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. Plot 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.