Doctor Who: Every episode of season 12, ranked from worst to best
By Lacy Baugher
Orphan 55
The third episode of Doctor Who season 12 isn’t actually that terrible, as episodes go. But it is deeply forgettable. It’s also the installment you’ll be least likely to remember when discussing the season with other fans. It happened, and we all gave it an hour of our lives, and that’s…kind of it.
A thinly veiled parable about the dangers of not taking the threat of climate change seriously enough, “Orphan 55” sees Team TARDIS visit a vacation spa on a planet that turns out to be hiding something much darker and more sinister. The spa, you see, exists on an “orphan planet” that’s been destroyed by something – nuclear war, disaster you get the idea. The remaining native inhabitants, a group of horrifying monsters known as “dregs” are the remnants of those that have adapted and mutated to survive nuclear winter.
Basically, take care of the environment unless you want to end up a snarling albino space beast, is the lesson of this story, and “Orphan 55” is not subtle about beating you over the head with it. Doctor Who has a point, of course, but the show is – or ought to be – better than this.