My Review of Doctor Who's 12x03: "Orphan 55"

Written by Ed Hime
Directed by Lee Haven Jones

The Doctor (to Graham/Ryan/Yasmin): "Humans, I think you forget how powerful you are. Lives change worlds. People can save planets or wreck them, that's the choice. Be the best of humanity or ..."

Oh dear. After an excellent two part opening adventure featuring the Master, it really felt like this era was finally getting it's groove and then this episode happened. Yes, I know one episode shouldn't undermine potentially good work this series and while every series has it's dud, this really did encapsulate a lot of what is fundamentally wrong with Chris Chibnall's era.

I've seen people complain about the show being political and I've seen people pointing out that the show has always been political. The latter is of course true but we're getting to a point where a commentary on important issues like climate change is overruling the show's ability to tell an entertaining story and that's not a good thing either. Previous eras have been able to balance the need to educate and entertain in equal measures but Chibnall is struggling with this balancing act and this episode is a great example of that struggle.

Anyways the Doctor and her companions are on Tranquility Spa for a bit of a holiday but it soon becomes anything but as the gang get separated in parts and find themselves not only fighting off creatures named Dregs (which do look rather good tbh) but also learning a bit about orphan planets along the way as well as the fate of one particular planet.

Last week we saw Gallifrey in ruins thanks to the Master going apeshit over the Timeless Child arc and this week we learn that Orphan 55 is actually Earth after humanity royally messed the planet up big time. Of course, the Doctor isn't forthcoming with this information straight away and when she does tell her companions, they're a tad peeved that she held that one back.

I could go into the OTT speech at the end but I'd rather ignore even though morally, I agree with it. Instead I'll focus on some of the guest characters, not because they were fantastic but mostly because they were either not great or wasted or both. This was not a great episode for guest characters and there was a lot of them this week.

First of all, there was furry Hyph3n (Amy Booth-Steel) who wouldn't have looked out of place in an 80's serial and the rather annoying couple Vilma (Julia Foster) and Benni (Col Farrell), who are probably some of the worst guests we've had this era so far. There was also a green haired father/son duo Nevi (James Buckley) and Sylas (Lewin Lloyd) who were marginally better and mostly interacted with Graham but still nothing to write home about.

The two guests who did get some focus and not particularly in a positive way were mother and daughter, Kane (Laura Fraser) and Bella (Gia Re). There were some family tension that was poorly resolved, they probably died at the end as the Doctor didn't bother to save them and to be honest, both of them were the cause of the disasters this week. Oh and for a brief moment, Bella had a thing with Ryan but even that wasn't too interesting to bother with.

- The fate of Earth here is a possibility rather than a definite. There was elements of The Mysterious Planet and The Curse Of Fenric with this one.
- No cold opening episode for this one. Seriously, stop ditching the cold openings, Chibnall.
- Graham didn't get to show his speedos, Yasmin seemed in a bad mood over Ryan/Bella and the thumb sucking was a bit cringey when Ryan got a Hopper Virus early in the episode.
- It's been eight years since Ryan's mother died.
- Julia Foster who played Vilma in this episode will play another character called Marcia in an upcoming episode, titled Praxeus.
- Chronology: No specific timeline but a possible future Earth setting of course.

Orphan 55 was our first and hopefully bad apple of the series. Ed Hime is probably a great writer for other things but he definitely is a bad writer for this show. I loathed his previous offering and while this one was marginally better, I really do hope he never gets to write for the show again. Bland guest characters, poorly conveyed message and so on all let this one down. Dregs did look menacing though, so there's that.

Rating: 6 out of 10