C+Q - Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (2012)

Series 7 of new Doctor Who, despite the Doctor trying to go incognito, saw a fairly bizarre attempt to sell each episode like a huge big-budget blockbuster movie. Partially inspired by complaints that Series 6 was too complex, and partially to distract the audience in 2012 from the fact that they'd only be seeing 6 new episodes that year instead of the usual 14, each episode was marketed as a standalone epic direct-to-TV film, complete with accompanying film posters released online. This gimmick really didn't seem to work as Moffat told the writers to, and I quote, "slut it up", meaning a majority of the episodes were more style over substance (see also, my review of Asylum of the Daleks). Perhaps the whole film thing would've worked better if the episodes were actually, you know, film length. What we got instead was the same 45-minute format we'd always had except this time around there were no two-parters, meaning no time to develop characters or explore some of the more complex ideas that some of the stories presented.

Take Dinosaurs on a Spaceship for example: while it's one of the highlights of Series 7 for me with a great premise and a sinister villain, I think it suffers because it doesn't have enough time to fully explore all of the strong ideas in the script. Some of these ideas could be the basis of an entire episode, like the Doctor consciously deciding to leave Solomon to die, and get brushed away in less than a minute.

One aspect of the episode that I wish we saw more of were the new characters, Brian Williams, Queen Nefertiti, and John Riddell, all of whom, like the Paternoster gang, have a lot of potential to be recurring. We do see Brian Williams again in one other episode before the Ponds leave but I feel like they should've at the very least mentioned him sooner. I mean he's Rory's dad after all and we've been with the character of Rory for two years up to this point. Despite his fleeting presence in the series, Brian left a strong impression and his inclusion in this episode became the start of an overarching theme for Series 7 Part 1: the Ponds having to choose between life at home and life in the TARDIS. It's a dilemma that seems unique to 21st century Who and can first be seen cropping up in the show as early as the Aliens of London/World War III two-parter from 2005. Incidentally, it's one of the many reasons why I like Clara Oswald; she tells the Doctor to show up every Wednesday so she can have wondrous adventures in time and space and yet still balance that with a perfectly normal life that's independent to the Doctor's. Anyway, we've still got a few reviews to get through before we can fully discuss her...

Also introduced in this episode are Queen Nefertiti (played by Riann Steele) and John Riddell (played by Rupert Graves) who are both extremely charismatic and give the impression that they have a history with the Doctor, one that I'd like to see explored in more detail in future episodes. If there's one thing Chris Chibnall is good at it's characterisation and everyone in his scripts, whether they're part of the main cast or a supporting character for one episode only, feels like a fully fleshed-out person with depth. I love it when a companion gets the chance to show off their specific skill set and in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship we see Rory using his skills as a nurse to help out his father. Amy also gets a lot to do this episode as she figures out how the ship's computer works and discovers they're on a Silurian ark using knowledge she's picked up on her previous travels with the Doctor. The Ponds are currently the longest-running New Who companions and seeing how their characters have developed from sidekicks into competent time travellers in their own right has been a joy to watch.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is the first Doctor Who episode directed by Saul Metzstein who also worked on A Town Called Mercy, The Snowmen, The Crimson Horror, and The Name of the Doctor. His direction is wonderful and makes good use of both practical effects and CGI to portray the dinosaurs. While some of the CG shots look obvious, there are other times when I can't tell the difference between what's real and what isn't, and some of the establishing shots of the spaceship do live up to the episode's claims of being like a big-budget movie. There are some dodgy bits of production though, like how occasionally when the TARDIS doors are open you can see for a split second that the bigger-on-the-inside console room is just a 2D image. Also, although this is probably the biggest nit I will every pick, the final shot of the episode is utter crap. The postcard from the Doctor that we see on the Pond's fridge at the end not only contains obvious stock images of dinosaurs, but also an Eccleston-era publicity picture of the TARDIS which looks nothing like the TARDIS does now, and a wooden sign that says "Siluria", because as you know you can't walk down the street for five minutes nowadays without running into a wooden sign that says "Earth".

As I said at the start, this episode is one of the best of Series 7. It's not entirely perfect and I would've preferred the humour to be a little less immature but overall Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is a lot more than a kick-ass title.

Weird Side Observation Thing 1: Invasion of the Rubbish Title Sequences

To accompany Series 7's blockbuster movie motif, each episode in the first part of the run had a unique title sequence with a different coloured vortex and texture on the logo to compliment each story. As bad as this idea is, it's made far worse by the way each colour variation is achieved by putting a very obvious over-saturated filter over the standard 2010-2011 title sequence, resulting in something that looks like it was made in Windows Movie Maker. It isn't until The Bells of Saint John in 2013 when we actually have a somewhat decent title sequence again although that one has it's own share of problems (the TARDIS doors opening the wrong way at the end, the crappy explosion effects, the muddy colours etc.). I think for Series 8 they should take this opportunity to make changes. As well as obviously changing the Eleventh Doctor's face to the Twelfth's, they should really turn up the bassline and actually put some time into making it look good. Then, once they've perfected it, they should just leave it alone. It's like the 2013 TARDIS interior, the 2010 TARDIS exterior, and the modern sonic screwdriver: they're all good now, we don't ever need to change them.

Weird Side Observation Thing 2: Attack of the Broken Light Bulbs

In the online prequel Pond Life, the Doctor is seen changing a broken bulb on the top of the TARDIS while on the phone.

In Asylum of the Daleks, after Rory asks Amy to sign the divorce papers and leaves, there's a big close-up of a flickering light bulb accompanied by a loud sound effect to draw your attention to it.

In Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, Brian is picked up by the Doctor because he's at the Pond's house helping them fix a faulty light, a fact we're reminded of at various points throughout the episode.

In A Town Called Mercy, one of the electric lights starts to flicker, again in a close-up shot with a sound effect, and Kahler-Jex actually notices it and adjusts his glasses to look.

In The Angels Take Manhattan, many lights flicker on and off in Winter Quay.

In The Snowmen, the lights start to flicker when the Doctor and Clara kiss.

Am I mad? Am I just an obsessive fan seeing patterns that aren't there? After it happens in five episodes in a year, twice in extreme close-up and once as a minor plot point, I think then it becomes a little bit more than random. I have a feeling that this plot idea has been dropped completely as it's never happened or been mentioned in any episodes since, and yet almost every single Doctor Who episode broadcast in 2012 featured faulty lights. So why were all the lights flickering? I'll probably get around to fanficing it one day.