Doctor Who: Dinosaurs On A Spaceship Review

Can the second episode of Series Seven live up to the fantastic premiere?
Following up Asylum Of The Daleks with another blockbuster episode of Doctor Who was always going to be a tough challenge, yet Chris Chibnall pulled off the trick with ease and a whole lot of hilarity in tonight's fun-filled romp Dinosaurs On A Spaceship. Considering that Chibnall's work on the show so far has been varied at best in terms of quality (2010's Silurian two-parter a particular bugbear for this writer), it was a hugely pleasant surprise to see the man of the day bring us a tight and fast-paced adventure with several surprising twists and cunning allusions to Who mythology. Before I move on further, I must first comment on the simply brilliant cast: Harry Potter's Mark Williams and David Bradley owned their roles as Rory's father Brian and the corrupt villain Solomon throughout, while Sherlock's very own Lestrade Rupert Graves found his own sci-fi adventure potential by giving us a witty and accurate game-hunter in Riddell, and finally newcomer Riann Steele packed a feisty punch as Egyptin Queen Nefitiri.

For such a stellar team of actors and actresses to be brought onto the screen together alongside pretty convincing CGI dinosaurs in the space of just fourty-five minutes is a staggering achievement on the part of Chibnall, yet it stands testament to the writer's integrity that he then creates a story more than befitting of its rather epic title. Dinosaurs may have lacked some of the raw emotion and true shocks that made Asylum something of a classic last week, yet it almost completely made up for this with the sheer sense of fun and genuine comedy that was evoked from the script and cast throughout the episode.

Doctor Who can occasionally falter when its writers become a little too obsessed with pleasing younger viewers (The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe a recent lacklustre example), and if there was one element of Episode 2 that let it down, it was the supposed comic relief of Mitchell and Webb's faulty robots. A few of their gags hit their intended mark spot on in their early sequences together, but the 'banter' did start to wear a little thin as the episode drew on. To be fair, Who has always had its fair share of annoying robots, yet Chibnall streches the boundaries of their quirkiness a little too far here for the darker Doctor comparisons to lead this into The Waters Of Mars territory. Nevertheless, despite its small flaws Dinosaurs On A Spaceship was a great successor to the ace premiere episode, continuing the blockbuster feel that Steven Moffat teased that Doctor Who would have this year in full force. Next week: off to the Wild West with Toby Whithouse!
4.5/5