Rewatching Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

[vivdunstan]

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.