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Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
"Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is the second episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It first aired on BBC One in the UK on 8 September 2012 and on BBC America on the same date in the United States. It was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Saul Metzstein.
The episode features alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) accompanied by Rory's father, Brian (Mark Williams), Queen Nefertiti (Riann Steele), and John Riddell, a British big-game hunter (Rupert Graves). The group lands on a large spaceship that contains dinosaurs and discover that it is a Silurian ark, though the Silurians have been murdered by Solomon (David Bradley), a black market trader who is intent on finding something of value.
"Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" was conceived to be a fun episode, based on a suggestion from the special effects teams about incorporating dinosaurs into Doctor Who. The storyline and characters were developed between Chibnall and head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat. Due to budget limitations, a wider plot had to be developed because the dinosaurs could not be the centrepiece. The dinosaurs were a mix of props and computer-generated imagery. Along with the third episode, "A Town Called Mercy", "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" was in the first production block of the seventh series, with production commencing in early 2012 in the studio and on Southerndown beach in the Vale of Glamorgan. The episode was watched by 7.57 million viewers in the UK and received generally positive reviews from critics.
The Eleventh Doctor receives a call from the Indian Space Agency in 2367 about a vast spaceship which will crash into Earth in six hours. The ISA plans to destroy it with missiles unless the Doctor stops it first. He takes Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, Edwardian game hunter John Riddell, companions Amy and Rory, and, inadvertently, Rory's father Brian. Amy discovers the ship is a Silurian ark designed to carry the reptilian humanoids to a new planet along with flora and fauna from their time period to escape a destructive impact. The ship, however, registers no Silurian life forms left on board. After escaping from a group of pterosaurs in the engine room, the Doctor, Rory and Brian are escorted by two robots to a brutal man called Solomon who has been injured in a raptor attack and requires medical help. Solomon reveals himself to be a lawless exotic black market trader who has raided the spaceship in order to steal the dinosaurs. Having had the robots murder all of the Silurians, Solomon was unable to take control of the ship himself and the computer defaulted to its point of origin, causing it to return to Earth. Discovering Queen Nefertiti's identity and value, he decides to kidnap her and leave in his own ship. Though the Doctor refuses, Nefertiti agrees to go with him to save the others. Meanwhile, the ISA proceeds to fire their missiles at the ark, against the Doctor's wishes.
While Amy and Riddell shoot hostile dinosaurs with "anaesthetic" guns, the Doctor disables Solomon's robots and rescues Nefertiti, then tricks the ISA missiles into targeting Solomon's ship rather than the ark: it is destroyed, taking him with it. Rory and Brian pilot the ark away from the Earth, as the ship can only be piloted by two people of the same gene chain. The Doctor then takes Amy, Rory and Brian back home where Brian, having overcome his fear of travelling, starts a world tour (with one of his postcards showing the dinosaurs on their new home of Siluria). Nefertiti, who has been flirting and clashing with Riddell, opts to go with him rather than return to her own time.
Showrunner Steven Moffat said that putting dinosaurs on a spaceship was "the secret of success". The idea to use dinosaurs in Doctor Who came from the special effects teams The Mill and Millennium FX. As "Asylum of the Daleks" was a darker opening episode, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is more about fun. In Moffat's pitch to writer Chris Chibnall, he proposed, "Maybe it's a ship heading towards Earth, and Earth is on alert". Chibnall had previously written the Doctor Who episodes "42" (2007), "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" (2010), as well as work for the spinoff series Torchwood. The Doctor had previously encountered dinosaurs in the 1974 serial Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Moffat suggested the spaceship was Silurian, and Chibnall, who had written the return of the Silurians in "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood", felt that it was "a nice reveal and shows you more about them, even in a story that isn't really about them".
Chibnall suggested including a "bonkers" gang of characters picked from around time and space. He felt that Doctor Who could have "collisions of characters that no other show in the world can do", and that it was about finding a "disparate" group of characters who would "bounce" off each other. Nefertiti's decision not to return to her own time fits in with the historical record, as the date and cause of her death are unknown. Chibnall asked to introduce Rory's father, as Amy and Rory would be leaving in four episodes and Rory's family life had not been explored yet. Mark Williams, who played Rory's father, previously appeared in the Fifth Doctor audio adventure The Eternal Summer. Rupert Graves, who played an Edwardian hunter in this episode, previously worked with Moffat on the BBC series Sherlock. David Bradley's character, Solomon, was modelled on a "well-known nightclub owner with long hair". Chibnall described him as "half businessman, half Somali pirate". Bradley and Williams had previously worked together on the Harry Potter film franchise. Bradley was later cast as First Doctor actor William Hartnell for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time, and then played the character of the First Doctor in the Christmas special episode Twice Upon a Time. Comedy duo Mitchell and Webb provided the voices of Solomon's two robots; executive producer Caroline Skinner called the casting choice "perfect". Richard Hope, who played the Silurian Bleytal, previously appeared as Malohkeh in the episodes "The Hungry Earth", "Cold Blood" and "The Wedding of River Song".
"Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and the following episode, "A Town Called Mercy", were the first episodes to be produced for the seventh series, both directed by Saul Metzstein. The two episodes are Metzstein's first Doctor Who credits. The episode contains one of the biggest sets ever built for the show. The scenes in the "engine room" were filmed at Southerndown beach, Vale of Glamorgan in late February 2012. The beach had previously been used as "Bad Wolf Bay" in "Doomsday" (2006) and "Journey's End" (2008), and as the planet Alfava Metraxis in "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone" (2010).
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Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
"Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is the second episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It first aired on BBC One in the UK on 8 September 2012 and on BBC America on the same date in the United States. It was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Saul Metzstein.
The episode features alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) accompanied by Rory's father, Brian (Mark Williams), Queen Nefertiti (Riann Steele), and John Riddell, a British big-game hunter (Rupert Graves). The group lands on a large spaceship that contains dinosaurs and discover that it is a Silurian ark, though the Silurians have been murdered by Solomon (David Bradley), a black market trader who is intent on finding something of value.
"Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" was conceived to be a fun episode, based on a suggestion from the special effects teams about incorporating dinosaurs into Doctor Who. The storyline and characters were developed between Chibnall and head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat. Due to budget limitations, a wider plot had to be developed because the dinosaurs could not be the centrepiece. The dinosaurs were a mix of props and computer-generated imagery. Along with the third episode, "A Town Called Mercy", "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" was in the first production block of the seventh series, with production commencing in early 2012 in the studio and on Southerndown beach in the Vale of Glamorgan. The episode was watched by 7.57 million viewers in the UK and received generally positive reviews from critics.
The Eleventh Doctor receives a call from the Indian Space Agency in 2367 about a vast spaceship which will crash into Earth in six hours. The ISA plans to destroy it with missiles unless the Doctor stops it first. He takes Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, Edwardian game hunter John Riddell, companions Amy and Rory, and, inadvertently, Rory's father Brian. Amy discovers the ship is a Silurian ark designed to carry the reptilian humanoids to a new planet along with flora and fauna from their time period to escape a destructive impact. The ship, however, registers no Silurian life forms left on board. After escaping from a group of pterosaurs in the engine room, the Doctor, Rory and Brian are escorted by two robots to a brutal man called Solomon who has been injured in a raptor attack and requires medical help. Solomon reveals himself to be a lawless exotic black market trader who has raided the spaceship in order to steal the dinosaurs. Having had the robots murder all of the Silurians, Solomon was unable to take control of the ship himself and the computer defaulted to its point of origin, causing it to return to Earth. Discovering Queen Nefertiti's identity and value, he decides to kidnap her and leave in his own ship. Though the Doctor refuses, Nefertiti agrees to go with him to save the others. Meanwhile, the ISA proceeds to fire their missiles at the ark, against the Doctor's wishes.
While Amy and Riddell shoot hostile dinosaurs with "anaesthetic" guns, the Doctor disables Solomon's robots and rescues Nefertiti, then tricks the ISA missiles into targeting Solomon's ship rather than the ark: it is destroyed, taking him with it. Rory and Brian pilot the ark away from the Earth, as the ship can only be piloted by two people of the same gene chain. The Doctor then takes Amy, Rory and Brian back home where Brian, having overcome his fear of travelling, starts a world tour (with one of his postcards showing the dinosaurs on their new home of Siluria). Nefertiti, who has been flirting and clashing with Riddell, opts to go with him rather than return to her own time.
Showrunner Steven Moffat said that putting dinosaurs on a spaceship was "the secret of success". The idea to use dinosaurs in Doctor Who came from the special effects teams The Mill and Millennium FX. As "Asylum of the Daleks" was a darker opening episode, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is more about fun. In Moffat's pitch to writer Chris Chibnall, he proposed, "Maybe it's a ship heading towards Earth, and Earth is on alert". Chibnall had previously written the Doctor Who episodes "42" (2007), "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" (2010), as well as work for the spinoff series Torchwood. The Doctor had previously encountered dinosaurs in the 1974 serial Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Moffat suggested the spaceship was Silurian, and Chibnall, who had written the return of the Silurians in "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood", felt that it was "a nice reveal and shows you more about them, even in a story that isn't really about them".
Chibnall suggested including a "bonkers" gang of characters picked from around time and space. He felt that Doctor Who could have "collisions of characters that no other show in the world can do", and that it was about finding a "disparate" group of characters who would "bounce" off each other. Nefertiti's decision not to return to her own time fits in with the historical record, as the date and cause of her death are unknown. Chibnall asked to introduce Rory's father, as Amy and Rory would be leaving in four episodes and Rory's family life had not been explored yet. Mark Williams, who played Rory's father, previously appeared in the Fifth Doctor audio adventure The Eternal Summer. Rupert Graves, who played an Edwardian hunter in this episode, previously worked with Moffat on the BBC series Sherlock. David Bradley's character, Solomon, was modelled on a "well-known nightclub owner with long hair". Chibnall described him as "half businessman, half Somali pirate". Bradley and Williams had previously worked together on the Harry Potter film franchise. Bradley was later cast as First Doctor actor William Hartnell for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time, and then played the character of the First Doctor in the Christmas special episode Twice Upon a Time. Comedy duo Mitchell and Webb provided the voices of Solomon's two robots; executive producer Caroline Skinner called the casting choice "perfect". Richard Hope, who played the Silurian Bleytal, previously appeared as Malohkeh in the episodes "The Hungry Earth", "Cold Blood" and "The Wedding of River Song".
"Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and the following episode, "A Town Called Mercy", were the first episodes to be produced for the seventh series, both directed by Saul Metzstein. The two episodes are Metzstein's first Doctor Who credits. The episode contains one of the biggest sets ever built for the show. The scenes in the "engine room" were filmed at Southerndown beach, Vale of Glamorgan in late February 2012. The beach had previously been used as "Bad Wolf Bay" in "Doomsday" (2006) and "Journey's End" (2008), and as the planet Alfava Metraxis in "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone" (2010).