Orphan 55

"How did Earth end up like this?"

Writer: Ed McTighe

Format: TV

Broadcast: 12th January 2020

Series: 12.03

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

The Thirteenth Doctor and her friends discovered that the luxury resort where they are holidaying is hiding a number of deadly secrets. What are the ferocious monsters attacking Tranquility Spa?

Verdict

Orphan 55 was an interesting and pretty decent episode to continue Series 12, but this may actually go down as Jodie Whittaker's worst story. It wasn't bad, obviously as my rating reflects, but it just didn't quite have the excitement and action to make it perhaps as enjoyable as it could have been. It was clearly a message-filled episode to target global warming and whilst I am fine with dealing with the issues surrounding that, I felt it was a little over the top in this episode and actually got in the way slightly of the plot. It was all very Planet of the Apes as well with the Russian underground and then a made in China label, all of which were in pretty perfect condition considering the catastrophe that must have occurred on the planet. I also had a slight grievance with the fact that Kane didn't seem to know that this orphan planet was actually a very specific one. Earth. That revelation seemed a bit obvious which was fine because the reactions of the companions were excellent. Ryan had one of his better episodes with Bella around and his attempts at chatting her up were quite laughable. She took a liking to him as well though which was nice and the emotional ending for their time together was quite heartfelt, but it could have been even more so in my opinion. Jodie Whittaker had a decent episode as the Thirteenth Doctor and I really loved her distain towards Kane for everything she had done. The idea of the holiday resort was pretty good but it just seemed a little similar to Smile for me. It probably came a bit too soon and looked incredibly similar. Graham's excitement at getting the holiday was good, but other than that he didn't offer a great deal except some humour when the alarms went off as he was enjoying a sit down. Yaz was pretty quiet in this story which was a shame as I felt she could have offered more along with Ryan and Bella. She fit the right age group there and there could have been some development of the companions' relationship. Sylas was a really enjoyable character and it was nice to see that he always knew more than his dad. Hyph3n seemed like she was going to be a bit of an annoying character but thankfully she didn't stay around too long, although her demise was pretty brutal! The revelation that Bella had infiltrated Kane's resort because she was her daughter probably came a little too late to have the desired impact, but the moment where they were pointing guns at each other was magnificent because of the Doctor's reaction and stance. The Dregs were intriguing and they reminded me a bit of the Weevils in their appearance. The direction surrounding them was also a bit weird and I wasn't sure what the effect was attempting to do, but it wasn't bad at all. I knew they were going to be revealed as what awaited humanity, especially when the planet was revealed as Earth, and it made for a sad element in the episode. I thought the Doctor got the leader into a cage quite easy as well. The ending was powerful with Team TARDIS getting transported back to their ship and it was an incredible image to see them back in safety as Bella and Kane took on the Dregs. The Doctor's speech at the end was a little forced and not quite organic, but as a whole this was still a very decent episode.

Rating: 7/10