Doctor Who Reactions: "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" (SPOILERS)

[The Baron]

1)I like Brian Williams, he's a fun character.  Nice of NBC to give him the time off to do it.

 

2)"Nice to meet you."  Wouldn't he have met him at the wedding, or did Brian have the same flu Wilfred Mott had?

 

3)This time the logo is all scaly, very amusing.

 

4)"What sort of man doesn't carry a trowel?"

 

5)Interestingly, there apepars to be some mystery about the final fate of Nefertiti in real life, so it doesn't really mess with history for her to go off with Hunter Boy at the end.

 

6)"Spelling it out is hereditary, wonderful."

 

7)The bitchy robots are mildly amusing, vaguely reminiscent of a Holmesian double-act.

 

8)"Only my balls."  Forty-nine years in, and we get Doctor Who's first testicle joke.

 

9)Solomon's a right vicious bugger, isn't he?  It's a little out of character for the Doctor to leave him to die at the end, but one doesn't really blame him.

 

10)"I'm a Sagittarius, probably."  Which matches if we take the Doctor's "birthday" as the day the show started.

 

11)"How do you start a triceratops?"

 

12)"Did the Silurians beg you to stop?"  We do seem to have a trned of the Doctor being a bit more "hardcore" this season.

 

Overall:

An amusing little story, with an effective heel and an interesting new character in Brian. If you want to see how far the show has progressed tehcnically, go back and watch "Invasion of the Dinosaurs".

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Another story I told elsewhere:  As soon as he saw the title to this episode, Action Lad asked "Did Silurians build the spaceship?"  That never even occured to me, but it was the first thing that jumped into his head.

[The Baron]

What a clever young fellow - must take after his Old Man!  :)

[Doctor Hmmm?]

The operative word there is old.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I have a theory about the Steven Moffett Doctor Who, which I’ll save until the last episode of the Fall season, but this episode is a prime example.

[John Moret]

"I like Brian Williams, he's a fun character. Nice of NBC to give him the time off to do it"

You know, it took me the longest time but I remember now where I remember him from. He was Dave Lister's buddy, Olaf Peterson, in the early episodes of Red Dwarf.

[The Baron]

Hah. That ties into the Baron's Theory of British Television: "Only fifty people have ever appeared on television in Britain, but they all played a thousand roles each."  While it's true that you often have "It's them, from that other show" moments in US television, I find I have them alot more watching British shows. Maybe a smaller overall population leads to a smaller talent pool? Or maybe I just watch more British TV? 

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...In Britain , show business/entertainment is essentially concentrated 100% in a single city , Baron , there's that too .

  Maybe a bit less of the " I'm in movies , I don't do TV " social structure that I believe the LA " biz " , especially , tends towards...And the UK's supposed to be the land of the class system ???????????

[Figserello]

London is a big city, with proably 1000s of capable out of work actors to choose from. Moffatt and RTD go in for stunt casting where they get the viewer onside with familiar, much-loved faces.

The actor here was in a genius sketch show called The Fast Show for a few years in the 90s. Expect him to say 'Suits you Sir!' at least once before he's done. Another Fast Show actor was the woman who was one of the 3 engineers in charge of burning that Narnia planet in the Xmas episode with the RAF widow.

(What does he do for NBC?)

Funnily enough, just the other night, I was thinking about Peiterzoon, as they pronounced it on Red Dwarf. Don't know why, but his name was the last thing to go through my head just before I fell asleep. Weird.

Anyway, I suppose its up to the producers how they get the UK audience 'on-side', but purists would argue that reminding the viewers that they are just watching another TV show is another aspect of the faux-camp approach which brings the show down. Early Dr Who mightn't have looked like something to take seriously, but that was because of restrictions in the budget rather than deliberate. That's a major difference between old and new Who.

Of course US viewers aren't in on the joke, in which case its a good job that most of these BBC 'lovey' insiders are pretty good actors.

[The Baron]

(What does he do for NBC?)

 

He doesn't do anything for NBC - that's some feeble Baronial humor that most likely wouldn't mean much to you.  I was mixing up "Brian Willliams" the Doctor Who character with Brian Williams the NBC Nightly News anchor.  Sorry, Figs, it's a weak enough gag to begin with, made worse by the fact that it's unlikely to mean much of anything to those of you outside the USA

 

Actor Mark Williams as "Brian Williams" on Doctor Who

 

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams.

[Figserello]

Not being in on the joke cuts both ways, then. :-)

[Alan M.]

Last weekend I was at a college football game, and when they announced a player named Brian Williams (CB for the Indiana University Hoosiers), I made the exact same joke, Baron. So if it's a feeble one, we are equally feeble. :)

[Jeff of Earth-J]

So you're saying he regenerated...?