What did I think about this week’s Doctor Who? Hit the jump to find out!
So it looks like Doctor Who used up all its pizazz and flashbangery last week, because all in all this was a rather mediocre episode.
The Doctor is in a time-sensitive life or death Catch-22 situation; the Bad Guy has committed terrible murderous deeds and his Generically Genocidal, Profit-Driven Evil rubs the Doctor in all the wrong ways; the Doctor manufactures a crazy plan that just… might… work! at the last second, and everyone goes home safe except for the bad guy. This is a very sort of generic Doctor Who plot. (Although the Doctor’s cold dispatching of Solomon the Bad Guy at the end was a little brutal for his character.)
And I mean, the episode wasn’t trying to be anything but its title, and it certainly delivers what it says on the tin: a full menagerie of dinosaurs on a spaceship. (Sadly, that ended the Snakes on a Plane homage—No one decided they were sick of these mothafucking dinosaurs on this mothafucking spaceship.)
The true worth of this episode lay in its characters.
I was pleasantly surprised by Amy in this episode; she really took charge when they got separated and was acting almost Doctor-y in the control room. I quite liked it.
Rory’s freaking dad. He had golf balls in his pants. He fought off a pterodactyl with a trowel. He was remarkably level-headed when Rory told him what was going on. (And yes, I’ll say it: Years later and in another franchise and Arthur Weasley still can’t change a lightbulb.)
Riddell (Hi, Lestrade! Aren’t dinosaurs on a spaceship probably Not Your Division?) was, well, he was good for providing Amy with a lot of baller girl-power one-liners, and I had a real Jurassic Park-esque “Clever girl” moment when he went out to shoot dinos on his own. (Thankfully he survived.)
Tricey: Tricey was the Phil Coulson of the episode. “There was one other guy you pissed off. His name was Tricey.”
Filch Solomon was annoying. Like the writer was like, what pisses off the Doctor? Well, murder, check. Mass murder/genocide, check. Murdering helpless creatures, check. Profiteering, check. Treating people like objects, check. He was so evil he was a caricature of evilness.
Nefertiti, aka Neffy: Words cannot express my love. She was brave, strong, and intelligent, and despite being in a completely unfamiliar and new situation, reacted with courage and level-headedness befitting such a legendary historical woman. And although we missed out on seeing a non-European or fantastical setting since she and the Doctor leave Egypt first thing, I am pleased to see another badass woman of color on Doctor Who—there’s been a bit of a lack since Ten regenerated and Martha went her own way.
And from irememberiloveyou on Tumblr:
A little history lesson about Nefertiti being with Riddell at the end.
- Nefertiti disappears from historical records about fourteen years into her husband’s reign
- They say she died from a plague that swept through the city, or some form of natural death.
- But there is no proof, she just vanishes from history
- Sooooo the idea that she chose the walking innuendo over her husband is a pretty good one
So that’s cool. I love it when Who posits itself as the answer to real historical mysteries a la Agatha Christie’s disappearance in “The Unicorn and the Wasp.”
So next week we have “A Town Called Mercy.” Here’s guessing that Stetons will once again be deemed “cool.”
What did you think of this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments!
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