“Robot Jez and Mark on a spaceship!” This was the text that Fanboy Comics Contributor Jake Thomas sent me as soon as he finished watching the newest Doctor Who adventure. The second episode of the new series is aptly named “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship,” as it features a spaceship full of dinosaurs.

MINOR SPOILERS BELOW

For those of you not aware of the comedy duo Robert Webb and David Mitchell, they are most famous for playing polar opposite roommates Jez and Mark, respectively, on the hilarious sitcom Peep Show. After alluding to Doctor Who on their own show, it was entertaining to see them voice the bumbling robots in this episode.

Another guest spot in this episode was Mark Williams playing Rory’s father. He is best known for playing Ron Weasley’s father in the Harry Potter movies. I thought he did a great job, and I enjoyed the dynamic of their father-son relationship; although, since he and the Doctor did not meet at Amy and Rory’s wedding, this once again raises the question of why important family members are constantly absent from weddings in Doctor Who.

Once again, there has been a major gap between this episode and the previous one. Nearly a year has passed for Amy and Rory, with no indication as to how long it has been for the Doctor. It must have been quite a while for him, since he has picked up two new companions: Queen Nefertiti of Egypt and Riddell, an African big-game hunter. Like pretty much everything else this series, I liked them and thought they were a good addition; however, they had seemingly no relevance to anything else going on.

With his two returning and three new companions the Doctor heads to the year 2367 A.D. where an awesome, uniquely designed ship is on a collision course to Earth. Once they board the ship, they find it mostly deserted with the exception of dinosaurs, a man named Solomon, and his two incompetent robots. We are presented with several mysteries: Where is the crew? Why did they have a ship full of dinosaurs? Who is Solomon and what is he doing on the ship? Why is it headed towards Earth? As for the mystery of the ship itself, once you learn the answer, you will be kicking yourself for not figuring out the obvious answer of who would have a ship full of dinosaurs.

I enjoyed this episode. I found it entertaining and humorous, but so far there does not appear to be an overarching plot for the series. This series feels to be the most frantic since its regeneration in 2005. It seems to lack the cohesion that has made the show so great. In previous years, you knew that some mastermind was pulling the strings, and even though you did not understand what everything meant, the audience could recognize the threads running through each series. It is possible that Steven Moffat has become so adept at hiding the strings that they are imperceptible, but I think it is more likely that he is too busy planning next year’s 50th anniversary to give this series enough attention and is rather treating it as a very long prelude to 2013.