Rewatching Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Just got to this 2012 episode in my Matt Smith era rewatch. And crikey it's much better than I remembered! It starts with a bonkers Steven Moffat esque mass of different time settings / characters pulled from there. Though it's written by Chris Chibnall. Then it turns into a comedic but also very dark in places space set story. With dinosaurs. With the Doctor and pals riding on a dinosaur. Oh and Queen Nefertiti. I was stunned by the guest cast, especially David Bradley as the baddie, Mark Williams as Rory's dad Brian, and Rupert Graves (Lestrade in Sherlock). But also comedy duo Mitchell & Webb voicing the robots. Who were very, very funny, in a Hitchhikers-esque way. I did find some of the location work distracting: that beach has been used too often in the series, including this time reminding me most of The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone. But that's a minor quibble. This was a bonkers concept, packed full of stuff, balancing light and dark elements, and just very well done. I remember Chris Chibnall's episode a couple on from here also being a strong one - the one that introduced Kate Stewart. What happened later?! Was it just that he had really good characters to write for here? Baffling. But this was good.

My favourite Blake's 7 characters

Was just musing over this. I think I have 3. Servalan isn't in the list. Though she's deliciously evil. And for the record I vastly prefer Travis I to Travis II.

First up has to be Avon. An anti-hero in every sense, and also a computer/hacking expert, which young me who was rapidly falling in love with computers could relate to. I'm not convinced by his depiction in the later series, though he's well acted. But yup, best one.

Next for me Cally, though she's frustratingly underwritten for, along with Jenna. But among the female characters she was easily my favourite. Even if we didn't always know too much about her. Brill in Sarcophagus of course. I loved both Tanith Lee episodes.

Then although young me really liked the attitude of Soolin I'm going to go with Vila. Always funny, consistent in everything he did. And a great foil for Avon. Under appreciated by his crew mates.

Pondering all this reminds me of last year when I was playing a text adventure / parser interactive fiction game version of Blake's 7. That did an *excellent* job of capturing some of the characters' personalities. Not least Avon and Vila. Though Cally was barely represented. Pretty much like in much of the TV show sadly! To read more about my playing experience with this game see my writeup on the intfiction forum.