Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (TV story)

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was the second episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales.

Synopsis
An unmanned spaceship hurtles towards certain destruction -- unless the Doctor can save it, and its impossible cargo… of dinosaurs!

Plot
The Doctor is employed by the ISA in order to stop an approaching space craft. He seeks the help of Queen Nefertiti, John Riddell, Amy,  Rory and unexpected accomplice, Rory's father, Brian Williams. Inside the Silurian Ark they discover dinosaurs, two conversational robots, and an injured trader known as Solomon. It is up to the Doctor to protect the rare dinosaur specimens and stop the spaceship from crashing into Earth.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * Riddell - Rupert Graves
 * Brian Williams - Mark Williams
 * Solomon - David Bradley
 * Queen Nefertiti - Riann Steele
 * Indira - Sunetra Sarker
 * Robot 1 - Noel Byrne
 * Robot 1 voice - David Mitchell
 * Robot 2 - Richard Garaghty
 * Robot 2 voice - Robert Webb
 * Bleytal - Richard Hope
 * ISA Worker - Rudi Dharmalingam

Crew
to be added

Culture

 * Brian calls the Doctor Arthur C. Clarke when the Doctor, Rory and he are in the engine room.
 * When the Doctor disables Solomon's robots, they sing "Daisy Bell" - a reference to HAL's disabling in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * Amy says that John needs a lesson in gender politics.
 * The Dinosaur ship is a Silurian Ark - which possibly suggests that they salvaged two of every dinosaur species - to which they would've conceived more. Though Bleytral (Richard Hope) confirms that they have had trouble making them conceive more.

Sports

 * Brian enjoys golf and carries golf balls around with him.

Story notes

 * The Doctor claims to be a Sagittarius, but qualifies this statement by adding, "Probably." Interestingly enough, November 23 (the first airdate of Doctor Who in 1963) falls during the time that Sagittarius is occupied by the sun.
 * The Doctor kisses Rory affectionately on the mouth after Rory suggests checking if the Silurian Ark has defence systems. This is the second same-sex kiss featured in the series and the first initiated by the Doctor. The first kiss was between Captain Jack Harkness and the Ninth Doctor in The Parting of the Ways.
 * Rory gives his father a shot and promises it won't hurt. Afterwards, when Brian yelps at the pain of the shot, Rory says, "I lied." This scene paralleled the one done in DW: The Time of Angels when, like her father, River Song gave Amy a shot and promised it wouldn't hurt, only to later explain that she lied.

Ratings

 * The episode received overnight ratings of 5.5million viewers in the UK.

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * The Doctor's socks constantly change from stripey blue socks to his normal black socks.
 * On the final postcard sent by Rory's dad, the TARDIS exterior resembles how it looked before the redesign in The Eleventh Hour.
 * The flying reptiles identified by the Doctor as pterodactyls are actually pteranodons, a relation, though different species of pterosaur, as noted by the distinctive spike-like crest on the back of its head.

Continuity

 * Rory states that he is 31 years old. If Rory was born in 1989 (considering that Amy and Rory are the same age in DW: Let's Kill Hitler and Amy's birth year according to DW: The Big Bang was 1989), then The Doctor picks up Rory, Amy and Brian in 2020, which seems to be the same year that Amy and Rory went back to the hill and waved to themselves in DW: The Hungry Earth, an episode also featuring Silurians. Alternatively, he could be including time spent with the Doctor.
 * Rory's mobile phone rings on the spaceship and Brian is shocked by how it can work in space. On previous occasions the Doctor has been shown to convert a mobile phone into a "superphone". He has done this for Rose Tyler, (DW: The End of the World), and Martha Jones. (DW: 42)

DVD releases
to be added

Blu-ray releases
to be added