'Dinosaurs On A Spaceship' And In A Docback!! READER REACTION To DOCTOR WHO S07E02 Begins With A Spoiler Free Review From Merrick, An 'Asylum Of The Daleks' Recap, And More!!

NEED TO SEE ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS?? 

You can now see it HERE in HD and HERE in standard def.  I'll update this spot with Dinosaurs on a Spaceship when it becomes available.  

EARLIER, NEIL GAIMAN...

...mentioned that he’s writing another episode of DOCTOR WHO.   He indicated being on the third raft of its script while accepting a Hugo award for The Doctor’s Wife - his stunning Season/Series 6 outing on the show.  That episode was nominated for and received the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form.  Scripter Tom McCrae’s emotionally charged S6 entry The Girl Who Waited was also nominated, as was Steven Moffat’s weird and lovely A Good Man Goes to War - S6 as well).  

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Dinosaurs on a Spaceship - SPOILER FREE REVIEW 

It’s hard to look at the title of this episode and not smile - the very notion is the stuff Geek dreams are made of.  The title also conjures images of silly, over-the-top shenanigans - and there are certainly a few giddily dopey moments peppered throughout to let us know this installment is never taking itself too seriously. 

This said, DoaS is far from frivolous.  That cinematic poster at the top of this review?  In no way does justice to the tone or substance you'll find in this episode.  In fact, when all is said and done, Dinosaurs emerges as one of the more well-balanced DOCTOR WHOs in quite some time - deftly juggling engaging comedy, intense circumstance, badass action, heartfelt sentiment, and no small amount of bawdy innuendo.  All crisply directed by Saul Metzstein, smartly scripted by Chris Chibnall, and stunningly photographed by Stephan Pehrsson.  

Tim Porter’s editing is spot on and lands all the right beats with just the right cadence, and the ample effects work (both CG and practical) is extremely well realized here.  My screener was not presented in HD - and I’m very eager to see how the dinos and robots seen here shake-out in higher-resolution - but on my standard def version, both looked very top notch.  There is most assuredly money on-screen in this one.  

Dinosaurs’ storyline forces Matt Smith to repeatedly shift gears at what must’ve been an exhausting pace - and Smith brazenly hits the mark every time, often to the point of genius.  I’ve loved Smith in this role since The Eleventh Hour, his first appearance as the Doctor.  But Dinosaurs may well represent his broadest and most self-assured turn in the part yet.  

Other players are uniformly strong across the board.  Rupert Graves brings irresistible boyish swagger to Riddell (his ill-advised and wholly impractical first reaction to seeing a dinosaur is hysterical).

Riann Steele infuses Nefertiti with mesmerizing intellect, intimidating courage, and ample hotness  - and Mark Williams (playing Rory’s dad Brian) gets one of the simplest, finest, poetic moments DW has seen in quite some time.  And, yes, HARRY POTTER’s David Bradley is pretty great as well. 

His role is, perhaps, a tad one-dimensional - but he achieves exactly what he’s going for, and a rather strong argument could be made that such lack of dimension is wholly appropriate (and perhaps even necessary) considering the overall dynamic of this story.  

Darvill and Gillan’s Amy and Rory Pond (yes I did that on purpose) have pretty much returned to form in Dinosaurs, after not being in the best of places (literally and figuratively) in last week’s Asylum of the Daleks.  Darvill’s Rory shares a fleeting exchange with Smith’s Doctor in this episode which is among the funniest gags in recent WHO memory (I won’t spoil it, but it involves the Doctor excitedly yelling “I do!”  You'll know it when you see it.)  

Some Docbackers have voiced reservations about scripter Chibnall’s return to WHO this Season.  Personally, I rather enjoyed his S5 entries The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood (although I thought the first was a bit more fully realized than the later), and the energy, charm, cleverness, and sensibility evidenced in his Dinosaurs script suggests that we may see very great things coming from him in the show’s future.  The Power of Three -  Episode Four of this Season - is another Chibnall story.  We haven’t heard much about it - but now, more than ever, I’m curious to learn more.  Dinosuars director Metzstein (UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS) returns for next week’s episode, A Town Called Mercy.

A tremendously entertaining and brillianjtly weighed romp with a great deal of heart and a few moments of unexpected ‘oomph’ - Dinosaurs on a Spaceship transmits 9/8C on BBC America  (19:35 BBC One, , 8 on Space).  I'm not sure the various trailers for DoaS have conveyed its tone either adequately or accurately.  If you've been on the fence about this one because of its title (or that poster) - be sure to give it a try.  You may well be quite surprised.  

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Glen Oliver