Doctor Who Review: Orphan 55 (Season 12 Episode 3)

The Doctor and the Tardis fam are on their way to Tranquility Spa for an all-inclusive getaway paid for coupons Graham acquired on Doctor Who Season 12 Episode 3, “Orphan 55.” So, what could possibly go wrong? 

This is Doctor Who and the Doctor is going on holiday. So, a lot. 

“Orphan 55” starts out with a classic move, separating the Doctor from her Tardis. It’s a staple to cut the Doctor off from the Tardis in certain circumstances, but it feels like it’s happened a lot more with Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor.

“Orphan 55” is another instance of The Doctor being away from her ship, and the absence of an easy escape drives the story because there is nowhere to go but out to the Orphan planet. 

Doctor Who has taken viewers to inhospitable places before, but an Orphan planet is new. The explanation should have tipped us all off as to where this entire story was going. 

GRAHAM: Come on Doc, explain. Why’s it called an orphan planet?
DOCTOR: Because it’s uninhabitable. In societies that let this happen, there’s nearly always a ruling elite that gets to evacuate, and then signs off all responsibility for whatever gets left behind. 
YAZ: That’s messed up.
DOCTOR: It happens more than you think. This is Orphan 55. 
YAZ: And if you can’t evacuate?
DOCTOR: You die. All sentient life dies. That’s how it gets the grading. Except on Orphan 55, something clearly survived. 

“Orphan 55” exemplifies something I love about science fiction, the ability to present social commentary. At the start, I thought that we were in for a story about colonization or irresponsible tourism. The revelation that they were on Earth just amped up the stakes.

The way Orphan 55’s true identity is revealed, is masterful and gives the entire episode more gravity.

The Doctor loves Earth. She’s adopted it. Protected it. Cared for its inhabitants. Her enemies mock her devotion to her adopted planet by calling it “her precious Earth.” Seeing it in this state affects her.

And it’s all the more powerful when you consider that Gallifrey is gone too, destroyed by The Master.

Needless to say, the first three episodes of Doctor Who Season 12 are really kicking the Doctor where it hurts. 

Looking at these three episodes so far, it’s starting to feel like there’s someone or something mucking about with time. At the end of the episode, the Doctor says Orphan 55 is one possible future, and it feels unnerving to see the Doctor’s two homes destroyed in close succession. 

With some of the language used to describe Earth’s possible future as Orphan 55, I can’t shake the feeling that even this incarnation of The Master might be from a different time. From our perspective, he comes just after Missy who was making progress trying to be good. Yet, he has some technology seen in Classic Who. 

Orphan 55 doesn’t feel anachronistic, but given some of the other futures Doctor Who has taken viewers too, it does feel like “time can be rewritten” might be applied on a massive scale here. 

The thing is, even though the scenario is bleak, it still fits Doctor Who‘s overall narrative. Humans have spread out across the stars long enough to create 54 other orphan planets, and humanity is still “surviving.”

“Orphan 55” is the gloomiest version of the future we’ve seen yet, but underneath it all, humans survived. They mutated and became something that was far from what we know sentient humans to be, but they survived and adapted. 

The difference is that in this timeline, in this scenario, there was a Planet B to go to for the ruling class. Unlike in reality.

Doctor: The people who used to have this planet could have changed, but they didn’t, so they lost everything. Be smarter than what made you. 

On a finer note, the mother-daughter and father-son relationships were an interesting addition. 

Kane and Bella had a very personal relationship rooted in hurt. It wasn’t unpacked entirely, but some of Kane’s lines make it sound like maybe she was trying to right a past wrong. Particularly when she said that she had set up the fake-cation with the intent of terraforming Orphan 55 for Bella. 

Nevi and Sylas have a similar dynamic, but it’s a case of Sylas seeing the answers where his father can’t. Throughout the episode, Sylas is constantly checking up on his dad or saying he has the solution and being brushed off by Nevi.

Nevi ultimately needs to step aside and let Sylas take the lead in order to save those stranded on the planet. 

While the Tardis fam makes it back to the Tardis. It’s still a bittersweet ending. 

“Orphan 55” doesn’t end with the Earth being terraformed and restored. It shouldn’t be. That’s too easy. Instead, it leaves audiences with a terrifying image of a Dreg howling. 

If the Doctor was able to fix everything then there wouldn’t be a lesson here. It would be too easy, and taking viewers on the journey to one possible future wouldn’t mean anything. The Doctor is brilliant and bright, but this isn’t an alien incursion. It isn’t something she can fix with a wave of her sonic screwdriver. 

The Doctor’s speech where she talks about how she can’t reassure them seems to affirm the idea that something is in flux.

The fact that The Doctor didn’t know that this was a future Earth is a little distressing. The Doctor also usually knows when something is fixed or in flux, but usually, the companions are present at that moment and can affect the outcome. 

Perhaps it’s the fact that the cause of the events that lead to Orphan 55 can’t be traced back to one specific thing. Still, the Doctor doesn’t let go of hope. Her final speech is clear that humans have the ability to change. 

DOCTOR: Look, I know what you’re thinking, but it’s one possible future. It’s one timeline. You want me to tell you that Earth’s gonna be okay, because I can’t. In your time, humanity is busy arguing over the washing up while the house burns down. Unless people face facts and change, catastrophe is coming, but it’s not decided. You know that. The future is not fixed, it depends on millions of decisions and actions and people stepping up. 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.

Doctor Who hasn’t dealt with the possibility of multiple timelines or worlds for a while and while we’ve seen things be written out of existence before, we haven’t seen something on this scale.

Season 12 so far has grown leaps and bounds over Season 11. The storytelling is faster paced, they’re starting to build on the mythology that the series is known for, and it even feels like they’re starting to look towards their characters a little more to drive the story. 

At this point in the series, I am really hoping that we get to see more of the companions soon. We still lack a real connection to the Tardis fam, and I want to see them take a more active role in solving a crisis. 

Stray Thoughts:

• Am I wrong in thinking the Doctor should just NEVER go on holiday? The last time I remember this character trying to take an actual vacation was Doctor Who Season 4 Episode 10, “Midnight.” It was a similar scenario there too. An atmosphere you can’t breathe, and a lifeform that survived out there suddenly getting in. 
• “Orphan 55” does a good job of utilizing the members of the cast, but it also adds more than a few side characters. Given how quickly this episode expanded outside the dome, and how formidable the Dregs are with their ability to adapt to whatever’s thrown at them, the peripheral cast of characters felt needed.
• So in the last two episodes, we’ve had war and climate change. Next week we’re meeting Nikola Tesla, and anyone who knows history knows that his feud with Edison shaped electricity. Is there any likelihood that Tesla might be connected to the future we just saw on “Orphan 55?”
• Vilma and Benni were an adorable and sweet older couple. It broke my heart that they didn’t make it out.
• I’m never going to stop thinking of the Dregs as “angry trees.” 
• Kane named her daughter Trixabell? Is this some callback to Harry Potter canon names? 
• It can be very comforting to see the Doctor winging it sometimes. Like her plan to save Sylas: “Oh it’s brewing. At least 3/8th of a plan, right here. 2/8ths. I’ll be honest, all I’ve got is the letter ‘P’ but sometimes that’s all I need.”

What did you think of this episode of Doctor Who? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Doctor Who airs Sundays at 8/7c on BBC America.

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