Story 289: Orphan 55

In which Graham wins a luxury holiday at the exclusive Tranquility Spa resort. The winning ticket automatically teleports them to the location, where they are greeted by staff member Hyph3n. She informs them that they are booked to stay for two weeks, but can be transported back to where they came from at any time. Graham is all for relaxing, whilst the Doctor wishes to explore.

Yaz meets an elderly couple named Benni and Vilma. He intends to propose to her, but is interrupted by Yaz's arrival.

In the control centre of the complex, owner Kane is concerned about an intruder. She sends a couple of  fully armed guards off to deal with this.

Ryan is infected by a "hopper virus", contracted from a vending machine. The Doctor helps him expel it from his body, and he meets a fellow sufferer named Bella. She claims to be a hotel critic.

They see the armed guards and decided to investigate - as does the Doctor, who follows Hyph3n into the control centre, where she meets Kane.

It transpires that the virus has infected most of the resort's systems, including teleports. Graham sets off to find a technician to fix them, and meets Nevi and his son Sylas. It is obvious that the boy is more technically skilled than his father.

One of the guards is attacked and killed by a large, savage bipedal creature.

Ryan and Bella encounter another of the creatures in the sauna area, and the Doctor has everyone gather in the control centre, which can be sealed off.

Benni, however, goes back to fetch his hat and does not return.

The Doctor discovers that the resort is completely protected by a holographic shield - but the virus is breaking this down. 

Beyond is a wasteland, where oxygen is scarce, as this is an "orphan" planet - Orphan 55. These are worlds which are unable to sustain life, and have been sold off cheaply to people like Kane who can set up an artificial environment.

Orphan 55 is not devoid of life however, for it is home to a race of savage creatures known as Dregs. They attempt to break into the resort, and the virus has allowed them to gain access. As the shield deteriorates, the oxygen will escape and the Dregs will overrun the resort, killing everyone.

It becomes clear that Benni has been taken by them, but not killed for some reason. A rescue mission is organised, which everyone will participate in. They have portable breathing apparatus, but it will only last a short time.

It soon becomes clear that the Dregs are not unintelligent. They have taken Benni specifically to lure the others into the wasteland.

The vehicle they are travelling in is disabled, and Benni is killed. Hyph3n also perishes.
Kane leads everyone to a tunnel which will take them back into the resort.

Here, the Doctor and her companions are shocked to see a Metro sign in Russian. Orphan 55 is actually the Earth of the far future. The Doctor makes a psychic link with a dormant Dreg, and learns that the planet was destroyed by warfare and a collapsing eco-system.

Vilma sacrifices herself to enable the others to get into the resort. It has been revealed that Bella is really Kane's estranged daughter, and she had come here to destroy the resort with a powerful bomb in revenge for her mother abandoning her.

Reconciled in the face of the danger they face, Kane and Bella hold back the Dregs whilst Sylas helps the Doctor and his father repair the teleport.

They are transported away as the bomb detonates.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor explains that Orphan 55 is just one of many possible futures for the earth - one which will come to pass if the human race fails to look after it properly...

Orphan 55 was written by Ed Hime, and was first broadcast on Sunday 12th January 2020. Hime had previously contributed the lacklustre It Takes You Away for the previous season.

Having been arrested at a climate change protest in 2019, the writer made no secret of his intention to feature ecological issues in his script and indeed the BBC had claimed that green issues like plastics in the oceans would be covered by the series when it returned. The plastics issue would appear later in the run, but this was Hime's turn.

Rather than let the theme develop out of the story, getting the message across through allegory, Chris Chibnall allows the writer to throw subtlety out of the window and go for a sledgehammer approach. 

The last few minutes of the episode comprise the Doctor hectoring her companions - and through them we the viewers - about the state of the planet. It transcends the all too familiar preachiness of this era and sees the Doctor berate everyone, as though it was their fault, personally. Nothing constructive - just a rant. We're told we must look after the Earth better. 5-year-olds watching would have known that already. Talk about stating the obvious...

The lecture might have been more tolerable had it come within a story that was original and entertaining. This is neither. The whole "this alien planet is actually the Earth!!!" business has been handled in near identical fashion by Doctor Who before - when Peri sees the Underground signage for Marble Arch in The Mysterious Planet. There, the reveal was couched in an intriguing story involving the Doctor's trial and the mystery of the Earth being transported halfway across the galaxy.

It was also written Robert Holmes, who was infinitely superior at his craft than the writer of the drivel currently under consideration.

Holmes made no bones about borrowing from popular films and books, and back then he was leaning heavily on the original Planet of the Apes film, with its awesome reveal of the trashed Statue of Liberty in the closing moments. Himes' problem is that Holmes got there first, and did it better.

The episode suffers equally from poor performances - Julia Foster's Vilma standing out especially. She is simply irritating, spending much of the episode shouting "Benni!" over and over again.

Characterisation overall is cardboard. Plotting makes no sense. Would you really allow a vulnerable old lady and a child to participate in a dangerous rescue mission into hostile territory?

The whole hopper virus business is childish nonsense.

Design issues are apparent in simply plonking fake looking green wigs on the heads of Nevi and Sylas, and making Hyph3n look like a woman wearing a teddy bear outfit, made for a church panto, with a painted face.

The Dregs are really wasted. A very good design, but we don't get to see much of them, and shots of multiple creatures really highlight their CGI nature.

As well as Foster (who is actually a very good actor, so we very much have the director to blame for her performance) we have Laura Fraser (The Loch, Traces and Breaking Bad) as Kane; Gia Re as Bella and Col Farrell as Benni.

James Buckley of The In-Betweeners (on a perpetual time-loop on E4) plays Nevi, a truly thankless part. Sylas is Lewin Lloyd. Hyph3n is portrayed by Amy Booth-Steel. Apparently the character is supposed to be a space-squirrel.

The principal Dreg is Spencer Wilding, who had previously played the Minotaur in The God Complex, the Wooden King in the 2011 Christmas Special, and Ice Warrior Skaldak in Cold War. He took on the iconic role of Darth Vader in Rogue One - A Star Wars Story.

Overall: dreadful. 

Unoriginal plot. Unrealistic, cardboard characters and some awful performances (one of which stands out a mile). The costume designer clearly wasn't given any money for this. Deservedly bottom of every season poll. The 60th Anniversary polling by DWM had it the lowest ranked story of the entire Chibnall era. 

Things you may wish to know:

• Location filming took place in Tenerife, as it allowed for both the volcanic landscape of the wasteland and the holiday resort.
• An early draft was titled "Safari" and involved a hunting expedition on an alien planet.
• Vilma's "Benni!" rapidly became an internet meme, so annoying is it.
• Another possible inspiration from the series itself is The Curse of Fenric. In that we learned that a polluted future Earth had produced the Haemovores.
• Torchwood's similarly savage Weevils were theorised as potential degraded humanity of the far future.
• To end on a positive, a couple of images of the Dreg costume from the Worlds of Wonder exhibition: