Day 886 - Dinosaurs On A Spaceship

I'm on to the final two weeks now! Feeling scared!

I don't really feel like I need to explain much about this episode as it's pretty much summed up in the title itself. A Silurian Ark is slowly drifting back to Earth but unfortunately all the Silurians have been massacred by a ruthless pirate/trader called Soloman who wants to steal their precious cargo of rare dinosaurs.

First of all I have to say that the dinosaurs in this episode look a hell of a lot better than the dinosaurs Invasion Of The Dinosaurs but then that wouldn't be hard to be better than them! God I really want to watch Invasion Of The Dinosaurs now! What the hell is wrong with me??

Another interesting thing is that this episode stars David Bradley (as Soloman) who is now more familiar to me as playing William Hartnell in the Doctor Who biopic which was released last year. He'd already voiced a character in The Sarah Jane adventure but it's cool to see him properly in the series. And he plays a complete bastard too! In fact he plays such a bastard that the Doctor has no problem in leaving him to die at the end of the episode. I must admit that this seems a little out of character for the Doctor. In the classic series, the Doctor occasionally resorted to violence (wasting Ograns and throwing guards into acid baths "accidentally") but in the new series they have been pretty careful about the Doctor's morality and views on violence. Therefore it seems odd that the Doctor redirects the missiles from Earth into destroying Soloman's ship. This is at least acknowledged in later episodes that this is what the Doctor will turn into if he travels without companions to hold him back, something which was touched in way back in The Runaway Bride where it is Donna who is there to tell the Doctor to stop.

Another thing I love about this story is Brian, Rory's father, played brilliantly by Mark Williams (someone else has been in both Doctor Who and Harry Potter for those of you still paying along with my little game I started during my review of Vampires In Venice). Brian is swept along in the story when the TARDIS materialises around him, Amy and Rory whilst he is changing a bulb at Amy and Rory's house. After first being unsettled by what is suddenly happening to him (to be fair, he went round to fix a light and all of a sudden he is on a spaceship...with dinosaurs) he soon is willingly joining in with the gang and it's hilarious how he seems prepared for every eventuality and admonishes Rory for not being so. "What man doesn't carry a trowel in his pocket? Put it on your Christmas list."

Now for the thing I didn't like. Mitchell and Webb voicing the two useless robots. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm so familiar with these two comedians but I just could not accept them as the robots. I'm tempted to say that it was almost as bad as Hale and Pace appearing in Survival....I'm not sure. But it was pretty bad.

Two weeks and counting...