Orphan 55 sees the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her friends Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yas (Mandip Gill) go on holiday but it doesn’t all go to plan. This episode is like Benidorm with hideous aliens. A two weeks inclusive holiday at Tranquillity Spa isn't as relaxing as they wanted for elderly couple Benni and Vilma who lose their lives but end up together in the end.
The aliens in this episode are known as Dregs. These are a great creation with unexpected origins. They look hideous and a stereotypical Doctor Who villain, made to scare you. Dregs are mutations of humanity if things go really wrong and climate change doesn’t stop. As a result, the Dregs aren't really aliens as they are what humanity could look like however they still look scary especially as they don’t look human at all.
In this episode, Ryan played by Tosin Cole get a love interest who isn’t Yas. Our main cast are good in this episode, we see the Doctor quite concerned, worried and strict in this episode. A different side that is new for us to see yet it is enjoyable to watch. Graham and Ryan are great in this episode, we see how strong their bond has become as Graham becomes concerned, he has lost Ryan at one point but lucky he hadn’t. Yas is ok in this episode, we get to see her become a little jealous of Ryan giving his attention to someone else yet her Gill's performance isn't strong enough for us to really believe she is jealous or if she is intrigued into his relationship with the mystery girl.
Orphan 55 is basically a disaster movie as everything seems to go wrong and when you think it can't get worse, then it does. It begins with a nasty virus in Tranquillity Spa which then turns into a; the visitors and staff being picked off one by one. We watch Vilma (Julia Foster) give herself up, the idea of the character of Vilma is nice but the reality that we got was quite irritating.
At the heart of this is a message about Earth's future, a possible future if nothing changes. This is a possible future but it could be the outcome unless we as humanity face facts and make changes. Recently climate change has been on everyone's lips as it is getting more serious and if we don't make a change soon then there may be no going back and the world, we saw in this episode might become reality. It is strange that in just three episode we have discovered that Gallifrey is dead and now the Earth is dead, will this be a running theme for the rest of the series?
A lot of people haven’t been liking the messages that have been implanted in the recent episodes yet it feels like the messages do connect with the story. Therefore, the messages that we hear work and are important for people to hear. However, hopefully not every episode will have a huge important message for us to be left thinking about after the credits roll as sometimes it's nice just to watch the Doctor fight monsters but no real environmental message that is impacting the story.
Orphan 55 is basically an environmental message story with a look onto what the world may look like if we don't make a change and climate change takes over. The Dregs are terrifying and will most likely go down in some of the scariest monsters in Doctor Who history. The performances are good in this episode, Whittaker really drives home the environmental message well. Yas is still lost and her performance wasn't quite enjoyable in this episode compared to the previous two episodes. Overall, this episode was nice and scary to watch with a good message but some performances and elements didn't all fit together well.
