Orphan 55 (TV story)

Orphan 55
Doctor:	Thirteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Graham, Ryan, Yaz
Main enemy:	Dregs
Main setting:	Tranquility Spa, Orphan 55
Key crew
Writer:	Ed Hime
Director:	Lee Haven Jones
Producer:	Alex Mercer
Release details
Story number:	288
Premiere broadcast:	12 January 2020
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x46 minute episode
Official trailer
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Memorable moment
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Behind the scenes video
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Doctor Who television stories
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You may be looking for the planet with the same name.

Orphan 55 was the third episode of series 12 of Doctor Who.

It showed one possible future for Earth, in which global warming and nuclear warfare eventually lead to it becoming an orphan planet, with those human survivors left behind evolving into Dregs. Notably, the Thirteenth Doctor explains that the relative future is always in motion, with multiple timelines hanging in the balance, dependent on the decisions of those who act in the present.

Synopsis

After Graham O'Brien wins Team TARDIS a free holiday at the high-end alien resort Tranquility Spa, it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems — why is the staff so worried about oxygen levels in the Spa when the planet appears to be hospitable to humans? What are the monsters stalking the corridors? And why does the planet on which they're all standing bear the ominous name of "Orphan 55"?

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
• Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
• Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
• Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
• Kane - Laura Fraser
• Bella - Gia Ré
• Nevi - James Buckley
• Vilma - Julia Foster
• Hyph3n - Amy Booth-Steel
• Vorm - Will Austin
• Benni - Col Farrell
• Sylas - Lewin Lloyd
• Lead Dreg & Creature Movement - Spencer Wilding

Uncredited cast

• "Tranquility Spa guest" - Jordan Ring

Crew

Executive Producers   Matt Strevens and Chris Chibnall

Series Producer   Nikki Wilson

General production staff Head of Production - Radford Neville Executive Producer for the BBC - Ben Irving Production Executive - Tracie Simpson Line Producer - Steffan Morris Production Manager - Delmi Thomas Supervising Location Manager - Iwan Roberts Location Manager - Gareth Roberts Unit Manager - Jac Jones Production Co-ordinator - Jade Stephenson Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Ellie Simmons Production Assistant - Gwenno Hughes Production Secretary - Ariana Scott Executive Assistant - Caroline Cook Unit Drivers - Paul Watkins, Jolyon Davey, Steve Darwent Unit Medic - Glyn Evans Business Affairs - Elaine Evans, Kyle Parsons, Steve Robson Talent Team - Hannah Williams, Leanne Bowcott, Jeanette Sigsworth, Deborah Evans, Clare Baker Production Accountant - Rhys Evans 1st Assistant Accountant - Debi Griffiths Assistant Accountant - Rose Wasdell Script department Series Script Editor - Sheena Bucktowonsing Script Editor - Fiona McAllister Assistant Script Editor - Caroline Buckley Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Barry Phillips 2nd Assistant Director - Christopher J Thomas 3rd Assistant Director - Lauren Pate Assistant Directors - Jennifer Day, Rosey-Pepper Mortley Script Supervisor - Nicki Coles Camera Operator - Mark McQuoid ACO Focus Pullers - Jonathan Vidgen, Steve Rees Key Grip - John Robinson Grip - Ash Whitfield Assistant Grip - Steffan Allen Camera Assistants - Dan Patounas, Scott Waller, Sophie Hardcastle, Gwilym Jenner Gaffer - Mark Hutchings Best Boy - Andy Gardiner Electricians - Gawain Nash, Andrew Williams, Gareth Sheldon, Stuart Gale	Art department Construction Art Director - Julia Jones Art Director - Joseph Wynne Art Department Assistant - Celyn Davies Art Department Accountant - Hywel Thomas Production Buyer - Vicki Male Assistant Buyer - Rosy Pearce Petty Cash Buyer - Billie Blue Williams Set Decorator - Joelle Rumbelow Set Dressers - Dewi Thomas, Atiff Tahir, John Thomas Set Designers - Daniel Kennedy, Lauren Harper Concept Artist - Louis Knight Graphic Designer - Grörgy Simán Standby Props - Matthew Ireland, Alice Edwards Standby Carpenter - Colm Garrett Prop Hand - Rebecca Brown Junior Carpenter - Matthew Painter Standby Art Director - Cerys Lewis Rigging - Shadow Scaffolding Standby Rigger - Colin Toms HOD Painter - Steve Fudge Chargehand Painters - Mark Reece, Lloyd Reece Storeman - Lucy Hammond Prop Master - Paul Aitken Props Chargehand - Trystan Howell Prop Fabrication - Penny Howarth Construction Manager - Mark Painter Workshop Manager - Mark Hill Workshop Assistant - Chris Slocombe Construction Chargehands - Dean Tucker, John Sinnott Construction Driver - Darren Bousie Construction Labourer - Jason Tylke Practical Electrician - Matthew Dunford Scenic Artists - Chelsea Moore, Rachel Willsher Carpenters - Terry Horle, Campbell Fraser, Joseph Painter, Dave Quinlan, Charlie Wright, Chris Daniels, George Rees, Jonathan Tylke, Dave Hobbs, Kristian Tucker Costume department Costume Supervisor - Grace Brooks Assistant Costume Designer - Simon Marks Costume Assistants - Andie Mear, Ian Fowler, Chloe Gauci	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Supervisor - Emma Cowen Make-up Artists - Amy Riley, James Spinks Junior Make-up Artist - Hanna Lewis-Jones Movement Stunt Co-ordinators - Crispin Layfield, Belinda McGinley Stunt Performer - Matt Hermiston Casting Casting Associates - Ri McDaid-Wren, Ray Böhm General post-production staff Post-production Producer - Ceres Doyle Post-production Co-ordinator - Liv Duffin Assistant Editors - David SJ Davies, Hayley Williams On-line Editor - Christine Kelly Assistant On-line Editor - Luke Stanbury Special and visual effects Additional Visual Effects - BBC Wales Visual Effects, Ben Pickles VFX Editor - Georgina Careless Assistant VFX Editor - Alastair Gray Creature Effects - Robert Allsopp & Associates Colourist - Gareth Spensley Head Modelmaker - Lee Radford Sound Sound Recordist - Deian Llŷr Humphreys Dubbing Mixers - Howard Bargroff, Kiran Marshall Sound Maintenance Engineers - Christopher Goding, Joe Malone Sound Designer - Harry Barnes Dialogue Editor - Darren Clement ADR Editor - Matthew Cox Foley - Bang Post Production

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

References

Locations

• The TARDIS travels into deep space.
• Graham collected holiday coupons from Bandohzi Herald.
• Team TARDIS gets teleported to Tranquility Spa.
  • Tranquility Spa has security cameras on the Aqua Spa zone, the Ocean View zone, the Tropical Vista zone and the Peaceful Paradise zone.
  • Tranquility has a pool, Bar and Refreshment zone, muster stations, teleport pads, a linen cupboard in the north corridor and a steam room.
• Tranquility Spa is in Siberia. The underground tunnel historically served residents of Novosibirsk.
• The entire spa is inside a Dome.
• Ryan notices a sign that says "Made in China".
• The Doctor states that Earth's fate as "Orphan 55" is "one possible future, one timeline". In this timeline, Earth has become an orphan planet.
• The Doctor states that in the the companions' time humanity is too busy arguing over washing ups while houses burn down to notice the red flags in the environment.

TARDIS

• Due to the squids mating, they leave the TARDIS entrance in a sticky liquid mess, requiring Yaz, Ryan and the Doctor to clean up with sponges and mops.
• The "six coupon" offer gets delivered through the coffee machine.

Languages

• Graham says cockle.
• Graham says an underground sign looks like it's in Russian, but the Doctor informs him that it is Novosibirsk.

Events

• The space squids are in their mating season.
• The Dregs, being mutated human survivors, have experienced a large number of catastrophic events:
  • Snow avalanches.
  • Illegal Burnings.
  • Destructive Hurricanes.
  • Forest fires.
  • Floods
  • Volcanic eruptions.
  • Military wars.
  • Heated desertlands.
  • Atomic bomb explosions
  • Rocket launches.
• The Doctor mentions scientist warnings of the environment being in danger.
• Yaz mentions global warming.
• The Doctor mentions the food chain collapse, mass migration and war.

Individuals

• Yaz says the Doctor is in a "mardy mood".
• Kane and Vorm are security at Tranquility Spa.
• Benni says to Vilma that he saw some newlyweds at the reception and that Tranquility is a good place for a honeymoon. He has a wedding ring prepared.
• Tranquility have all sorts of different-species humanoid guests.
• The Doctor once had hopper first-aid training.
• Ryan tells Bella he's "a surgeon... pilot... surgeon for pilots". Bella tells Ryan she's a hotel critic.
• Nevi is the maintenance guy at Tranquility Spa. He has a son Sylas who thinks the Spa is way more fun than his mother's house.
• Ryan admits he's working in a warehouse. Bella admits she's unemployed.
• The Doctor says that with crayons and half a can of Spam she could build Kane from scratch.
• Bella was her father's carer until he died. She says her mother made Nevi look like Parent of the Year.
• The Doctor says sometimes when she has a plan she only has 3/8s, sometimes 2/8s and sometimes just the letter "P", but that's all she needs.

Species

• The Deep-Space Squids are in their mating season when Team TARDIS sees them.
• Hyph3n is a humanoid squirrel-creature who is customer host at the Spa.
• Ryan and Bella acquire a multi-platform Hopper virus.
• Ryan thinks he sees bats while he's hallucinating.
• Dregs are roaming around the planet. They are apex predators and can adapt to guns and nuclear winter.
• The Doctor calls the Dreg leader Wheezy and the alpha dog.

Clothing

• Graham has a pair of speedos.

Food and beverages

• Graham says he's going to get cocktails.
• Ryan gets himself a bag of crisps.

Science

• The ionic membrane restores the O² levels to 20.5%.
• To be outside the Spa, people need oxygen tanks as there's not enough oxygen in the wastelands.
• Kane justifies building a spa on an orphan planet with the radiation having dropped.
• Kane is hopeful that CO2 levels can be reduced and the planet can be terraformed to become habitable.
• Orphan 55 has toxic mists all around it and gets slowly roasted by sunlight because of having no ozone layer.

Medical ailments and remedies

• The symptoms of a hopper virus in a human include wiggly fingers, which immediately signal the legs giving out, and hallucinations.
• Graham briefly wonders if he is having a stroke after bumping his head on an invisible void panel.
• Kane says she has stashed a medipack in the tunnel.

Technology

• The Bandohzi Herald coupons are, when put together, a teleport cube.
• Tranquility Spa has a computer tannoy that can be heard all over the Spa.
• Vorm thinks there's a system virus.
• Kane and Vorm have radios to contact each other.
• Ryan thinks the vending machine gave him an electric shock.
• Kane and Vorm have guns.
• The Doctor uses her psychic paper to pretend to be a Pan-Galactic Standards and Practices Officer, Health and Safety, Security and Hygiene and Resort Inspector.
• Tranquility is defended by an ionic membrane, which fails.
• The Doctor installs a debug script to neutralise the hopper viruses.
• Kane asks Vorm to uncloak Void panel SE9-13.
• The Doctor figures that Tranqulity Spa is a Fakation.
• Kane's gun is fitted with an exciplex modulator.
• Bella has built bombs all around the Spa.
• The teleports have bounce capacitors which need syrillium 4 to work.
• Syrillium 4 mutates from syrillium 3 via the hopper virus.
• The teleports have a drive core.
• Nevi has a snap hammer and a crash wrench.

Story notes

• Unlike Spyfall: Part One, and arguably Part Two, this episode lacks a cold opening.

Ratings

• 4.19 million (BBC overnight)
• 5.38 million (BBC overall)

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

• The Doctor is still in a bad mood, which Team TARDIS have picked up on. (TV: Spyfall)
• Ryan mentions that he works in a warehouse. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
• The Doctor previously identified a planet as Earth thanks to an underground station in her sixth incarnation. (TV: The Mysterious Planet)
• The Doctor previously investigated a holiday resort which was hiding a secret, Paradise 5, with Peri Brown. (AUDIO: Paradise 5)
• Bernice Summerfield previously visited Gigamarket where the humans were hidden behind a forcewall to stop the Borvali from hunting them down. (AUDIO: The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy)
• Graham says "cockle." (TV: Kerblam!, PROSE: Mission of the KaaDok)
• Ryan mentions his mother's death. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Tsuranga Conundrum)
• Graham says that he is a bus driver. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Rosa)
• The Doctor says "When I say 'run', run" a favourite saying of her second incarnation. (TV: The Power of the Daleks, Kill the Moon)
• The Doctor instructs her companions to be the "best of humanity." (TV: Cold Blood)
• The Doctor previously witnessed a devastated future Earth in her second incarnation. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Mirror)
• The Seventh Doctor also encountered a possible version of future humanity mutated by pollution. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
• The Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald previously visited a future Earth devastated by climate change in 2089. The Doctor indicated to Clara that this future was not fixed. (PROSE: All the Empty Towers)

Home video releases

to be added

External links

• Official Orphan 55 page on the Doctor Who website