Hello everyone and welcome to another Doctor Who discussion post, this time looking at Season 12 episode 3, Orphan 55. We had a strong opener which flagged somewhat in part 2 after a thoroughly part 1 but now the team (not fam, never fam) went off to an intergalactic spa for episode 3. Of course things were not going to be as relaxing as expected. This episode really was a mixed bag for me so here we go, I’ll start with the positives.

They really have made Ryan a better character this season. He’s awkward but sweet and is actually quite funny too when given the chance. Not as funny as Graham who makes the most of every second of screen time he gets but Ryan is definitely improved since last season. I also like the initial premise of a paradise resort holiday actually being fake and built somewhere where it shouldn’t with the locals wanting it gone. We got things moving quickly and the action continued for much of the episode. The episode also looked stunning (as always) and the monsters did indeed look scary.

It is never unusual for the Doctor (especially when doing a “base under siege” episode) o recruit a makeshift, one-off team to help out/rescue. The thing is it is normally just the Doctor and one companion along with a few extras but as the Doctor now has 3 companions, adding a load of extra people just make things feel crowded. The Doctor and each companion each formed their own mini group before all coming together and I can’t remember any of their names. There just didn’t need to be as many people as there were. The whole mother-daughter terrorist sub plot was also really unnecessary and it just over-complicated things. It wasn’t well explained either.

My main issue though was the whole reveal of it being future Earth. They said it was a potential future time line but when could they just go to potential time lines? I know they did parallel Earths before but even that was made clear to be very difficult/almost impossible. They have already established that Earth lasts for millions of years and this ret-con was just not needed. I think the aliens had evolved from trees but I don’t know; why could it just not be on an alien planet? It then seemed at the end the “potential future” was actually a very poorly disguised global warning message to the audience. I am in no way saying that climate change is not an important issue but I do NOT need it shoved down my throat during an episode of Doctor Who. She went full on preacher at the end and it ruined things for me as this was actually one of Jodie’s better performances up to that point.

There is a way to subtly promote real-life issues in a show effectively (see my Supergirl season 4 posts where I rave about how well they do a pro-trans story) but this was not it. But what is most frustrating is that the basics were there for a fun episode.

DD Rating: 5/10