streaming.