Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

227 – "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"
Doctor Who episode
Promotional poster
Cast
Doctor Matt Smith – Eleventh Doctor
Companions Karen Gillan – Amy Pond Arthur Darvill – Rory Williams
Others Riann Steele – Queen Nefertiti Sunetra Sarker – Indira Rupert Graves – Riddell Mark Williams – Brian Williams David Bradley – Solomon Noel Byrne – Robot 1 David Mitchell – Robot 1 (voice) Richard Garaghty – Robot 2 Robert Webb – Robot 2 (voice) Richard Hope – Bleytal
Production
Directed by	Saul Metzstein
Written by	Chris Chibnall
Produced by	Marcus Wilson
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Caroline Skinner
Music by	Murray Gold
Series	Series 7
Running time	45 minutes
First broadcast	8 September 2012 (2012-09-08)
Chronology
← Preceded by "Asylum of the Daleks" Followed by → "A Town Called Mercy"
List of episodes (2005–present)

"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 centrepiece. 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 in the studio and on Southerndown beach in the Vale of Glamorgan. The episode was watched by 7.57 million viewers in the UK and received generally positive reviews from critics.