The episode features alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) accompanied by Rory's father, Brian (Mark Williams), Queen Nefertiti (Riann Steele), and John Riddell, a British big-game hunter (Rupert Graves).

Amy discovers the ship is a Silurian ark designed to carry the reptilian humanoids to a new planet along with flora and fauna from their time period to escape a destructive impact.

After escaping from a group of pterosaurs in the engine room, the Doctor, Rory and Brian are escorted by two robots to a brutal man called Solomon who has been injured in a raptor attack and requires medical help.

Having had the robots murder all of the Silurians, Solomon was unable to take control of the ship himself and the computer defaulted to its point of origin, causing it to return to Earth.

[4] Chibnall had previously written the Doctor Who episodes "42" (2007), "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" (2010), as well as work for the spinoff series Torchwood.

[15] Comedy duo Mitchell and Webb provided the voices of Solomon's two robots; executive producer Caroline Skinner called the casting choice "perfect".

[16] Richard Hope, who played the Silurian Bleytal, previously appeared as Malohkeh in the episodes "The Hungry Earth", "Cold Blood" and "The Wedding of River Song".

[7][21] The beach had previously been used as "Bad Wolf Bay" in "Doomsday" (2006) and "Journey's End" (2008), and as the planet Alfava Metraxis in "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone" (2010).

[3] The scene where Amy, Riddell, and Nefertiti stumble upon a sleeping Tyrannosaurus rex was almost cut as it was originally intended to feature computer-generated (CGI) raptors, which were too expensive.

[24] The Doctor Who logo in the title sequence featured the texture of a dinosaur's hide,[14] in keeping with the varied "blockbuster" themes for each of the opening five episodes of the series.

[29] The episode also received 1.8 million requests during the month of September on BBC's online iPlayer, placing it second on the chart behind "Asylum of the Daleks".

Dan Martin of The Guardian described it as "fun", with praise to the expensive-looking sets and dinosaurs, the usefulness of Amy and Rory, and the concept of the gang.

[35] Will Barber-Taylor of The Consulting Detective wrote that "[a] mixture between good CGI and a rather nicely paced story means that 'Dinosaurs on a Spaceship' keeps you hooked to the end.

"[36] Dave Golder of SFX gave the episode four out of five stars, describing it as "slight and fluffy and silly, with the occasional creaky bit of plotting ... but enormously entertaining".

He was pleased that the guest characters were played "straight" rather than for comedy, and found the dinosaur effects "great" and the Silurian twist "enriching continuity".

[14] IGN's Matt Risley rated "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" 7 out of 10, noting that it "isn't going to win any awards for scriptwriting or pathos, but it certainly succeeded on a family-friendly level full of whimsy".

Though he wrote that Brian was "brilliant", he overall criticised the "gang", feeling that they "served little purpose other than to inject some conveniently timed plot devices when needed".

He described it as "ultimately a bit of a mess", calling the contrast between the "uneasy mix of the humorous and downright daft" gang and the "sinister" Solomon story "jarring".