227 – "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" | |||||
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Doctor Who episode | |||||
Official poster from the BBC website.
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Cast | |||||
Others
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Production | |||||
Directed by | Saul Metzstein | ||||
Written by | Chris Chibnall | ||||
Produced by | Marcus Wilson | ||||
Executive producer(s) |
Steven Moffat Caroline Skinner |
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Incidental music composer | Murray Gold | ||||
Series | Series 7 | ||||
Length | 45 minutes | ||||
Originally broadcast | 8 September 2012 | ||||
Chronology | |||||
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"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 centerpiece. 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 on large sets and Southerndown beach, Vale of Glamorgan. The episode was watched by 7.57 million viewers in the UK and received generally positive reviews from critics, though the reception of the gang of characters and Solomon's robots were mixed.