 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 " . However , he felt that the teaser was too fast @-@ paced , Nefertiti was " rather bland " , and wrote that it was unlikely the Doctor would have a friendship with a big game hunter . 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 also did not like the " bickering Marvin the Paranoid Android @-@ lite " robots . However , Neela Debnath of The Independent enjoyed the gang , writing , " the more companions there are the more variety it adds to the show because each one has their own flaws and backstory " . 
