Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, A Town Called Mercy & The Power of Three

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Riann Steele

Another highly entertaining story, with a gruesome guest appearance by the perpetrator of the ‘Red

Wedding’ himself – David Bradley, as Solomon. It’s a wonderfully mad mix in a story by Chris Chibnall. The title says it all – ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’. This mini-series seems to have a lot of money pumped into it, the dinosaurs are noticeably better than ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’! Well, you’d hope so, right?

The Doctor's 'Gang'.

And we have an eclectic mix of guest characters appearing, starting with the very alluring Queen Nefertiti, play by the equalled alluring Riann Steele. We have Rupert Graves as the explorer Riddell, and we have Rory’s Dad along for the ride, played by Harry Potter veteran Brian Williams, again perfect casting.

Is there much to the plot? No, of course not! But it was written by Chris Chibnall. But not every story

David Bradley as Solomon.

has to have 125 plot twists and new questions asked to be good. We have a whacky collection of characters, dinosaurs, the Indian Army in space! And we have two robots who are rather sarcastic, stupid, but above all very funny! It’s a 45-minute romp with dinosaurs on a spaceship. The title is very honest. The story is VERY enjoyable.

9/10

A Town Called Mercy

The Gunslinger. As if you couldn't guess!

Ok. This one left me feeling a bit ‘meh’ to be honest. I can’t admit to being excited or interested all that much with it, so much that I saw it a few days ago and had to go back to the internet to check the title which completely slipped my mind.

We have a Cyborg Gun-slinger in a western town who’s gunning for a dude who committed a whole bunch of war crimes on a distant planet including killing a whole bunch of people trying

to create Cyborgs to win the war. Let that be a lesson to all you would be geneticists! There’s a bit about human nature, perhaps a bit about ethics, some bits and bobs where the Doctor becomes the Sheriff (always going to happen I guess).

It looks very good – they went to Spain to shoot it which must have cost a packet. Well, they filmed in America

for series six and in Italy for two episodes of Series Five, I actually find it hard to grasp that between the Moffat and RTD eras there’s a loss of budget. But that’s apparently what happened! These three series 7 episodes have all looked fantastic, but this is the first that I didn’t feel excited about. It’s a bit slow in places and really isn’t up to much.

To be honest, I much prefer ‘The Gunfighters’.

And that’s the truth!

4/10

The Power of Three

Brian Williams returns.

‘The Power of Three’ sees the return to Earth for a rare present-day story for the Moffat era, where the main cast is once again joined by Brian Williams as Rory’s Dad. It’s a slightly comedic episode - Moffat has been increasing the comedic element it seems, and that’s not a bad thing, involving lots of little boxes as some sort of consciousness decides that humanity should be destroyed.

It has some great moments, but I wonder if Matt Smith is allowed to push the whole comedy angle too far. Either that or this Doctor is the least connected Doctor to reality of all. Getting bored in a heartbeat, running around like a kid with ADHD (especially in this one but certainly not confined to it). Even the first Doctor matured during his three years, but now in Matt Smith’s final full series and he seems to be making the Doctor more childish than ever.

As a portrayal in any given episode,  it’s not a big deal, but over a period of time it becomes tiresome as a viewer I think. When Tom Baker got angry, because of his frequent brevity, it added weight to the anger, but not so much with Matt Smith who sometimes comes across as throwing a tantrum. It’s not that I don’t like Matt Smith’s Doctor, but as we head towards his end-game this Christmas, I would have hoped that he’d be calmer and more measured at this point. He’s a very talented actor and the most physical of all Doctors, especially in his humour. He brings a lot to the role and perhaps it’s also the writing that is letting him down. If it was just the odd episode – ‘The Lodger’ is a perfect example of how well it can work, and so is ‘The Power of Three’, I wouldn’t mind so much.

Jemma Redgrave.

The episode builds very nicely, and sees the re-introduction of UNIT with Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge Stewart as the brigadier’s daughter and now head of the scientific part of the organisation. That was very welcome. I struggled with the ending, that was a bit disappointing, and rushed. But all in all I enjoyed most of ‘The Power of Three’.

7/10

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe & Asylum of the Daleks

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

Bill Baily guest stars, albeit briefly.

Awesome spaceship at the start, it's downhill from there.

You know, Christmas specials. They are kinda Christmassy, right? And sometimes, not much else. This story was very average in my opinion. In fact, after a brilliant opening with the Doctor jumping off a space ship and some humorous back and forths between the Doctor and Madge Arwell,(played by Claire Skinner who does do a fantastic job) it teeters out into some sort of Christmas kids’s film. ‘A Christmas Carol’ was heading that way, but was still solid and I liked it. This time I have to admit to be very bored.

The highlight is Bill Bailey’s guest appearance. Pity it was so short and he did so little. It was Narnia-inspired and that’s pretty much what we got. Maybe for the youngest viewers it hit accord. But even the mention of ‘Androzani Major’ didn’t gain my interest. Crawling through boxes to get to other worlds because basically the Doctor is a magician. and yes, sure sometimes he is. And

the ending where they have saved the father, well that was rather emotional and well played. But the rest is an hour of kids and boredom. Sorry. Fail.

2/10

Asylum of the Daleks

Jenna Louise Coleman in a surprise appearance.

That's a lot of Daleks!

The seventh (new) series of Doctor Who begins with a major BANG! with ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, an

action-packed, Dalek-packed adventure which sees the Doctor, Amy and Rory sent down to a planet where the Daleks keep all the crazy Daleks in an asylum underground. It is also where nanobots are programmed to reconfigure people into ‘sort-of’ Daleks – where little eyestalks appear in their foreheads.

It’s very enjoyable and lots of fun, and also features Jenna Louise

A Dalek shaped building on Skaro.

Coleman as Oswin Oswald, trapped as a Dalek, the future companion of the Doctor in the biggest surprise that Moffat has manufactured yet, and kept spoiler-free somehow which was a major coup. Jenna is fantastic as Oswin, snappy, funny and looks to have the makings of a great companion, whilst Rory and Amy start the story by signing divorce papers as Amy is in the middle of a fashion shoot, which is frankly odd. Of course, love saves the day and

Wasn't so sure about this special effect.

they are back together by the end. And that works nicely, but the stuff at the start, it just doesn’t seem like Amy and Rory at all and when I saw it I thought it must be either a dream sequence or an alternative world to be honest.

Nevertheless. The story is really wonderful, exciting, and features a hell of a lot of Daleks. It’s a pity that most of the classic Daleks, especially the Special Weapons Dalek, don’t do anything. But Series 7 – or Series 7A is off to a cracking start and it looks very expensive. Which is always nice.

8.5/10