SPOILER WARNING
THIS REVIEW AND OP/ED REVEALS KEY PLOT POINTS FROM THE LATEST DOCTOR WHO EPISODE
SERIOUSLY
HERE IT COMES
I loved Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Who wouldn’t? It’s DINOSAURS – ON A SPACESHIP!
A massive ship heading for Earth. A military leader orders the Doctor to investigate and stop it or they will nuke it. The Time Lord assembles Amy, Rory, an English big game hunter named John Riddell and the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti. It’s pure coincidence that the Queen is on board but she becomes a key ingredient of the plot later. Rory’s dad Brian is accidentally brought along for the ride.
The motley crew lands on an abandoned spaceship with nothing but cobwebs and dinosaurs roaming wild on board. The team soon learns it’s a Silurian ark taking the reptilian race, their flora and fauna in search of a new world. The Doctor, Rory and his dad encounter the villain (played by a veteran of the Harry Potter films) who killed the sleeping Silurians in order to steal and sell the dinosaurs.
This is a perfect episode for new Whovians and to have Rory’s dad as the ‘everyman’ baffled then marveling at outrageous weirdness that is Doctor Who. This story shows that at the center of the most twisted sci-fi tale is heart. Brian learns to appreciate the nursing skills of Rory and a nice father/son bonding while under siege moment and to appreciate the love of a triceratops. At the end I loved how Brian just wanted a quiet “above the Earth moment” before going home. Once we rejoin Amy and Rory we see how the once travel-shy Brian is a changed man. These scenes capture the spirit of watching Doctor Who and why we love it.
Op/Ed:
To borrow and twist a phrase from Obi-Wan, “these are not the aliens I was looking for.”
My first instinct was the Zygons were behind this flying ark of dinosaurs. The Zygons appeared way back in 1975 in the Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen era. Terror of the Zygons terrified me as a little kid. The Loch Ness Monster was actually a living weapon of the Zygons who were trying to conquer and colonize Earth. Nessie aka Skarasen may have not looked scary but those suction cup covered orange Zygons freaked me out as a kid. It was like an octobus, crab and lizard had been fused into a nightmarish new hybrid – Dr. Moreau seafood?
I loved the twist with the Silurians but I thought sure the Zygons were going to be behind a Jurassic attack on the planet. Maybe Steven Moffat will resurrect those nasty aliens who once plotted and schemed at the bottom of Loch Ness!
Here’s a fan made trailer for the classic episode on YouTube. Watch for the Zygon after Sarah Jane Smith!
By Editor