As a big fan of series five and six and its improvement over the nicely plotted but poorly written Tennant era, I feel a little let down by series seven so far. Last week’s ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ was an episode that improved with each viewing but wasn’t the best of the three openings but this week’s episode, though full of some great characters and equally great CGI, it just felt to be missing something.
And it’s the inherent problem with these episodes, creating mini-blockbusters in forty-five minutes: there isn’t enough time to set the episodes up properly.
In the Chris Chibnall written ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ (affectionately called ‘In space no one can hear you roar’ on the net) the Doctor heads to space with Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, whom he is seen having a dalliance with at the start of the episode, and a big game hunter from the African planes, to investigate a spaceship heading to earth that is about to be blown up by the stereotypical Asian accent unit, or the Indian Space Agency as it’s perhaps known. On board the ship the Doctor – now with Amy, Rory and Roy’s dad – investigate the cargo to find its home to ankylosaurs, a Triceratops, some baby T-Rexs and some raptors. Oh, and that guy from Harry Potter who killed off the previous owners of the ships – a neat cameo from the Silurians – to get hold of the dinosaurs, only to find himself injured and unable to pilot the ship away from a crash course with earth and the stereotyp… I mean, ISA missles.
If that seems a lot of plot to cram into a paragraph imagine the amount of set-up required before the green-tinged credits roll (now with a dinosaur-skinned logo, confirming my thoughts that last week’s was styled like a Dalek – neat idea, but I hope we get the other logo back soon). Though it’s been done before it’s never felt this rushed or compressed and, though I understand the need to keep the episodes peppy and exciting compared to the older four-part serials to keep those with wandering attention spans happy, the lack of slowly establishing key plots and characters is absent so it’s hard to feel anything for them, a bit like the rushed breakdown of Amy and Rory’s marriage of ‘Pond Life’ and last week’s episode, which seems to have been brushed aside now with no mentions.
This isn’t to say the episode doesn’t have its moments. The CGI is fantastic and the dinosaurs very realistic. The net has been a buzz with how they made such good dinosaurs on a budget. Perhaps they borrowed at least the raptors from Primeval, with the Mill doing CGI work on both. In fact, at many times it does go a little Primeval – and Jurassic Park – with dinosaurs, electronic stun guns and even several mentions of the word ‘Arc’. I was half expecting Douglas Henshall to walk through a door as Nick Cutter and when asked why he’s not dead he answers, in a thick Scottish accent, ‘It’s all timey wimey’ before wandering off down a corridor asking for ‘Helen’ before realising she’s dead too.
The character of Solomon was a particularly good villain in this piece and got the most character development of the lot of them with some good motives for his action and played with delicious evilness by David Bradley. He was supported by two robots – voiced with some campness by comedians Mitchell and Webb – who were great characters but felt shoe-horned into this episode and under-developed, competing as they were with every other plot development and new character. As I mentioned earlier, it seems like three stories crammed ineffectively into one.
Elsewhere Mark Williams did a cracking turn as Rory’s father with some great comedy moments and a beautiful scene – the highlight of the episode for me – where he sits on the ‘doorstep’ of the TARDIS looking down to space. That said, him and Rory seemed to have some sort of relationship issues based around Rory being a nurse and not the trowel-carrying “man” that his dad is, but they are brought together at the end to pilot the ship thus bonding them back as a family. It’s just a shame that their relationship and its difficulties didn’t have more than a scene on a step-ladder to set it up.
Rupert Graves was an interesting addition as the big game hunter, channelling Jurassic Park’s Pete Postlethwaite character, but was cut from the classic misogynistic character role. He was also responsible for one of the two big scene-crashing did-they-really-say-that innuendos which, I found funny, but they did seem at odds with the style of the show. Having already heard Williams talk about the balls in his pocket – golf balls that is, matron – we had to sit through Graves glinting suggestively at Nefertiti with no hint of irony, cocking back his gun and saying something along the lines of ‘what you need is a good man with a big weapon’. Kenneth Williams would be proud. Ooh. Matron. All we needed was Amy, who took a very Doctor-like role in this piece, hacking into computers and generally helping out, to push back and her bra flies off to complete an episode that should be called ‘Carry On Jurassic Park In Space’.
Of course these comedic and camp elements did compete with the darker Doctor sending Solomon to his death and the sombre mood growing between Amy and the Doctor, developing in this episode, and these were better parts of the episode.
Overall ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ had its moments. It’s showcased Amy and Rory being much more useful in the fight against space evil; there was touching family bonds between Rory and his dad; some top-class CGI from the Mill on the dinosaurs and the spaceship; and some decent comedy from the robots. It wasn’t the strongest episode I’ve ever seen and the introduction of all the characters seem to be just to make plot points make sense – the baddie needs the sexy Nefertiti as a bargaining tool; the ship needs two people of the same gene line to operate, quick get Rory’s dad in; we need someone to stalk dinosaurs on a ship with a big gun, let’s get him onboard before we even know there are dinosaurs on it.
Though there is much to enjoy in the episode and the dinosaur elements including the Pterodactyl chase and the race on the triceratops are well done and make it great for younger viewers, It feels like a rushed episode. Given two episodes to build it up and give more screen time to the relationship of the two Williams, the comical robots; and the setting up of Nefertiti and the game hunter, it would have been a stronger piece. I’m all for big blockbuster episodes but, on the strength of these two so far, they seem to be substituting development for spectacle and setting up key plot points quickly and then resolving them even quicker, and I’m not sure whether I like it.
(6/10)
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