Doctor Who: Series 12, Episode 3 – “Orphan 55” (2020)

A fairly bumpy episode for me and, to be honest, something of a letdown after “Spyfall.” Also, this was written by Ed Hime who did “It Takes You Away,” one of my favorites last season. The episode just doesn’t come together for me, despite some great moments.

Team TARDIS is on holiday! Our heroes are off to a two-week stay at the all-inclusive Tranquility Spa, and because this is Doctor Who, things immediately start going wrong. Something is interfering with Tranquility’s systems, which is particularly bad considering the monsters just outside looking for any chink in the armor. It’s up to the Doctor and her companions to figure out what’s going on, why, and how to stop it.

Like I said, there is some good stuff here. The opening is strong, breezy and fun. I enjoy kooky moments like the cheery alien hostess who introduces herself as “Hyphen with a 3” and a bizarre virus that can affect both machine and organic systems. The Doctor is in pretty good form throughout (I especially loved, “You can make an ionic membrane from scratch?”, “If I had some crayons and half a can of spam, I could make you from scratch!”), Yaz gets some strong moments, and I like points of the mystery. Plus, I spent a good chunk of the episode trying to remember where I recognized her from, but one of the one-shot characters is played by Laura Fraser a.k.a. Door from Neverwhere.

On the whole, though? “Meh” with a side of “huh?” I often enjoy base-under-seige type stories, but this one doesn’t quite gel. The one-shot characters are too thinly drawn, but with the illusion of having more depth than they do. While many of them have a particular “thing” going on, the result is each character repeatedly going back to their individual wells time and again. The threat is too blatantly pushing for “big scare” moments and doesn’t fully pull it off. Also, certain plot developments are just head-scratching. Things happen without compelling reasons (or for outright dumb reasons,) and character moments feel inconsistent.

Overall, not a great showing. Despite the presence of some good seeds here, it doesn’t entirely get off the ground. The story feels like a draft that could’ve turned into something a lot tighter and more interesting, given a few more rounds of edits.