YMMV / Doctor Who S33 E2 "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"

• Base-Breaking Character: Reception of the robots was split as to whether they were funny or out of place.
• Broken Base: The Doctor's leaving Solomon to die at the end. Out of character for a usually merciful hero or justified due to his genocide of the Silurians, thinly veiled rape threats to Nefertiti, and trying to bribe the Doctor to save him at the end, showing he learned nothing? This darker turn for the Doctor at the very least is repeated, but called out, in the next episode.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Rory's father, Brian, got a lot of love for Mark William's funny performance and his charming interactions with Rory. It helps that they both piloted a space ship at the end.
  • Queen Nefertiti and Riddell were well liked for their charisma and entertaining flirting.
  • Tricey the Triceratops gained a lot of praise for her adorable, loyal behaviour, obsession with Brian's (golf) balls, and being letting the Doctor, Rory, and Brian ride her away from the robots. Her surprisingly sad death at Solomon's hand probably helped too.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Solomon's first scene has him demanding the Doctor be brought to him. David Bradley would not only go on to play William Hartnell in the BBC docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, but also became the official actor for the First Doctor following 2018.
  • Two years prior, Robert Webb was the host of "Great TV Mistakes" where he mocked some of the filming mistakes of Doctor Who. Now he actually guest stars in the show!
• Memetic Mutation: _________ on a Spaceship.
• Retroactive Recognition: Solomon is played by David Bradley just a few months before he'd play William Hartnell playing the Doctor and a few years before he would play The First Doctor directly in "Twice Upon a Time".
• Special Effects Failure:
  • Despite the generally excellent effects the jerky, stiff movements of the animatronic T. rex don't look very convincing. It's probably for the best that it was only featured in one scene.
  • Brian's postcard at the end has two noticeable errors: The TARDIS' design is from the RTD era, having a slimmer shape, white windows, and no St. John's Ambulance logo on the door, and the Ankylosaurus' model is from Walking with Dinosaurs rather than the episode.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The dinosaurs in this episode are brought to life with very high quality CGI and animatronics. This mixture worked especially well with Tricey, particularly the scene where our heroes ride her to escape the robots.