Doctor Who: Dinosaurs On A Spaceship / A Town Called Mercy [Double Review]

I just have to say it: this may be my favorite Doctor Who season so far. Every episode’s been a fun romp, and you can’t say that it’s short of characterization, because we’re seeing the strongest Amy Pond so far. The Doctor’s getting darker, and I have to say – I’m liking it.

So what did I think of the last two episodes? Spoilers, ahoy!

Dinosaurs On A Spaceship

The Doctor gets a call from the Indian Space Agency (seriously) about a spaceship the size of Canada hurtling towards the Earth. So the Doctor assembles a team consisting of Queen Nefertiti, some hunter guy from the 1920’s, Amy, Rory, and Rory’s dad. It’s awesome.

• I didn’t care for the on-the-nose feminism, it’s almost a reaction to the misogyny accusations they’ve been throwing at Moffat. It felt forced.
• I love how Amy practically is the Doctor’s equal now. This makes her exit even sadder.
• I’m saddened that my “Oswin shows up every episode in one way or another” theory didn’t pan out.
• A major theme to this half of the series is of the Ponds moving on. Amy still doesn’t want to, but Rory clearly is ok with the Doctor disappearing.
• I love Rory’s dad.
• So the Doctor’s back to letting people die, eh? Solomon deserves it, but you’d think the Doctor would’ve just tied him up aboard the Silurian ship or something. I’m pretty sure it’ll be dealt with within this series.
• Great dinosaur CGI.
• The robots. Oh god the robots.
• The innuendo had me in stitches, and seeing how Amy’s completely uncomfortable with two people flirting around her when a few years back she flirted with the Doctor in front of her fiance was hilarious.
• They actually managed to make a plausible explanation on why there were dinosaurs on a spaceship.

Loved this episode, and the blockbuster-per-episode experiment by Moffat has been working out fine so far.

A Town Called Mercy

Doctor Who takes on the Spaghetti Western. With a cyborg and aliens. That’s basically it.

• There’s this fan theory going around that the Ponds have already died and the Doctor is just going into the past and trying to prevent their deaths. It really explains why the Doctor’s moody and why he’s been letting people die so much lately. It’s kind of a rehash of season 6, but if they pull it off properly, I won’t mind.
• I was about to write off this episode as meh, and then the Doctor just loses control. Say what you want about Matt Smith, but I’ve never seen him become this angry before. He’s scary.
• I wish they made the Doctor’s struggle against his darker side the bigger plot in this story. I know Amy’s words meant a lot to the Doctor, but it really came off as hypocritical to me when he tried to save that alien doctor’s life when a few seconds ago he was about to kill the guy.
• I loved that standoff with that kid.
• I wish they didn’t rip off the Terminator HUD, though.
• I totally understood why they went for that ending, but it kinda felt underwhelming, though. I still can’t figure it out.
• The cinematography is superb.
• “His name is Susan. And he wants you to respect his life choices.” had me laughing so hard!
• I was really expecting the undertaker to poison the coffee.
• When the Doctor calls out the alien doctor for running away from his crimes and said that he can’t choose his justice, was he really talking about that guy or himself? It felt like self-loathing to me.

Overall: not my favorite episode, but it turned out better than expected. I may be biased because westerns aren’t really my cup of tea, though. YMMV.

What do you think of these last two episodes? Tell me about it by leaving a comment!