Last night was the first time for Andrea and I to watch a NEW Doctor Who without our daughter Randie. Her winter break is up and she headed back to college on Saturday.
Spyfall (Parts One and Two) has come and gone with everybody suitably wowed for Doctor Who Series 12.
The new season of Doctor Who is off to a great start!
But the key is what happens when the next regular episode comes around, the Doctor and friends off to somewhere in space and time to have an adventure in the span of an hour before moving on to the next one.
Let me take you back to Series 6 which kicked off with an epic 2 parter followed by "The Curse of the Black Spot".
So you might understand my concern a wee bit.
Coming up, we look at the first episode following the 2 part opener for Series 12.
ORPHAN 55
by Ed Himes
The episode begins in the TARDIS with....
Correction: The episode begins with the opening theme. No cold open. Apparently, the cold open was unique to Spyfall.
Then the episode picks up in the TARDIS with the fam mopping up from a visit from a some alien squids you were apparently in the middle of their mating season.
Correction: The episode begins with the opening theme. No cold open. Apparently, the cold open was unique to Spyfall.
Then the episode picks up in the TARDIS with the fam mopping up from a visit from a some alien squids you were apparently in the middle of their mating season.
Graham produces a coupon for a spa vacation. Yaz thinks a spa trip might do some good for the Doctor's mood. The Doctor denies she's in a mood about anything (which yeah, she is, after last week's Gallifrey reveal).
It seems that the coupon is not just a coupon but a teleport thingy that zaps the Doctor and the fam to Tranquility Spa, a very lovely and relaxing place that Graham calls "a bit of all right".
This is Doctor Who so this bit of all right will not stay all right for long.
A virus called a "hopper" that came hop from tech to humans give Ryan a bit of bother. The Doctor saves Ryan but it's up to Ryan learn to cope with the hallucination of bats.
The Doctor wants answers and finds more questions. There are other technical glitches happening every where and the spa is under attack by weird monster things which are called "Dregs".
It turns out that Tranquility Spa is built on an otherwise inhospitable planet. (See also The Leisure Hive" from the Tom Baker era and "Midnight" with David Tennant from Series 4.) In this case, the spa is built on a planet called Orphan 55.
The Doctor helpfully explains than an "orphan" planet is a world so royally screwed up, it cannot be fixed. So the elites with power and money take a powder; those you do not have the means to to leave have to stay and presumably die.
Guess what? We find out Orphan 55 is the Earth in the future totally destroyed by climate crises, famine and war.
That ringing noise you hear is the hammer hitting the anvil pretty hard on the dangers of doing nothing about the negative impact of climate change,
There is an awful lot of running going on in this episode and quite frankly, I wasn't always clear on the whys and wherefores and all.
Our cast is in the spa dome but the dome has been compromised. So they run to a truck to get away from the dome.
Now they're in a truck on the planet's surface outside the dome but the truck gets wrecked. Then the gang is running across the planet but the Dregs are everywhere.
So it's time to run back to the truck.
Then we run into some tunnels.
Then running through the tunnels back to the dome.
Whew! That's a lot of running. You know, just let the Dregs kill and eat me, I'm too tired to keep running.
As with a classic Doctor Who "base under seige" story, not everyone makes it out alive. So that's very sad.
The Dregs are appropriately gruesome with lots of teeth and mucus. I told Andrea that I may need to move to behind the sofa to watch this one.
Each member of the fam gets to shine. And Jodie Whittaker's Doctor, while still prone to insane and goofy prattling, has more of a darker edge to her. I could easily picture David Tennant or Peter Capaldi being as irked as Jodie's Doctor with the horrible fate that has befallen the Earth.
I think that Orphan 55 is a bit too hectic and overstuffed, a problem I had with Ed Hime's script from Series 11 for "It Takes You Away".
On a positive note, Orphan 55 is packed with action, drama and humor.
And yes, there's a very much on the nose in your face message about the dire importance of taking better care of the planet. OK, it's a bit blunt but damned if it's a message that needs repeating.
Even if the trolls are out with their knives to trash the show's political correctness.
You know, just let the Dregs kill and eat me, I'm so tired of listening to trolls.
On a positive note, Orphan 55 is packed with action, drama and humor.
And yes, there's a very much on the nose in your face message about the dire importance of taking better care of the planet. OK, it's a bit blunt but damned if it's a message that needs repeating.
Even if the trolls are out with their knives to trash the show's political correctness.
You know, just let the Dregs kill and eat me, I'm so tired of listening to trolls.
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