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Review: 'Doctor Who' - 'Dinosaurs on a Spaceship': How to train your triceratops

Rory's father tags along on a delightful space adventure

By Alan SepinwallSaturday, Sep 8, 2012 10:00 PM

Karen Gillan, Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill in "Doctor Who."

Credit: BBC

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A review of tonight's "Doctor Who" coming up just as soon as I have balls in my trousers...

When I heard the title "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," I worried that it would be one of those episodes that mainly existed to remind me that "Doctor Who" is first and foremost a show designed for kids, and that the hour would be a whole lot of the Doctor and other characters marveling at how cool it is to see the title come to life.

And, certainly, I will not speak ill of the concept. Dinosaurs on a spaceship are cool (cooler than bowties, certainly), as is the idea of a spaceship powered by waves generated by an artificial ocean, the Doctor being pals with Nefertiti, etc. But "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" blessedly didn't rest on its cool laurels, and instead told a good character story about Rory and his dad and gave us a particularly nasty bad guy in Solomon, whose death was well-deserved, if a bit startling to me.(*)

(*) I know the Doctor has wiped out the entire Dalek race a few times, killed Cybermen, etc., but he's always struck me as the hero type who will always offer his enemy mercy for as long as he possibly can. On a moral calculus, I don't have a problem with the Doctor deciding to sacrifice Solomon in order to save the dinosaurs and his gang of companions; it's just a darker place than the series usually goes to, particularly with a relatively human villain.

A couple of thoughts about that gang, by the way. First, once the Doctor assembled this large group to be with him on the ship, I figured we were in for a Ten Little Indians set-up where at least a few of them (certainly Riddell) got killed before the Doctor could conjure an escape, but this time, everyone the Doctor cared about protecting survived. Second, while the group inevitably gets separated in episodes like this (or like last week's), this was a rare instance where one of the groups (Amy/Nefertiti/Riddell) barely needed to be there at all. Amy found out details about the ship, and Nefertiti briefly sacrificed herself for the good of the group, but they spent an awful lot of the episode standing around and making me wish I was back with the Doctor, Rory and his dad.

All in all, though, a good job by Chris Chibnall and company. I'll miss the Ponds when they go, and Rory as much as Amy by this point.

What did everybody else think?

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Related Searches: Doctor Who, Steven Moffat, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill

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Next 62 Comments

Eric

Typically, the Doctor has gotten darker at times when he's been without a companion for a while. So the death of Solomon shows what he's like on his own for too long. The Doctor himself has admitted to having good companions to deal with his darker side.
September 8, 2012 at 10:15PM EST Reply to Comment
Simon

The death did seem odd to me, especially after last episode's direct showing of killing Daleks. We are now 2 for 2 in direct Doctor-involved deaths.

Also, we have had two minor "11" sightings. Last episode was the Doctor's comment about the amount of trouble they were in ("On a scale of 1 to 10, an 11."). This episode, the missile timer was announced as 11 minutes to impact. Eleven seems like an odd number to use for a timer.
September 8, 2012 at 10:25PM EST Reply to Comment
- The number 11 has always showed up in this era of the show, as Matt Smith is the eleventh Doctor. Go back and watch Series 5 & 6 and you'll see it pop up quite frequently.
  September 8, 2012 at 11:32PM EST
floretbroccoli

I'm always happy to see Rupert Graves, an actor who seems to have no vanity about playing small parts.

And Rory has the same father as the Weasley family! How cool.
September 8, 2012 at 10:30PM EST Reply to Comment
Guest

Well, the Doctor did fix up Solomon's injuries and pleaded with him multiple times before deciding he's not worth saving. Lesson to the kids: Stop being nice to people who keeps want to screw you over and kills dinosaurs in cold blood.
September 8, 2012 at 10:32PM EST Reply to Comment
- Yeah, first he seriously injured someone who was unwillingly taken along, then he killed their pet dino for no reason, and got kinda rapey toward his friend.
  September 9, 2012 at 3:30AM EST
- Gigi Still, it was a bit cold-blooded murderous. But Matt Smith's Doctor has always been colder than Tennant's Doctor, who nearly always offered mercy. Different Doctor, different methods/personalities. Smith's version isn't usually this dark, but you can't say Solomon didn't deserve it. He was a horrible person who massacred thousands of Silurians in addition to everything we saw in the episode. I thought the implication of rape was the more jarring aspect of the episode, but I suppose kids are never going to catch on to what that exchange was really about.
  September 9, 2012 at 5:04AM EST
Tom Dickinson

I liked Karen GIllan's role this week a lot more than you apparently did. She was fun, daring, and proactive--essentially, the Amy we've been promised all along but the writers have rarely delivered over the years.
September 8, 2012 at 10:44PM EST Reply to Comment
- sepinwall I liked that Amy had clearly learned so much from her time with the Doctor, but she was standing around for a very, very long stretch, it felt like.
  September 8, 2012 at 10:46PM EST
- Tracey I'm easily worth two men. You can help too, if you like. :)
  September 9, 2012 at 7:47AM EST
- lazy iggy Re: Amy This episode actually made me believe/showed me how she could make her own sonic screwdriver (as in Girl Who Waited).
  
  And I loved her delivery and face "I'm a queen."
  September 9, 2012 at 6:02PM EST
Chelsea

The 11th Doctor talks a lot about no violence and stuff but I think he actually kills/injures more than it seems like at first. He told basically the entire world to kill the Silence, told the TARDIS to kill House, so him killing Soloman didn't surprise me at all.
September 8, 2012 at 10:49PM EST Reply to Comment
- lazy iggy I wonder if this arc will continue and the Doctor will get darker. With 9 and 10, they both also became progressively darker before they met their end.
  September 9, 2012 at 6:04PM EST
- Liz 10 started his reign off clearly by saying you only get one warning. I think stark direct deaths like this are rightly to be noted, but it's not really against what the Dr always has said about himself and his experiences. Daleks, The Family, Silence, this might simply be the most direct one-to-one murder we've seen.
  September 10, 2012 at 10:39PM EST
Josh

I was pretty disappointed with this episode. Great cast with some Sherlock and Harry Potter overlap but really the story never gelled. Similar to last week, I had moments where I could not really figure out why they were involved in the events.

Soso start to season for me. A few good lines and some decent effects but nothing that I would show to someone to make them interested in show.

September 8, 2012 at 10:50PM EST Reply to Comment
Jason

Giving an enemy mercy was a characteristic of David Tenant's Doctor. If you go back and watch the Christopher Ecceleston he had no problem doing stuff like at. Even at one point he was will to kill most of Earth with the Delta Wave just to get rid of the Daleks.
September 8, 2012 at 11:06PM EST Reply to Comment
- Eccleston was playing the doctor as angry and pushed too far. He had just been forced to wipe out his own race after all. Thats why it destroyed tennant when the master's wife killed him.
  September 9, 2012 at 3:32AM EST
ed w

It may not happen, and in fact I doubt it will, but they seemed to be heavily foreshadowing Amy's death in this episode.

As to the episode itself overall, it seemed very much like a kids episode to me. Not bad, and still better than most of last season, but not one of the more adult episodes.
September 8, 2012 at 11:16PM EST Reply to Comment
- Gigi Ed, I agree about Amy. If she doesn't die, it's foreshadowing that whatever happens, for her to leave the doctor is monumental. She spends her whole life waiting for her adventures him, foregoing a career or anything other than Rory. So, if she is alive and doesn't want to continue on with him... it's a huge shift. I look forward to seeing what happens, even though it means losing Rory, too. I think Rory's far more interesting than Amy, I'm more curious to see what happens to him.
  
  It was a fun episode, but probably not vital in the larger scheme of things. However, I do think that nobody knows who the doctor is will be a theme throughout the season (like bad wolf or the crack in time).
  September 9, 2012 at 4:49AM EST
- lazy iggy Gigi, that conversation between Amy and the Doctor was interesting. She is still the girl who waits, flitting from job to job. Even though she can't have children,she could still have a family if that was her goal.
  I have no clue how we will last see Amy and Rory. I can only hope she isn't still waiting for the Doctor in some fashion.
  September 9, 2012 at 6:09PM EST
thenightstalker

Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfreaking dinosaurs on this motherfreaking spaceship!
September 8, 2012 at 11:23PM EST Reply to Comment
- Caveboy Ah verry good!
  Real fun episode.
  September 10, 2012 at 1:54AM EST
tgilders

This episode had my inner 5 year old rolling on the floor, laughing and screaming with delight. It may be first and foremost a show for children, but at its best it's also a show for inner children.
September 8, 2012 at 11:36PM EST Reply to Comment
Anthony Foglia

What, no mention of Mitchell and Webb as the robots? I wish they had a few more lines.

I didn't see a good character story between Rory and his dad. I see we're supposed to see that things are a little strained, and they don't know how to communicate with each other, but it didn't grow or impact the plot until the contrivence of the genetically locked co-pilot chairs. Even then there was no character-based resolution to make us things would be much different when they got out of the chairs. (There was the postcards, but that's independent of the Mr. Ponds.)

Don't get me wrong, it was great fun to meet Rory's dad, I just don't think there was much of a plot there.

All in all, it was a fun space romp. Not much more than that, nor did it try to be.
September 8, 2012 at 11:36PM EST Reply to Comment
- ed w I've seen every episode of That Mitchell and Webb Look and Peep Show and still didn't recognize their voices. It sounded like two random actors.
  September 9, 2012 at 2:18AM EST
- Tracey I had no idea who they were, but it was clear to me that I was supposed to know who they were, and that it would have been a lot more fun if I had known. I'm sure the British have the same problem with a lot of cultural references in American shows.
  September 9, 2012 at 7:52AM EST
- Madel @Tracey - However you can (Netflix, DVDs, etc), watch the 7 seasons (42 episodes) of Peep Show - the funniest UK comedy (and one of the funniest on TV in general) of the last 10 years. You won't be sorry.
  September 9, 2012 at 3:28PM EST
debbie

Why do you suppose Solomon could find no record of the Doctor? Since when is this the case....he seems to be known, at least in folklore, in many parts of the universe. River became an archeologist because it seemed the best way to find him, so there has to be a record of him, if they know where to look.

Or maybe he had no value because he is considered dead, after faking his own death last year. However the Doctor has hardly kept to his plan to go "back into the shadows. "
September 8, 2012 at 11:41PM EST Reply to Comment
- Jason It may have someone to do with last week's episode. Oswin erased the doctor from the Dalek's memory, maybe somehow that also erased him from all computers.
  September 9, 2012 at 12:28AM EST
- DW Did you watch the episode last week?...
  September 9, 2012 at 12:50AM EST
- COMMENT There was no trace of him in The Long Game, an Eccleston episode, either. River Song's era is nearly 3000 years after this episode was set, so I don;t think the fact of some people from that time knowing of him need be that significant. Certainly, throughout most of the series' on screen history, the character has not been treated as one who is well known. The 'legendary' stuff is a relatively recent development,
  September 9, 2012 at 2:18AM EST
me

Rory's dad is Brian 'smash' Williams - excellent!
September 8, 2012 at 11:52PM EST Reply to Comment
TimClodfelter

Yeah, he tries to show mercy, but he hits his limits. And has in the past, this is nothing new. And hey, that guy killed a Triceratops puppy.
Also among those who disagree about the Amy team. Both were great and figured well into the story.
September 9, 2012 at 12:45AM EST Reply to Comment
- Halli Not to mention he killed the entire crew of Silurians one at a time in cold blood out the airlock.
  September 9, 2012 at 12:04PM EST
Yarr

Probably the worst episode I have ever seen, since I started watching in 1975. Silly silly silly. Oh well.
September 9, 2012 at 12:52AM EST Reply to Comment
- Jared Have you ever seen Love and Monsters?
  September 9, 2012 at 1:10AM EST
- Eyes Showrunning Doctor Who must be a thankless task, what with having to service so many vocal special interest groups at once. To the people who crop up every week saying 'it's not as good as the original': large swathes of classic Who, especially during its death spiral beginning in the mid-1980s, are unwatchable junk. The 'better in the old days' crowd can never seem to say exactly what they don't like, probably because many of them think they are talking to people who haven't seen it and won't call them out.
  
  I believe that the tone of this season is a deliberate effort by Steven Moffat to respond to criticism that it was becoming too hard for casual viewers to follow (despite his public statements defending that complexity). It has been said - by someone who claims to be close to the production - that Mr. Moffat is mindful about keeping ratings healthy up to the end of his contract. (The same person also says that there is indeed a long game being played out in Moffat's arcs, which are also supposed to come to an end when he leaves. We'll see.)
  September 9, 2012 at 9:23AM EST
- Alex I agree with Moffat having a thankless job. It appears to have driven him off Twitter (which he seemed to almost only use for promotion).
  
  I am an old school Whovian who appreciates having a long time fan in change and others who contributed to the show (Gatiss, Cornell), but I thought this episode was one of the worst, along with Love and Monsters and some of the worst of the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy eras.
  September 9, 2012 at 10:41AM EST
- Eyes The ep wasn't my cup of tea either, but at least there was a strong SF idea or two at its core. The direction was kind of trite - considering the darkness of the climax - but I can see what they were going for and why.
  September 9, 2012 at 12:51PM EST
Mojo CoCo

As much as I love Amy, Rory is hands down one of my favorite companions ever. His relationship with the doctor is so much different than any of the previous companions.

The first ten minutes had me crying laughing.
September 9, 2012 at 3:27AM EST Reply to Comment
- lazy iggy Mojo, I wholeheartedly agree - I am a Rory fanatic through and through. Thanks to Arthur Darvill's portrayal, he has become one of my favorite companions. Up there with Donna!!!
  September 9, 2012 at 6:12PM EST
Liselotte divelli

Check out the Brit-shows Good Cop, Bletchley Circle and Vexed.
September 9, 2012 at 4:55AM EST Reply to Comment
bybrandy

I can't say this is one of the better episodes but it was campy fun and if I don't think too hard about it I can really enjoy that aspect of it. I thought pretty good casting of Graves there. Old school big game hunter complete with early 1900 views on women and beasts could have been a lot less entertaining with most other actors.
September 9, 2012 at 5:02AM EST Reply to Comment
Paul C

Poor episode. It was clearly 'lets think of a cool title and fill in the rest', except it all felt rather flimsy. Too many supporting characters which meant most came across as rather bland. The camp robots were clearly designed to be funny, but were just really irritating.

In fairness it did have some good points: Salomon was a genuine bastard; Rory & his dad; some pretty cool effects.

Interesting that they seeded the Silurians too.
September 9, 2012 at 7:09AM EST Reply to Comment
Tracey

Fun stuff. Of course, the bit with the dinosaur chasing a ball has been done before (Night at the Museum), but I still liked Tricey enough that I was sad when he got shot.

HILARIOUS when the Doctor calls Rory's father "Brian Pond." I'm not a Pond. Of course you are.

Funny thing: I had completely forgotten that Rory was a nurse until he started treating his father.

Surely Rory's father knew about the Doctor? The Doctor did, after all, materialize in the middle of Amy and Rory's wedding. The father of the groom must have been there.

It seems like in some sense the Ponds have already left the Doctor. Normally, when companions leave the Tardis, they never meet up with the Doctor again. But Amy and Rory have left many times, their life goes on (though we don't see much of it), and then they meet up with the Doctor for another adventure. I think that's the essense of the whole "Pond Life" series of online shorts: that the Ponds are living a relatively normal life, occasionally interrupted by the Doctor. But I hear that the plan is for a very sad, very permanent separation from the Doctor, and I'm not looking forward to that.
September 9, 2012 at 7:43AM EST Reply to Comment
Rayadamson

The Doctor's friendship with Riddell was really incongruous considering his reaction to Solomons' genocide of the silurians and the whole thing of the spaceship needing pilots with the same genes to control it was a massive contrivance considering the doctor accidentally bringing Rory's dad with them.Still i enjoyed the character work and foeshadowing about Amys' coming departure.Apparently the concept of the dinosaurs being on a silurian ark escaping Earths destruction came from Moffat according to Chibnall.
September 9, 2012 at 8:02AM EST Reply to Comment
- Bryan Rasmussen I agree it seems like a contrivance but that's only seems, just because he happened to have two members of the same gene pool meant he solved the problem that way. If he hadn't then it would have been no that won't work, let's look for another solution. Every solution to a doctor who problem ends up seeming like a contrivance at the end.
  September 10, 2012 at 4:02AM EST
Alex

For me, one of the worst episodes of the modern era, right there with Love and Monsters & The Beast Below.
September 9, 2012 at 10:36AM EST Reply to Comment
dweezil2k

I think this episode shows that Amy can fend for herself and that the Doctor knows that it will Soon Be Over. Loved these first two eps.
September 9, 2012 at 11:22AM EST Reply to Comment
Razorback

I loved this episode. I rewatched it as soon as it was over.
September 9, 2012 at 11:31AM EST Reply to Comment
Tracey

I'm just disappointed that they didn't take the time to tell Brian about his granddaughter. :)
September 9, 2012 at 12:00PM EST Reply to Comment
Paul C

Meant to mention too that most of Amy's dialouge was quite terrible. Also Chibnall went way overboard on the sexual innuendos, and some in particular were quite groan-inducing ("a man with a giant weapon") and also a bit inappropriate (Solomon "breaking in" Nefertiti).
September 9, 2012 at 1:11PM EST Reply to Comment
- bitchstolemyremote Yeah...felt that that was to really reinforce to us that Solomon was a BAD guy, but it felt a whole hell of a lot darker than everything else
  September 9, 2012 at 11:07PM EST
lazy iggy

I was absolutely tickled about getting more info on the Silurians. Of course, with all their technology they would build an arc!
I really hope we see them again. I would like to see an episode where they surface or at least, the aftermath to that...especially since they were there when the Pandorica opened.
September 9, 2012 at 6:16PM EST Reply to Comment
Theonewhoknocks

This was the worst episode of the modern who era. I think the show has gotten progressively worse under Moffats direction and I may be bowing out until he turns it over to someone else. The last time I felt emotionally moved by this show was tenants last episode, and I like Matt smith just fine

September 9, 2012 at 9:35PM EST Reply to Comment
- NEIL Reply to comment...I couldn't agree more. This was on of the worst episodes - definitely geared towards kids and dumbed down.
  September 11, 2012 at 12:37PM EST
bitchstolemyremote

Definitely a lighter episode, but there was a lot of set-up to both reinforce the fact that the Ponds ARE leaving (introducing Rory's dad, having them exit early, the extreme length of time between visits) and preparing us to accept new companions (The Doctor's band of companions, the fact that although Amy is different, he will travel with other humans, etc).

Big question now is simply HOW do the Ponds exit? The Doctor's conversation with Amy was pretty ominous

Our take: http://wp.me/p1VQBq-1qe
September 9, 2012 at 11:06PM EST Reply to Comment

Review: 'Doctor Who' - 'Dinosaurs on a Spaceship': How to train your triceratops

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Comments

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Eric Typically, the Doctor has gotten darker at times when he's been without a companion for a while. So the death of Solomon shows what he's like on his own for too long. The Doctor himself has admitted to having good companions to deal with his darker side.

The number 11 has always showed up in this era of the show, as Matt Smith is the eleventh Doctor. Go back and watch Series 5 & 6 and you'll see it pop up quite frequently.

floretbroccoli I'm always happy to see Rupert Graves, an actor who seems to have no vanity about playing small parts.And Rory has the same father as the Weasley family! How cool.

Guest Well, the Doctor did fix up Solomon's injuries and pleaded with him multiple times before deciding he's not worth saving. Lesson to the kids: Stop being nice to people who keeps want to screw you over and kills dinosaurs in cold blood.

Yeah, first he seriously injured someone who was unwillingly taken along, then he killed their pet dino for no reason, and got kinda rapey toward his friend.

Tom Dickinson I liked Karen GIllan's role this week a lot more than you apparently did. She was fun, daring, and proactive--essentially, the Amy we've been promised all along but the writers have rarely delivered over the years.

sepinwall I liked that Amy had clearly learned so much from her time with the Doctor, but she was standing around for a very, very long stretch, it felt like.

Tracey I'm easily worth two men. You can help too, if you like. :)

lazy iggy Re: Amy This episode actually made me believe/showed me how she could make her own sonic screwdriver (as in Girl Who Waited).And I loved her delivery and face "I'm a queen."

Chelsea The 11th Doctor talks a lot about no violence and stuff but I think he actually kills/injures more than it seems like at first. He told basically the entire world to kill the Silence, told the TARDIS to kill House, so him killing Soloman didn't surprise me at all.

lazy iggy I wonder if this arc will continue and the Doctor will get darker. With 9 and 10, they both also became progressively darker before they met their end.

Jason Giving an enemy mercy was a characteristic of David Tenant's Doctor. If you go back and watch the Christopher Ecceleston he had no problem doing stuff like at. Even at one point he was will to kill most of Earth with the Delta Wave just to get rid of the Daleks.

Eccleston was playing the doctor as angry and pushed too far. He had just been forced to wipe out his own race after all. Thats why it destroyed tennant when the master's wife killed him.

ed w It may not happen, and in fact I doubt it will, but they seemed to be heavily foreshadowing Amy's death in this episode.As to the episode itself overall, it seemed very much like a kids episode to me. Not bad, and still better than most of last season, but not one of the more adult episodes.

thenightstalker Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfreaking dinosaurs on this motherfreaking spaceship!

Caveboy Ah verry good! Real fun episode.

tgilders This episode had my inner 5 year old rolling on the floor, laughing and screaming with delight. It may be first and foremost a show for children, but at its best it's also a show for inner children.

ed w I've seen every episode of That Mitchell and Webb Look and Peep Show and still didn't recognize their voices. It sounded like two random actors.

Tracey I had no idea who they were, but it was clear to me that I was supposed to know who they were, and that it would have been a lot more fun if I had known. I'm sure the British have the same problem with a lot of cultural references in American shows.

Madel @Tracey - However you can (Netflix, DVDs, etc), watch the 7 seasons (42 episodes) of Peep Show - the funniest UK comedy (and one of the funniest on TV in general) of the last 10 years. You won't be sorry.

Jason It may have someone to do with last week's episode. Oswin erased the doctor from the Dalek's memory, maybe somehow that also erased him from all computers.

DW Did you watch the episode last week?...

me Rory's dad is Brian 'smash' Williams - excellent!

TimClodfelter Yeah, he tries to show mercy, but he hits his limits. And has in the past, this is nothing new. And hey, that guy killed a Triceratops puppy.Also among those who disagree about the Amy team. Both were great and figured well into the story.

Halli Not to mention he killed the entire crew of Silurians one at a time in cold blood out the airlock.

Yarr Probably the worst episode I have ever seen, since I started watching in 1975. Silly silly silly. Oh well.

Jared Have you ever seen Love and Monsters?

Eyes The ep wasn't my cup of tea either, but at least there was a strong SF idea or two at its core. The direction was kind of trite - considering the darkness of the climax - but I can see what they were going for and why.

Mojo CoCo As much as I love Amy, Rory is hands down one of my favorite companions ever. His relationship with the doctor is so much different than any of the previous companions.The first ten minutes had me crying laughing.

lazy iggy Mojo, I wholeheartedly agree - I am a Rory fanatic through and through. Thanks to Arthur Darvill's portrayal, he has become one of my favorite companions. Up there with Donna!!!

Liselotte divelli Check out the Brit-shows Good Cop, Bletchley Circle and Vexed.

Alex For me, one of the worst episodes of the modern era, right there with Love and Monsters & The Beast Below.

dweezil2k I think this episode shows that Amy can fend for herself and that the Doctor knows that it will Soon Be Over. Loved these first two eps.

Razorback I loved this episode. I rewatched it as soon as it was over.

Tracey I'm just disappointed that they didn't take the time to tell Brian about his granddaughter. :)

Paul C Meant to mention too that most of Amy's dialouge was quite terrible. Also Chibnall went way overboard on the sexual innuendos, and some in particular were quite groan-inducing ("a man with a giant weapon") and also a bit inappropriate (Solomon "breaking in" Nefertiti).

bitchstolemyremote Yeah...felt that that was to really reinforce to us that Solomon was a BAD guy, but it felt a whole hell of a lot darker than everything else

NEIL Reply to comment...I couldn't agree more. This was on of the worst episodes - definitely geared towards kids and dumbed down.

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Doctor Who is updated

Eric

Typically, the Doctor has gotten darker at times when he's been without a companion for a while. So the death of Solomon shows what he's like on his own for too long. The Doctor himself has admitted to having good companions to deal with his darker side.

floretbroccoli

I'm always happy to see Rupert Graves, an actor who seems to have no vanity about playing small parts.

And Rory has the same father as the Weasley family! How cool.

Guest

Well, the Doctor did fix up Solomon's injuries and pleaded with him multiple times before deciding he's not worth saving. Lesson to the kids: Stop being nice to people who keeps want to screw you over and kills dinosaurs in cold blood.

Tom Dickinson

I liked Karen GIllan's role this week a lot more than you apparently did. She was fun, daring, and proactive--essentially, the Amy we've been promised all along but the writers have rarely delivered over the years.

lazy iggy Re: Amy This episode actually made me believe/showed me how she could make her own sonic screwdriver (as in Girl Who Waited).

And I loved her delivery and face "I'm a queen."

Chelsea

The 11th Doctor talks a lot about no violence and stuff but I think he actually kills/injures more than it seems like at first. He told basically the entire world to kill the Silence, told the TARDIS to kill House, so him killing Soloman didn't surprise me at all.

Jason

Giving an enemy mercy was a characteristic of David Tenant's Doctor. If you go back and watch the Christopher Ecceleston he had no problem doing stuff like at. Even at one point he was will to kill most of Earth with the Delta Wave just to get rid of the Daleks.

thenightstalker

Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfreaking dinosaurs on this motherfreaking spaceship!

Caveboy Ah verry good!
Real fun episode.

tgilders

This episode had my inner 5 year old rolling on the floor, laughing and screaming with delight. It may be first and foremost a show for children, but at its best it's also a show for inner children.

me

Rory's dad is Brian 'smash' Williams - excellent!

TimClodfelter

Yeah, he tries to show mercy, but he hits his limits. And has in the past, this is nothing new. And hey, that guy killed a Triceratops puppy.
Also among those who disagree about the Amy team. Both were great and figured well into the story.

Yarr

Probably the worst episode I have ever seen, since I started watching in 1975. Silly silly silly. Oh well.

Mojo CoCo

As much as I love Amy, Rory is hands down one of my favorite companions ever. His relationship with the doctor is so much different than any of the previous companions.

The first ten minutes had me crying laughing.

Liselotte divelli

Check out the Brit-shows Good Cop, Bletchley Circle and Vexed.

Alex

For me, one of the worst episodes of the modern era, right there with Love and Monsters & The Beast Below.

dweezil2k

I think this episode shows that Amy can fend for herself and that the Doctor knows that it will Soon Be Over. Loved these first two eps.

Razorback

I loved this episode. I rewatched it as soon as it was over.

Tracey

I'm just disappointed that they didn't take the time to tell Brian about his granddaughter. :)

Paul C

Meant to mention too that most of Amy's dialouge was quite terrible. Also Chibnall went way overboard on the sexual innuendos, and some in particular were quite groan-inducing ("a man with a giant weapon") and also a bit inappropriate (Solomon "breaking in" Nefertiti).

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