Orphan 55 - The First Review
WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR DOCTOR WHO: SERIES 12 EPISODE 3! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Starring Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole, with Laura Fraser and James Buckley.
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| The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) finds that her holiday isn't going quite as well as she'd hoped. It's not like any of her other holidays have gone badly... |
Starring Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole, with Laura Fraser and James Buckley.
Written by Ed Hime.
Directed by Lee Haven Jones.
The Doctor and her friends discover that the luxury resort where they are holidaying is hiding a number of deadly secrets. What are the ferocious monsters attacking Tranquillity Spa?
After the intense drama of the first two episodes, "Orphan 55" paints itself, initially as something a little lighter. Set around a futuristic spa, this has all the makings of a story in the same vein as those in Sylvester McCoy's first year: light, frothy stories, backed up by strange characters and a distinct setting. However, like "It Takes You Away", Ed Hime's previous script for the show, this takes a turn into territory that you wouldn't be expecting from the premise going in. And, while "It Takes You Away" was probably improved by its twists, "Orphan 55" struggles under the weight of its twist, and ends up feeling like two stories squished together, with a final scene that makes for possibly one of the worst endings in the show's 56 year history.
The basic plot of this episode sees the TARDIS team visiting the Tranquillity Spa, in an attempt to get some rest and relaxation after their recent ordeals. But while Graham and Yaz start to relax, the Doctor and Ryan find that someone is sabotaging the Spa, in the process allowing creatures named Dregs to break through. This premise starts out, initially at least, as very much a base-under-siege story, with a small group of characters confined in an isolated location. This is easily the best part of the episode: with its clear focus, good characterisation and decent, if a little fast, pace. Base-under-sieges are stories that I can really get behind, as they are probably the easiest genre of storytelling in Doctor Who to get right. And this section of the episode is certainly great, with some exciting moments, snappy dialogue and some great use of tension and horror elements, particularly in the steam room scenes. However, this story archetype doesn't really remain for very long, and it soon becomes a quest narrative to find a missing character who has been taken by one of the Dregs. While not quite as engaging, it does add a "Tomb of the Cybermen" vibe to the story, and expands the scope and look of the story beyond the claustrophobic confines of the spa. I will say that, once again, the direction is phenomenal, with director Lee Haven Jones really making use of creative camerawork and stunning visuals to bring the story to life. For most of the first half of the story, we get a Doctor Who adventure which, while not being particularly novel, is at least decent to watch, and features some grizzly moments and horrific monsters (yes, the Dregs are pretty scary actually, and the slow build to their full appearance is brilliantly executed). However, as soon as the story enters the tunnels and we get the revelations first about Bella's character and then which planet Orphan 55 really is, the story starts to come apart at the seems. A lot of the ideas featured here just seem to have been thrown in because Ed Hime wanted to explore them, no matter whether they fitted with the plot or with the tone the first half was going for. The revelation that Orphan 55 is actually Earth just comes out of nowhere, and it ends up feeling forced and unnecessary, it simply being there so that he can make a cheap point about the environment. Has anything been set up previously to explain this, bar one throwaway line from the Doctor? No, it wasn't. And as for Bella being Kane's daughter, not only does this feel incredibly soapy, it also isn't really developed properly, only when the plot requires it to be. This could have easily been a two-parter, as there's plenty of plot here, but, being condensed into one fifty minute episode does not do this one any justice.
While I have seen some criticism of the characters, I have to say that they are probably the least problematic element of the script. Most of them are decent, serviceable archetypes, fulfilling their function in the story well, without doing much to standout. I certainly thought that the father and son duo of Nevi (played by Inbetweeners star James Buckley) and Sylas (Lewin Lloyd) were a fun pair of characters, who, while not necessarily contributing anything major to the plot, are given a nice little sub-plot that doesn't detract from the story too much. The elderly couple of Benni (Col Farrell) and Vilma (Julia Foster) start out as decent, but then their arc starts to become a little problematic. We never find out why the Dregs actually kept Benni alive, when pretty much everyone else they come across is killed instantly, and we don't get to see his ultimate fate, which doesn't even give us much of a clue as to why the Dregs did keep him alive. Vilma, meanwhile, does start to grate after a while, a feeling not helped by Foster's increasingly erratic performance. That being said, it does become unintentionally hilarious after a while, and it means that you can enjoy a part of the difficult second section, even if it is for the wrong reasons. As for the rest of the guest cast, well... they're there, but, bar Bella's budding flirtation with Ryan, there's not really a lot to make them standout. As for our main cast, well, they're there and they're doing stuff, but none of it is really ground-breaking. As I mentioned previously, Ryan has a flirtation with Bella, but it never extends beyond awkward flirting and discussions about dead parents. There's not even any pay-off to this story-line, as the final scene ends up sidestepping the issue completely. The Doctor has certainly hardened since the events of "Spyfall", and, bar the final scene, Jodie is great. You can tell she's a lot more sure of herself when she has a script with more complex layers for her Doctor, and she's taking braver choices because of it. Yaz has a couple of moments, but, once again, I suspect this is more down to Mandip's acting than anything overt in the script. And Graham has nothing to do but make funny quips, which I suppose is fair considering how much exposure he got last year. At least Bradley is continuing to enjoy himself, with some funny one-liners and the hilarious image of Graham in speedos.
And then we come to the ending. Ah. This is the moment I have been dreading, because it seems to have become a point of toxic debate in the Doctor Who online community. And, in such divided times as these, I'm not surprised. I intend to go deeper into this in another post, but, suffice to say, the creators of the show must have known that the ending of "Orphan 55" would stir up a great deal of controversy when they chose to go down the route they did. And, for that reason, I cannot believe that the production team went down that route. The story ends with the Doctor monologuing about climate change, in a story where that was barely a key feature of the plot, and basically amounts to telling the viewer to sort themselves out. Now, if the sub-plot about Orphan 55 being an Earth devastated by climate change had been the main focus of the story, than maybe I could have got behind it (I don't think I'd be totally happy about it, but I could live with it). However, it being in this story, which, bar a couple of oblique references before that point, has no relevance to climate change, just smacks of lecturing self-smugness and pandering to a left-wing group of the fan-base that will lap this stuff up. What's worse it that I am totally behind the message being presented. But this is totally the wrong way to go about presenting that, because it doesn't have anything to do with the previous 45 minutes. It's just tacked on at the end, seemingly out of nowhere. Even Jodie doesn't seem convinced, and doesn't sell it in any way, for me. This story hands a loaded gun to those people that see the show, in its current form, as 'too PC' and 'woke rubbish', and gives them the chance to take a shot that, to be honest, a lot of us can't argue around. And I haven't found the show's recent attempts, both under Chris Chibnall and Steven Moffat, to be preachy and politically biased in any way, shape or form. But, I'm afraid, in this respect, "Orphan 55" crossed a line that no Doctor Who story has ever crossed before, and I pray never will again.
"Orphan 55" is a difficult beast to talk about, and I think my opinions will be constantly in flux over it. But it one of the few Doctor Who stories that I really do not want to revisit, purely because of the final minute. What starts out with a great deal of promise, and a good set up, ends up falling down due to illogical plotting decisions, bland and uninteresting characters and that ending. After last week's stunning showing, this is a major step-down, probably the largest since "Hell Bent" followed "Heaven Sent", and one of the weakest Jodie Whittaker offerings thus far. A great pity.
All pictures copyright to the BBC. Thank you very much for reading.
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| The Doctor, Yaz (Mandip Gill), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Bella (Gia Re) find that Tranquillity Spa's light fitness regime is a little more extraneous than they were expecting. |
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| Kane (Laura Fraser) has a gun. But is she not afraid to use it? |
While I have seen some criticism of the characters, I have to say that they are probably the least problematic element of the script. Most of them are decent, serviceable archetypes, fulfilling their function in the story well, without doing much to standout. I certainly thought that the father and son duo of Nevi (played by Inbetweeners star James Buckley) and Sylas (Lewin Lloyd) were a fun pair of characters, who, while not necessarily contributing anything major to the plot, are given a nice little sub-plot that doesn't detract from the story too much. The elderly couple of Benni (Col Farrell) and Vilma (Julia Foster) start out as decent, but then their arc starts to become a little problematic. We never find out why the Dregs actually kept Benni alive, when pretty much everyone else they come across is killed instantly, and we don't get to see his ultimate fate, which doesn't even give us much of a clue as to why the Dregs did keep him alive. Vilma, meanwhile, does start to grate after a while, a feeling not helped by Foster's increasingly erratic performance. That being said, it does become unintentionally hilarious after a while, and it means that you can enjoy a part of the difficult second section, even if it is for the wrong reasons. As for the rest of the guest cast, well... they're there, but, bar Bella's budding flirtation with Ryan, there's not really a lot to make them standout. As for our main cast, well, they're there and they're doing stuff, but none of it is really ground-breaking. As I mentioned previously, Ryan has a flirtation with Bella, but it never extends beyond awkward flirting and discussions about dead parents. There's not even any pay-off to this story-line, as the final scene ends up sidestepping the issue completely. The Doctor has certainly hardened since the events of "Spyfall", and, bar the final scene, Jodie is great. You can tell she's a lot more sure of herself when she has a script with more complex layers for her Doctor, and she's taking braver choices because of it. Yaz has a couple of moments, but, once again, I suspect this is more down to Mandip's acting than anything overt in the script. And Graham has nothing to do but make funny quips, which I suppose is fair considering how much exposure he got last year. At least Bradley is continuing to enjoy himself, with some funny one-liners and the hilarious image of Graham in speedos.
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| "BENNI!!!" |
And then we come to the ending. Ah. This is the moment I have been dreading, because it seems to have become a point of toxic debate in the Doctor Who online community. And, in such divided times as these, I'm not surprised. I intend to go deeper into this in another post, but, suffice to say, the creators of the show must have known that the ending of "Orphan 55" would stir up a great deal of controversy when they chose to go down the route they did. And, for that reason, I cannot believe that the production team went down that route. The story ends with the Doctor monologuing about climate change, in a story where that was barely a key feature of the plot, and basically amounts to telling the viewer to sort themselves out. Now, if the sub-plot about Orphan 55 being an Earth devastated by climate change had been the main focus of the story, than maybe I could have got behind it (I don't think I'd be totally happy about it, but I could live with it). However, it being in this story, which, bar a couple of oblique references before that point, has no relevance to climate change, just smacks of lecturing self-smugness and pandering to a left-wing group of the fan-base that will lap this stuff up. What's worse it that I am totally behind the message being presented. But this is totally the wrong way to go about presenting that, because it doesn't have anything to do with the previous 45 minutes. It's just tacked on at the end, seemingly out of nowhere. Even Jodie doesn't seem convinced, and doesn't sell it in any way, for me. This story hands a loaded gun to those people that see the show, in its current form, as 'too PC' and 'woke rubbish', and gives them the chance to take a shot that, to be honest, a lot of us can't argue around. And I haven't found the show's recent attempts, both under Chris Chibnall and Steven Moffat, to be preachy and politically biased in any way, shape or form. But, I'm afraid, in this respect, "Orphan 55" crossed a line that no Doctor Who story has ever crossed before, and I pray never will again.
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| The Doctor has spotted something in the mist. And it is hungry... |
All pictures copyright to the BBC. Thank you very much for reading.
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