Thursday, November 7, 2013

Doctor Who-Dinosaurs On A Spaceship

                         The doctor journey's throughout time to convince Queen Nefertiti in ancient Egypt,an English big game hunter in Africa named Ridell and of course "the Ponds" to investigate a massive spacecraft about to crash into the Planet Earth in the mid 24th century. Materializing around the Ponds home,the doctor doesn't realize he is about to take on not only Amy and Rory but his father Bryan,a homebody whose never ventured much beyond his own neighborhood. Once on board the ship,they all confront the seemingly impossible presence of dinosaurs on board-including a Triceratops and flying Pterodactyl .Splitting into teams the doctor,Rory and his father find themselves in the spaceship's   hydraulic engine core-only to discover using a computer interface that another ship within this one is causing its course to Earth. Amy has encountered another console at random-managing to ascertain from found log records that the TARDIS is on board a Silurian ark-containing a number of different lifeforms from Earth.

                              Tracing the signal from the intruding spaceship to its source,it turns out that the ship was piloted by an alien trader named Solomon-who planned to impound the Silurian ark to trade in for a large personal profit. Unfortunately his ship damaged the ark,setting it off course towards its possible collision with the Earth. Solomon then attempts to hold the doctor hostage by means of his two temperamental  (and apparently second hand) robot lackey's in lieu of the doctor conceding to his agreement that Nefertiti join him as a personal consort in exchange for Solomon departing in his spaceship The doctor escapes and Nefertiti,having heard and understood Solomon's demands on the ark's communication grid agrees to his demands as the doctor,Rory and Bryan manage to get past Solomon to the ships control deck-but not before Solomon murders the Triceratops. Rory and his father manage to reverse the course of the ark-separating Solomon's from it as the missiles already launched from Earth are redirected to his ship rather than the ark. After returning everyone to their proper time periods,including uniting Ridell and Nefertiti,Rory is now confronted by  his father suddenly becoming a world traveler.

                         In this story history,science,comedy,drama,adventure and pointed social commentary blend together in such epic and ultra fast paced proportions its hard to know where the story is going sometimes. Much of the social commentary is linked the the comedic elements-such as the regal and proud Queen Nefertiti generally only being able to relate to Amy Pond's strong assertions of femininity. Rory's father Bryan,an accidental character if their ever was one,proves the most altered by his adventures on the runaway Silurian ark. His best scene involves him,eating a simple lunch from his metal pain look down at the Earth from the steps of the TARDIS,similar to what his daughter and law Amy experienced during her initial voyages with the doctor. One particular touching scene is how much compassion the doctor shows the Triceratops as its dying, after being shot by Solomon in under twenty seconds. The dinosaur chases in this story are extremely well done and is probably some of the best realized dinosaur related effects in any Doctor Who era. Though it does a lot,this is a story that genuinely benefits from the modern shows higher octane pacing.

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