Coraline (Outside Screening in City Park, Bradford)

Having watched the new James Bond film ‘Skyfall’ in the warmth of Cineworld and then warmed up with some pizza with friends, it was time to wrap up warm and head to the outside showing of Coraline in the City Park. A huge inflatable screen – one that came down very quickly as we warmed up after in the Turl’s Green – looked impressive in the park and there was a good turnout considering the cold of the night. Thankfully, there was a stall selling hot chocolate and sweets and was, surprisingly, reasonably priced, though it would be nice if they did it again in summer (contrast of the screen depending) to be able to enjoy a pint with the film, if park regulations allow it.

After several animated shorts (we were late to the party but only saw one, a funny and touching tale about a tiger and its cub in a circus) we got the main film, and it was an experience to watch it live outside even in the temperature. I always forget how weird the film is, especially for a kids film, and wondered how many would be retiring home that night a little bit creeped out by the weird characters, monstrous other-mother and the general surreal feel to the piece. It’s an enjoyable film, though, just rather wacky but fitting in with the hallowe’en theme.

The experience of watching it was good. There could have been more seats to sit on in the park – we had to resort to sitting on the edge of the mirror pool – and the sound was perhaps a little too low, but it was a great experience and one I’m glad I went to and, following on from the garden of light, shows that Bradford Council are doing some interesting things with their new park and I hope this will continue. All they need to do now is convert the Odeon into the entertainments venue proposed and then we’ll truly have a thriving entertainment hub in the form of the park, theatres and food and drink venues.

On the night there was security around to keep the place under control, but there were few distractions considering it was a Saturday night, and there was a good mix of Bradfordians of all ages come to see the film.

Here’s hoping for a repeat at Christmas with a festive film – but perhaps with some more patio heaters!

Skyfall [Review]

Having missed out on watching ‘Quantum of Solace’ I felt I needed to see the new James Bond film having really enjoyed the 007 reboot ‘Casino Royale’ and finding the new trailer for the latest film one of the best and promising I’ve seen a while, coupled with the positive praise the film is receiving.

And I’m glad I did, as ‘Skyfall’ is one of the best films I’ve seen this year.

The first thing you have to get over when seeing the film is how much of an industry the Bond series has become. Sure, product placement has always been common in the films to help finance all the car chases, explosions and drinks but I’ve never noticed that many of them in the films itself, but ahead of the 143-minute long movie were more adverts featuring Daniel Craig or Bond look-a-likes selling spin-off merchandise for cars, perfume and mobile phones than you would believe, so much so that my friends and I expected Craig to appear in every other advert not themed around the film, like a tuxedo-wearing Samuel L Jackson coming to recruit more customers to the Avengers Initiative of flogging 007 tat or the Blues Brothers telling the cinema audience ‘we’re getting the brand back together – here, buy some stuff’. They did spare us any less high end products like the James Bond oven mit or the 007 wok (“for when you want your Chinese food shaken and stir-fried”) but we could drive like Bond, smell like Bond and even drink bottled beer like Bond, something he avoids in the commercial but does in the film. What next in the franchise? Bond downs some WKD and gets a male vajazzle?

Anyway, forgetting the adverts and we get into the film itself. Opening with a moody blurred shot of Bond in silhouette – a camera technique used throughout the film with lots of battles happening Matrix-esque in silhouette, representing the shadowy forces at work in this film – we see him on the hunt for a missing laptop hard drive containing all the locations of UN agents undercover, naturally something MI6 doesn’t want going walkabouts. What we get is a high-adrenaline pre-credits sequence that really starts the film off well, with an on-form Craig chasing on foot, in a van, on bike and then on a train, with lots of small, inventive sections that really build up the pace, supported by his as-yet un-named assistant and M, played again by Judi Dench, over intercom back in London. The chase is gruelling and Bond proves himself not to be immune from mistakes, but it’s a spectacle to watch especially when it involves a train and a JCB and then a junior assistant who makes a bad mistake and sends Bond to what we assume is a watery grave. Assume, that is, if we thought the film would be over now with the lead man dead.

The opening credits sequence is back to the brilliance of the Casino Royale style opening with elements of Monty Python animation thrown in, fitting Adele’s soundtrack song perfectly and slipping in Bond conventions old and new into the piece with lots of hints of what to come.

I’m going to leave describing the plot there as I don’t want to spoil it for you but, if you’ve seen the trailer you’ll know what key plot points are. ‘Skyfall’ focusses much more on an invisible threat and covers cyberterrorism, two terrorist attacks in London and M’s past coming back to haunt her, with passing references to internet culture. I’m going to say now that you should see the film and if you want to go into the film clean then don’t read any more here as I may cover some mild spoilers.

Still with me? Then let’s look at the keys points of the film. The plot is very involving with many exciting set pieces. It feels, at times, more like M’s film that Bond’s, and she gets a well employed arc through the film. The attack on the MI6 building is short but impacting and Bond’s life away from MI6 summed up neatly, and there is a constant downbeat feel that keeps coming back, how Britain is no longer the power and force it was. There are lots of elements to ‘Skyfall’ and each brings something else to the table and move about so much there is no opportunity to get bored. We get a court-room-esque scene analysing M’s reputation and decision making; Bond’s inability to get back into shape and the effect this has on his role; a casino-based deviation; a thrilling chase sequence through the London Underground, even if the denouement of this is a little abrupt and lacking in impact considering what happens – just let’s say it involves a subway train and I half expected Ken Barlow to appear and go ‘Oh, not again’; and a new underground base for MI6.

There are also plenty of nods to previous instalments in celebrating of the fifty years, including the return of two long-standing characters played by new actors, one of which is Ben Whishaw’s Q, a marvellous interpretation and a character who adds a new element to the Bond formula and plays a key part in the plot, and proves not to be totally infallible. Played a little like a more conventional Sherlock Holmes, he’s a good balance against the brawn of Bond. Plus he has a great tea mug. We also get a retro Bond car, the return of a couple of gadgets (plus a witty line from Q about them) and a return to the one-liners that the series is known for, but they’re not too cheesy as in previous ones. In fact, this film does feel more Bond than the previous Bourne-inspired entries, and they seem to have got the balance right this time.

As the plot progresses the action shifts up to Scotland to the Skyfall estate for the final third of the film, which is quite a tonal shift for a Bond movie and doesn’t quite fit in with the feel, but offers something a little different, leading to a very dark and threatening ending as Bond aims to protect himself and M from the oncoming threat.

One character I haven’t mentioned yet is Javier Bardem as Silva, the main villain of the piece. An expert in cybercrime and a blast from M’s past, his appearance in the film is actually quite late, about half way through, and is a mixed bag. There are moments in the film where his part is played to perfection, in particular the chase through the underground and the reveal of what M’s actions did to him physically in what is quite a gruesome reveal, and he certainly has the menace of Heath Ledger’s Joker, especially in the final third, but he seemed at the start too comical even for a Bond villain, coming across as a mix between Sacha Baron Cohen and Pascale Sauvage from the first ‘Johnny English’ film and knocked back the realism of the film for me a little.

The cast was supported by great turns from Albert Finney as Skyfall gamekeeper Kincade and Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory and as an overall piece was very enjoyable to watch and didn’t feel its lengthy two-and-a-half hours. The plot unfolded well, the new characters – especially Q and Naomie Harris’ Eve – were essential parts to the story and Craig felt much more comfortable in the skin of Bond. The set-pieces, in particular the opening train sequence, the Underground part and the siege of Skyfall, were as epic as we expect from a Bond film and there is an emotional climax, but one that I expected from seeing the trailer. The one thing the film doesn’t have is many surprises. The ending is obvious from the trailer and the outcome seems a waste considering everything they went through in the film, and the wake short and rushed, even if it is punctuated with a neat joke and a couple of revelations.

With its mix of exotic locales and international missions, but with a much larger focus on home soil which makes the threat much closer, and a more realistic threat with computers replacing nuclear warheads and other clichéd Bond villain territory, a theme covered both inside and outside MI6, the shift in locale ticks the box and, like The Joker from the Dark Knight, the threat seems more real for being more grounded.

Overall, ‘Skyfall’ is the best Bond film I’ve seen for sheer adventure, set-pieces and tension and rounds off fifty years of Bond, James Bond, perfectly.

(8.5/10)

Looper [Movie Review]

Labelled on the posters as this decade’s answer to ‘The Matrix’, ‘Looper’ stars ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Joseph Gordon-Levitt and action man Bruce Willis as two generations of the same character. Thirty years in the future Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is a looper, a person hired to assassinate people sent back from the future another thirty years ahead when time travel has been invented and bodies hard to dispose of. A looper’s job is to receive the hooded and clocked person, shoot them with their blunderbuss gun, and dispose of the body, getting rewarded for their work with silver bars that can be converted in a bureau-de-change into real cash.

However, eventually in the life of a looper, their future self is sent back to cover up their crimes with a golden payout but the knowledge that in thirty years they will be dead. This happens to Joe as his future self comes back but he fails to kill him and thus begins a cat and mouse game as both are on the run from the organisation.

‘Looper’ is full of fantastic concepts, not least the one outlined above. There is a sub-plot about telekinesis that works well, and the futuristic environment is well created in CGI, from the buildings, to vehicles to the sci-fi conventions of screens and adverts etc. Sure, I don’t think cities will have so much new construction in thirty years but it feels right. The whole world is well created with a gritty, realistic feel and a big sense of them and us, from the high-flying drug-taking life of the wealthy loopers, to the poorer end of the community with patched-up cars, living lives out of trolleys. Gun crime is rife in this world, a world that looks futuristic but without being unrealistically futuristic.

The first half of the film is where it excels. Gordon-Levitt is captivating on screen as Joe, with make-up and prosthetics on to bridge the gap between him and an older Bruce Willis. Some have commented on the distracting nature of these effects but, to be honest, I didn’t notice them, other than they had a neat similarity between them. The time-lapse, though quick, where the two actors change from one to the other is well done. Willis has lots of fun as Joe’s older self and, alongside Jeff Daniels as Abe – my favourite in the film – there is a lot of humour employed amongst the darker side of the story, from a great scene involving a looper and a spinning gun to one where the loopers chase Willis with Gordon-Levitt, only to turn on the latter when they realise what’s happening, to many scenes shared between Gordon-Levitt and Willis that highlight their similar personalities separated by thirty years.

And the humour does compliment the darkness well. We have a looper that fails to kill his victim and is thus is slowly surgically worked on, removing his fingers and legs, nose and more, changes that immediately reflect on his future self, a grotesque but well realised transformation. There are characters working in strip joints; characters addicted to drugs; and characters that are willing to shoot somebody with a click of the fingers.

You may be thinking from reading this so far that I agree with the reviews, that the film is brilliantly. However, though there are some great concepts and the first half of the film is great, establishing the world, characters and concepts with precision, the second half goes awry. There is a scene half-way through where two new characters are introduced, characters that set the direction of the film, that feels in the cinema like they’ve just missed out something, like the jump cut is too major and it is really disorientating and takes about fifteen minutes to get back on track. It is where we are introduced to a character in the future who is destroying the world and how he can be stopped, which is the direction the film takes from now on. Here we find concepts introduced earlier, such as the telekinesis returning, but the way they are used, to me, felt confusing, rushed and appearing out of the blue, and not gelling with the rest of the film. After establishing Willis as a credible older Joe, with emotional reasons why he is how he is, his character flips to a killing machine and one that doesn’t sit right with what we’ve learnt, as well as a character who seems to be able to brush off bullets and avoid gunfire whilst killing everyone else, a cliché that is often employed but sits awkwardly in this film after what it has established and so much realism set up.

The ending also feels rushed. Emily Blunt as Sara encounters a young Joe and is very wary of him but within a couple of days suddenly changes from a hard-faced country-living woman used to living on her own who has seen a lot of things to someone who, in a shoe-horned in section, invites young Joe in for sex rather than, er, doing the job herself as is implied. The ending plot line and twist makes sense but seems forced and comes to quickly and we don’t see enough about how Joe old and Joe young react to it.

‘Looper’ is an interesting film and establishes some fantastic, involving concepts in a future that looks realistic but also well set up with its CGI and landscapes. The first hour is a delight to watch with much humour, darkness and great sci-fi scenes that all blend well, brought to life by the characters. But then, in the second half, it’s as if they got bored and it goes all too rushed, unrealistic and losing the focus, throwing the audience in a bad way out of the universe it created. It felt like two different films accidentally glued together by an uninterested projectionist. The same film that establishes the character name of Beatrix which is used in a neat twist and loads of other great and exciting concepts doesn’t seem the same one that introduces a character straight out of the Exorcist and turning Joe into some sort of impenetrable fighter.

Not a bad film and I’m glad it saw it, but certainly not a strong film as ‘The Matrix’ that it’s being compared to. (5/10)

Doctor Who - The Angels Take Manhattan (Review)

So far I have been quite negative of the latest series of Doctor Who, with only ‘A Town Called Mercy’ and, more so, ‘The Power of Three’, stepping up to the plate as being worthy of the excellent first two series that saw Matt Smith step up to the plate as the Doctor.

But I’m glad to say that mid-series conclusion ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ was the strongest of the five episodes so far and an almost perfect end to the story of Amy and Rory Williams that began two-and-half years ago.

Before I get to the nature of the plot the cinematography is what needs the most acknowledgement in the episode. 1930s New York has never looked so beautiful and the periodic detail of the time, from the buildings to the clothing, were spot on. Michael McShane – Dr. Vaabit from the under-rated comedy ‘Lab Rats’ – was a great character as a gangster-style crime boss and fit the scenes perfectly, and the opening ten minutes before the credits rolled was an incredible atmospheric and scene-setting trip around depression New York that set up the story and featured not only a precursor to later events as the private investigator met himself but also a great denouement with a living Statue of Liberty, this twist damaged only by the spoiler trailer used by American TV last week and ‘Conspiracy Keanu’ on Twitter asking the question six months ago ‘What if the Statue of Liberty was a giant weeping angel?’ This twist in itself was a nice addition to the mythology of the creatures, creatures that were almost back to the scariness they commanded in ‘Blink’ that was almost missing from the two-parter of two series ago.

After a fittingly atmospheric credit sequence we returned to modern day New York to find the Doctor, Amy and Rory engaging in some fun and reading from a book, a novel that would form the crux of the episode. With Rory being zapped back to 1930s New York while on a mission to find coffee, the book turned out to be written by River Song in a well composed mechanic, built around the effective use of a typewriter overlaid over shots, equally located in the pre-war time period, in the ultimate example of written-down spoilers. Back in the 30s the angels are rife, using the building ‘The Winter Quay’ as a prison and feeding ground to ‘consume’ the time energy created by sending people back in time, a method that the angels have not used since the excellent ‘Blink’ back in the David Tennant era of the show.

With the Doctor and Amy finally finding a way to return to the 1930s, the episode continued as a tense mystery-solving and angel-avoiding adventure, taking in death, danger and plot twists. The flickering lights – alluded to throughout this first half of the series – ramped up the tension, as did the reading ahead in the book to discover their own futures. Here Matt Smith, as the Doctor, portrayed the character once more brilliantly, showing his fear at the creatures and his apprehension of what would be upcoming. Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillian were on top form, as was Alex Kingston as River Song, playing a much more muted character than we expected for it.

The episode climaxed to a roof-top scene between Amy and Rory that felt like the end with emotions running high, already building on elderly Rory’s earlier death, and felt like a touching end to the story but not before the tension was relieved by their deaths creating a paradox and thus saving them.

But just as we felt it was going to be a happy ending, albeit a cheated one with yet another RTD-inspired big reset switch, the grave with Rory’s name still present on it was spotted, unlike the angel behind him which wasn’t, leading to a heart-wrenching scene played beautifully by Gillian and Smith, and I’m not afraid to say that, between that and the excellent episode score, I found it very tearful and a sad end to the episode, perfectly rounding off the story, and emotions that continued as the Doctor rushed to read the last page of River’s story and once more the feelings came back. Yes. I cried. Sue me!

The episode ended on a touching conversation between the Doctor and River Song, rounding off the strongest episode of a previously-weaker series, and then another tear-jerking shot of a young Amelia Pond awaiting her raggedy man.

It’s difficult of me to think of points were the episode fell down. I suppose it would have been nice to have seen some scenes of Amy and Rory living out their life together and perhaps, as was suggested on the net, seeing River grow up when she was in New York previously, but it’s difficult to pick fault with what seemed a packed forty-five minutes, but one that seemed to be slow and atmospheric at times, that’s slow in a good way.

With the excellent atmosphere of 1930s New York successfully created in the episode and the well-constructed story, ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ was the perfect way to round off the two-and-a-half years of stories and was both exciting, tense, touching and well-acted by all those concerned.

I look forward now to the Christmas special having enjoyed a story that redeemed the series so far, including the fun idea of the Statue of Liberty being a weeping angel; the inability of the Doctor to change time when it’s a fixed event; and the emotion of saying goodbye to two characters we’ve followed for two and a bit series. Well acted, well plotted and very atmospheric. I don’t think we could have asked for a better mid-season finale.

9/10

Doctor Who: The Power of Three (Review)

After two episodes in the new series that I could really take or leave and a better third one, we finally get to a corker of an episode that successfully balances drama, comedy and the feeling of an approaching threat, creating a strong forty-five minutes of Saturday night drama.

The episode, picking up many years in the chronology of the Ponds, sees them balancing their domestic and working life with that of their life with the Doctor, all against the backdrop of small cubes appearing over the world, shown through RTD-era news bulletins and CCTV footage. The Doctor, with the Ponds, has to work out what this slow invasion means before it’s too late.

So why did I enjoy this episode? Well it’s the first large-scale episode we’ve had in a while with a global impact, reflected well in their choice of locations. There is also plenty of humour scattered through the episode from cameos from Brian Cox and Alan Sugar’s Apprentice team – both well inserted in – alongside a very ‘Cabin In The Woods’ style situation under the Tower of London as UNIT also investigate the cubes, and find that each one has their own unique personality including one very musical one. In fact, I would have liked to have seen this idea explored more but there is only so much you can compress into one episode.

Matt Smith was as excellent as the Doctor once more, flipping between emotions, even if the hammy acting after one of his two hearts stopped was a tad unrealistic. His scene with Rory’s dad – played by Mark Williams in a far better and more enjoyable appearance than his last episode – was very touching and hints at what could be to come in next week’s Angels-focussed episode. Plus, he had a more rounded personality throughout the episode and added lots to the piece.

It was also nice to see the Pond’s life expanded upon and we finally get to see Rory working and that Amy actually has a job and the episode balances the normal with the abnormal well.

Then there was the scene with the Doctor painting, mowing and hoovering, alongside Rory's Dad and his log, and some creepy grill-mouthed men to add to the mix.

That’s not to say the episode isn’t without its flaws. Though the CGI of the cubes was mostly impressive some of the moving shots broke the illusion, and there were a few too many convenient plot strands, such as one of the wormholes to the “big bad” being present in the hospital where Rory works and the rushed conclusion to the episode with a motivation for the events of the slow invasion still a little bit muddy in my memory after a first watch. Again, like the other episodes, there is scope for at least getting two episodes out of each story to allow things to develop, but this mostly succeeded in its self-contained one episode.

Throw in a neat throw-back to the Brigadier, lots of clips of older episodes, the tear-jerking musical theme near the end and the nice little scenes of how the cubes are taken in by the humans, and you get an enjoyable, funny but also foreboding episode that is my favourite of the series so far, though that’s not saying much in a series that has yet to really make a huge impact on me.

(7/10)

Doctor Who – A Town Called Mercy [Review]

Well that was a bit better. After two episodes that I didn’t think were the best of Moffat’s era, we got a story that improved on what was lacking in the last two: proper time to get to know characters and emphasise with them; an interesting baddie; and a well-developed moral dilemma for the Doctor, even if it did get a bit wibbly wobbly timey wimey with Matt Smith’s Doctor flitting between his opinions.

In ‘A Town Called Mercy’ we got a beautifully realised American West town under bright blue skies and an interesting set of characters, even if the arrival of them at the town was glossed over quite quickly with a oh-by-the-way moment of the TARDIS going wrong.

The opening Terminator-style shots of the robot killing the man was well done and the Cyborg itself well realised and realistic in an episode where real effects were done instead of CGI – though the creature of the week – Kahler Jex – was clearly just human with an elaborate tattoo - though the slow disappearing and re-appearing of the Cyborg approaching the town was quite creepy in its effect.

The moral dilemmas of the episode was where the episode excelled with The Doctor, seemingly becoming more and more the justice-giver like a geeky Judge Dredd, with Amy this time acting like his moral conscience. The exploration of morals and how characters can be grey rather than black and white was well realised but it did get a bit samey as the Doctor kept changing his opinions.

The final third of the episode was perhaps not as strong as the opening but overall it was my favourite of the three episodes thanks to its interesting plotting and more time given to explore the characters and feel for them – characters such as the Marshall and the young lad keen to stand up to make a decision, in stark contrast with the hefty introductions of last week’s episode.

Hopefully next week’s episode will continue this trend of increasing returns.

7/10

Doctor Who – Dinosaurs On A Spaceship

In what is possibly the best Doctor Who title since ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ was announced last year, how could an episode that sounds like a sexed-up version of cult movie hit ‘Snakes On A Plane’ not work? Well, if it’s a little bit messy in its structure.

As a big fan of series five and six and its improvement over the nicely plotted but poorly written Tennant era, I feel a little let down by series seven so far. Last week’s ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ was an episode that improved with each viewing but wasn’t the best of the three openings but this week’s episode, though full of some great characters and equally great CGI, it just felt to be missing something.

And it’s the inherent problem with these episodes, creating mini-blockbusters in forty-five minutes: there isn’t enough time to set the episodes up properly.

In the Chris Chibnall written ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ (affectionately called ‘In space no one can hear you roar’ on the net) the Doctor heads to space with Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, whom he is seen having a dalliance with at the start of the episode, and a big game hunter from the African planes, to investigate a spaceship heading to earth that is about to be blown up by the stereotypical Asian accent unit, or the Indian Space Agency as it’s perhaps known. On board the ship the Doctor – now with Amy, Rory and Roy’s dad – investigate the cargo to find its home to ankylosaurs, a Triceratops, some baby T-Rexs and some raptors. Oh, and that guy from Harry Potter who killed off the previous owners of the ships – a neat cameo from the Silurians – to get hold of the dinosaurs, only to find himself injured and unable to pilot the ship away from a crash course with earth and the stereotyp… I mean, ISA missles.

If that seems a lot of plot to cram into a paragraph imagine the amount of set-up required before the green-tinged credits roll (now with a dinosaur-skinned logo, confirming my thoughts that last week’s was styled like a Dalek – neat idea, but I hope we get the other logo back soon). Though it’s been done before it’s never felt this rushed or compressed and, though I understand the need to keep the episodes peppy and exciting compared to the older four-part serials to keep those with wandering attention spans happy, the lack of slowly establishing key plots and characters is absent so it’s hard to feel anything for them, a bit like the rushed breakdown of Amy and Rory’s marriage of ‘Pond Life’ and last week’s episode, which seems to have been brushed aside now with no mentions.

This isn’t to say the episode doesn’t have its moments. The CGI is fantastic and the dinosaurs very realistic. The net has been a buzz with how they made such good dinosaurs on a budget. Perhaps they borrowed at least the raptors from Primeval, with the Mill doing CGI work on both. In fact, at many times it does go a little Primeval – and Jurassic Park – with dinosaurs, electronic stun guns and even several mentions of the word ‘Arc’. I was half expecting Douglas Henshall to walk through a door as Nick Cutter and when asked why he’s not dead he answers, in a thick Scottish accent, ‘It’s all timey wimey’ before wandering off down a corridor asking for ‘Helen’ before realising she’s dead too.

The character of Solomon was a particularly good villain in this piece and got the most character development of the lot of them with some good motives for his action and played with delicious evilness by David Bradley. He was supported by two robots – voiced with some campness by comedians Mitchell and Webb – who were great characters but felt shoe-horned into this episode and under-developed, competing as they were with every other plot development and new character. As I mentioned earlier, it seems like three stories crammed ineffectively into one.

Elsewhere Mark Williams did a cracking turn as Rory’s father with some great comedy moments and a beautiful scene – the highlight of the episode for me – where he sits on the ‘doorstep’ of the TARDIS looking down to space. That said, him and Rory seemed to have some sort of relationship issues based around Rory being a nurse and not the trowel-carrying “man” that his dad is, but they are brought together at the end to pilot the ship thus bonding them back as a family. It’s just a shame that their relationship and its difficulties didn’t have more than a scene on a step-ladder to set it up.

Rupert Graves was an interesting addition as the big game hunter, channelling Jurassic Park’s Pete Postlethwaite character, but was cut from the classic misogynistic character role. He was also responsible for one of the two big scene-crashing did-they-really-say-that innuendos which, I found funny, but they did seem at odds with the style of the show. Having already heard Williams talk about the balls in his pocket – golf balls that is, matron – we had to sit through Graves glinting suggestively at Nefertiti with no hint of irony, cocking back his gun and saying something along the lines of ‘what you need is a good man with a big weapon’. Kenneth Williams would be proud. Ooh. Matron. All we needed was Amy, who took a very Doctor-like role in this piece, hacking into computers and generally helping out, to push back and her bra flies off to complete an episode that should be called ‘Carry On Jurassic Park In Space’.

Of course these comedic and camp elements did compete with the darker Doctor sending Solomon to his death and the sombre mood growing between Amy and the Doctor, developing in this episode, and these were better parts of the episode.

Overall ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ had its moments. It’s showcased Amy and Rory being much more useful in the fight against space evil; there was touching family bonds between Rory and his dad; some top-class CGI from the Mill on the dinosaurs and the spaceship; and some decent comedy from the robots. It wasn’t the strongest episode I’ve ever seen and the introduction of all the characters seem to be just to make plot points make sense – the baddie needs the sexy Nefertiti as a bargaining tool; the ship needs two people of the same gene line to operate, quick get Rory’s dad in; we need someone to stalk dinosaurs on a ship with a big gun, let’s get him onboard before we even know there are dinosaurs on it.

Though there is much to enjoy in the episode and the dinosaur elements including the Pterodactyl chase and the race on the triceratops are well done and make it great for younger viewers, It feels like a rushed episode. Given two episodes to build it up and give more screen time to the relationship of the two Williams, the comical robots; and the setting up of Nefertiti and the game hunter, it would have been a stronger piece. I’m all for big blockbuster episodes but, on the strength of these two so far, they seem to be substituting development for spectacle and setting up key plot points quickly and then resolving them even quicker, and I’m not sure whether I like it.

(6/10)