Dinosaurs! On a Spaceship!
A quick read of reviews on who_daily shows that many are squeeing over Eleven snogging Rory and disapproving of Eleven killing Argus Filch Solomon. And while Eleven snogging Rory is nice (I'm okay with guy-on-guy, I just don't see what all the fuss is about), I feel we're forgetting a very important thing
THERE WERE DINOSAURS!!!!! ON A FRAKING SPACESHIP!!!!!
The 6 year old inside me who still dearly loves "The Land before Time" and geeked out at seeing the tricepatops skeleton at the Natural History Museum thought it was the MOST. AWESOME. EPISODE. EVER! There were ANKYLOSAURII! PTERODACTYLS! And best of all, A TRICERATOPS!!!!!! I'm still trying to figure out if the carnivores were velociraptors. I'm pretty sure I out-geeked the Doctor when they appeared. Then they killed that adorable triceratops and I almost cried :C
Anyway, regarding the actual episode, if I ignore the dinosaurs (which were AWESOME), it was a so-so episode. I'm quite sad about what happened to the Silurians, as I was hoping they'd return for more episodes (we'll always have Madame Vastra though, so it's still good). I wanted so much to like Lestrade Riddell, I really couldn't get past "meh". He just seemed to be all the things I dislike (animal-killing chauvinist and proud of it) and none of his other good characteristics (friendly, funny, laid-back) were strong enough to counter that. I think, apart from the dinosaurs and the people are not objects to be sold message, there was little point to the episode. Rory's dad was good though. At first I was a bit worried about him being annoying, but he settled in quickly and that part at the end where he embraced the adventure for what it was and asked to have quiet lunch while dangling his legs out of the Tardis and gazing lovingly at the Earth really defined his character for me. The simplicity of that request was beautiful.
Last thing, Nefertiti. Now I'm an Akhenaten and Nefertiti fangirl, and so I will need to go on a bit of a fanwank about this ep's take on Nefertiti. For one thing, she probably wouldn't have called her husband Amenhotep in public. While it's true Akhenaten was originally Amenhotep IV, after he changed the religion from worshipping Amen to Aten, he changed his name to include Aten in it and to place himself as the head of religion and Aten's human representative, while trying to eradicate all memory of Amen (such as uprooting the capital to a far away location). Art of that time shows Nefertiti completely supported this and was also very involved in the Aten religion. Thus, she would have not introduced herself as the wife of Amenhotep, but of Akhenaten to cement her and her husband's place as head of a religion. Also, art and poetry from that time show that Nefertiti and Akhenaten were pretty happily married, so I was uncomfortable with saying her husband was a sleeping potion. Still, the episode does explain her sudden disappearance from history.
Anyway, history rant over. I though Neffy was cool and loved her "I'm the Queen of Egypt, I don't take any shit" spunk. Rory, as always, is determined to be level-headed and awesome at the same time (and it's now my headcannon, that anytime they land on a strange planet, he makes the Doctor take him medical-equipment shopping and to look at all the new med toys out there). Also, I've begun to uncomfortably realise that there are some similarities between me and Amy. The love of ancient history for one thing, but also the inability to settle down. Mmmm...