Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

"Dinosaurs.... on a Spaceship!!!" The Doctor's gleeful shout pretty much sums up this episode. It's a ball full of fun, which is exactly what the writers intended. It lacks much of a concrete plot and will never make it on a Doctor Who "top ten" list, BUT it does do a nice job of taking all our favorite elements of Doctor who and tying them together. I mean, how often do you literally get both the "Time" and "Space" elements in the episode title?

Spoilers beware (although honestly this episode doesn't depend on revelation, you could know the whole plot of the episode ahead of time and still enjoy it - we all basically did anyhow.)

We've got the Doctor, a tag along Queen Nefertiti, An enlisted big game hunter, and three kidnapped Ponds. (Well, Williams, but they will always be the Ponds to the Doctor, even if one of them is Rory's Dad). And then there is a giant Silurian ship full of dinosaurs and a conniving bandit with his two wise-cracking temper-tantrum throwing robots.

While not brilliant, it worked better than I thought it would. We got a nice interaction between Rory and his dad, without straying into too deep waters. Nefertiti and the big game hunter were fun, although a trifle underused.

However by far the best element of this episode was seeing Amy and Rory in the position of 'Senior Companions." Both of them showed off the knowledge and confidence they've gained from their years with the Doctor, with Amy even referring to Nefertiti and big game hunter as "her" companions. (Although I was disappointed that Amy missed the chance to tell of Nefertiti with "Yeah he's got a queen: my daughter!").

Yet although Amy and Rory seem more mature than ever, a brief conversation with the Doctor shows a worrisome undercurrent in Amy's life. She's trying to live normally, but she isn't able to stay long at any one job. She's not living, she's... waiting. Which brings us back to the infertility issue from last episode, because if Amy and Rory had been able to have more children, I think Amy would have been able to settle down and focus raising her family. Right now, though, the Doctor literally is her family, and she worries about him when he's not there and is unable to focus on life on earth. How will this resolve? We'll find out over the next three weeks...

Final question in this fan's mind. Now that Brian knows about the Doctor, will he be introduced to his granddaughter?