Orphan 55

I actually like the opening sequence, its a nice throwback to Tom Baker Era Doctor Who. That's the good bits out of the way. This episode was sadly a throwback to Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy era. The first Alien they are greeted by looks like a reject from Cats stage show, the Mechanics with Green hair were awful and the Dregs were well......the Dregs to be honest. An unoriginal story done pretty badly and not very special effects top off this awful, predictable episode. I don't know how much longer I will be giving this show the benefit, last Season was poor, so far this is much worse. They wanted a Female Doctor, the least they could do is provide her with better material to work with.

The doctor and her groupies conveniently end up at a simulated resort on a near-dead planet only to find out an inconvenient truth. The plot is simply an excuse to string together some monster footage (reasonably well done) and to set-up a heavy-handed 'message' typical of the show's increasing self-righteousness. The script is silly, plot-holes and coincidences abound, and the cast is showing no signs of improving (although at least Jodie Whittaker cuts back a bit on the 'lovably goofy' shtick). The Doctors increasingly convenient 'psychic powers' (last week it was memory erasure, this week it's mind reading) are going to make future stories difficult to construct. Ironically, the plot's disregard for basic science is worse than that of the people that it's chiding.

This episode started off well enough, the premise while unoriginal had the potential to be a satisfying non-serialised romp after the intense Spyfall two parter. The first 40 minutes has a nice build up with some interesting, if generic characters and ideas.

The last 5 minutes destroyed any enjoyment I may had had with the episode. A 5 minute patronising build-up to a 4th wall breaking speech about Climate Change in an episode with one of the most on the nose allegories for climate change left me fuming. It sticks to this episode like a cancerous tumour that needs to be blasted of the face of the planet.

While the visuals have never been better for Doctor Who, the whole show is being sabotaged by the pedestrian vision of the show-runner, the non-existence of the personalities of two of the Doctor's companions (Ryan and Yaz) and the woeful inadequacies of the lead, Jodie Whittaker. Adding to the problems is the choice of writers for these stories, who all seem to wish they were writing for any other genre than science-fantasy. The entire style and wit of the show has vanished under an avalanche of social responsibility and fashionable points of view regarding politics which, while being laudable, are ham-fistedly represented and have been focussed on at the expense of story and imagination. It's all rather weak and obvious in comparison to previous eras of the show, and - after an energetic and expensive-looking opening story - this one is a return to the lows of the previous season. The only stuff that works are the elements which have been stolen from earlier, better episodes of the show. You can afford to miss this, but while the current show-runner is at the helm, and Whittaker is at the controls of the TARDIS - don't hold your breath waiting for anything to improve.

Yes, I think everyone involved with the concept and writing could do with a holiday.