Plot

While in 1334 B.C. Egypt with Queen Nefertiti, the Doctor receives a call from the Indian Space Agency in 2367 A.D. about a vast spaceship which will crash into Earth in six hours. The ISA plans to destroy it with missiles unless the Doctor stops it first. Taking Nefertiti with him, he picks up Edwardian explorer John Riddell from the African plains in 1902 A.D., and his companions Amy and Rory ten months after he last saw them in “Asylum of the Daleks”, inadvertently taking Rory’s father Brian on the TARDIS as well. They materialise in the spaceship and find that it contains loose dinosaurs, when two Ankylosaurus come out of the lift. The Doctor uses the ship’s computer to locate the engines, accidentally transporting himself, Rory, and Brian to the engine room, which appears to be a beach. The ship uses wave energy to generate endless power, hence the beach and sea. It is also used as a habitat by the pterodactyls.

The Doctor and his companions discover that the ship is a Silurian ark designed to carry the reptilian humanoids to a new planet along with flora and fauna from their time period. It left Earth millions of years ago to escape the meteor impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. The ship however registers zero Silurian life forms on board. After escaping from a group of pterodactyls, the Doctor, Rory, and Brian are escorted by two comically clumsy robots to the only human on board, a brutal man called Solomon who has been injured in a raptor attack and requires medical help. Solomon reveals himself to be a lawless exotic black market trader who has raided the spaceship and killed the Silurians in order to steal the dinosaurs. Solomon insists that everything and everyone has a price, though is surprised when the Doctor does not appear in his databases. Having had the robots murder all the Silurians, Solomon was unable to take control of the ship himself and the computer defaulted to its point of origin – causing it to return to Earth. Discovering Queen Nefertiti’s identity and value, he decides to kidnap her and leave in his own ship. Solomon shows how far he is willing to go to achieve this by having his robots kill a Triceratops and threatens to do the same to the Doctor’s companions unless Nefertiti is brought to him. Though the Doctor refuses, Nefertiti agrees to go with him to save the others, it despite the man’s obvious sadistic intentions towards her.

While Amy and Riddell shoot hostile dinosaurs with tranquiliser shots, the Doctor disables Solomon’s robots and rescues Nefertiti before he tricks the ISA missiles into targeting Solomon’s ship rather than the ark: it is destroyed, taking Solomon with it. Meanwhile, Rory and Brian pilot the ark away from the Earth, as the ship can only be piloted by two people of the same gene pool so Rory and his dad man the controls of the ship since they are family.

The Doctor then takes the Ponds back to their home after letting Brian view the Earth from orbit. Nefertiti, who has been flirting and clashing with the very macho Riddell, opts to go with him rather than return to her own time. Amy and Rory receive a series of postcards from all over the world sent by the previously travel-shy Brian, and one from the planet “Siluria” where the dinosaurs now reside.

MY TAKE: This was a fun episode, and it set a nice change of pace from the gravitas of the opener. Mark Williams is hilarious as Brian, especially using the most quoted line of the episode involving his “balls.”  and it is cool to see Rory use his nursing skills to help his Dad. Also David Bradley is fantastically evil as Solomon. Matt gives the Doctor a childlike sense of wonder as he discovers the dinosaurs. But, the Doctor’s anger quickly surfaces, as he discovers Solomon’s horrifying and selfish designs are discovered. He allows Solomon’s ship to be destroyed, ignoring Solomon’s pleas. Amy is again given a strong, take-charge role is this episode, and Karen is thrilled to take it on. It was great to see them tie the Dinosaurs to the Silurians, as a nod to the past. Rupert Graves is fantastic as the chauvinistic big-game hunter Riddell. It is great to see him slowly win over Riann Steel’s Queen Nefertiti, and I am happy to see them end up together at the end of the episode. Believe it, or not, this is actually in keeping with history, as the time and manner of her death are unknown and she simply disappears from historical record. Steel, by the way, plays Nefertiti with the regal air one would expect. Most of the comic relief from this episode comes from the robots, voiced by British comedy team Mitchell and Webb. But, the real stars of this episode are, of course, the dinosaurs. The Mill should be given a special note of thanks for these magnificent creatures. It is incredibly difficult to tell they are CGI as the effect is fairly seamless. The look, act and move like the real thing. They are some of the greatest effect ever in Doctor Who. The only problem with this episode was that with so much going on, some characters did not get to do as much as normal. It is hard to fit such an ambitious plot into only 40 minutes. I don’t think that’s enough to detract from my overall enjoyment of the episode though. It’s was very good, just not great.

SCORE: 4 out of 5

NEXT TIME: It’s a Doctor Who Western, set in A Town Called Mercy.