In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Man! What a frenetic jumble, even by this show's standards. An actual stampede of actual dinosaurs would probably be calmer. The Doctor is trying to escape from Nefertiti's amorous advances when he gets a summons from future Earth. Nefi sort of invites herself along for the ride. They find out that a mysterious spaceship is headed towards the planet and some military group (I think?) is going to blast it out of the sky if the Doctor can't divert it. For some reason, he decides he needs a whole gang to help out this time. He calls on a big game hunter named John Riddell. Then he pops by Amy and Rory's place to pick them up, and ends up inadvertently scooping up Rory's dad Brian, too. Brian is understandably freaked out by the whole thing, but he handles himself pretty well, considering.
They head for the ship, which seems to be deserted... except for dinosaurs. There's one adorably friendly triceratops, some pterodactyls or something of the like, and a handful of tyrannosaurs. If there were more dinos at some point, they probably all died from the shock of finding themselves on a spaceship. Anyway, hijinks ensue. The gang ends up getting separated as they explore the ship. Robots capture the Doctor and the Williams men. Amy is somehow totally an alien computer expert and discovers that the ship was a Silurian ark, headed for deep space.
Two wise-cracking robots capture the Doctor and bring them to their master, a thief named Solomon who has taken over the ship in search of treasure. He ejected all the Silurians into space so that he could sell their dinosaurs, but now his ship is stuck and his legs got chewed on by raptors. He forces the Doctor to fix his legs, then decides to steal Nefertiti because she's even more valuable than the dinos. Amy and the hunter fend off the dinosaurs with tranq guns while the Doctor figures out how to change the ship's course. Oh, and the military has decided to launch missiles without waiting for the Doctor. Jerks. By some ridiculous coincidence, it turns out that the ship needs two related pilots, so it sure was lucky Rory's dad came along.
In the end, the Doctor does an un-Doctorly thing and tricks the missiles into killing Solomon. This saves the ship and the remaining dinos. Rory's dad develops a keen wanderlust. Riddell and Nefi flirt and then hook up. Amy and Rory return to their domestic life, which makes the Doctor a little bit sad. Stay tuned for the full weecap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Things start off in ancient Egypt as the Doctor is scampering to get away from Queen Nefertiti. She's trying to put the moves on him and he's not into it. He doesn't protest that he's a married man. He just offers up his standard "Eek, girl cooties!" reaction and tries to back into the TARDIS while she paws at him. Luckily, his virtue is saved when he gets an alert about some "temporal news." I guess Nefertiti forces her way onto the TARDIS because even though he was just trying to get away from her, he ends up taking her to...
...Earth in the year 2367 AD. There's a spaceship the size of Canada headed for the planet. It looks like a buckyball covered in dog toys. We're only 45 seconds into the episode, by the way, and I've only conveyed a tiny part of what's been said or what's happened in that time. That's how busy this episode is. Anyway, the Doctor gets the deets inside the control room of the Indian Space Agency. Everyone's buzzing about in military style uniforms and looking worried. The Doctor looks over a scan of the ship and blathers on at breakneck speed about how the Ponds would like this and who knows what else. A woman named Indira tells the Doctor that they haven't been able to communicate with the ship. "If it comes within 10,000 kilometers of Earth, we send up missiles," she says. The Doctor sighs. "Oh, Indira. I liked you before you said missiles." Yes, heaven forbid anyone else should decide who gets to live or die. They have just over six hours before the ship reaches Earth. "Come on, Nefi, we're gonna need help!" says the Doctor, grabbing the Egyptian queen.
He stops by the African plains in 1902 so he can pick up Rupert Graves. If I had a time machine, I might do the same. His name is Riddell and they talk like they've had a few adventures together in the past. The Doctor invites him to come with him again. "What is it?" Riddell asks. "I have no idea," the Doctor says. "Do you want to find out?" Riddell grins.
For his stop, he materializes the TARDIS in the middle of Amy and Rory's house. Rory's dad Brian is in the middle of fixing a light socket in the living room when the TARDIS scoops them all up and dematerializes again. The Doctor is so busy blathering and buzzing around the controls that he doesn't notice right off that there's a plus-one aboard. Brian stands there, staring at everything in shock. He drops the light bulb he'd been holding. Most people probably remember the actor from the Harry Potter franchise, but I'll always think of him as Petersen from Red Dwarf. My nerdy British sci-fi worlds collide!