1 Up & 5 Downs From Doctor Who Series 12 - Orphan 55

3. The Characters Are Horrendously Underdeveloped

Star of the Inbetweeners James Buckley features as Nevi in Orphan 55, along with Laura Fraser as Kane, Gia Ré as Bella, and Julia Foster and Col Farrell as the couple Benni and Vilma. As guests and staff of the spa, they come along on the 'adventure' Team TARDIS find themselves on, but also bring along their own bout of luggage to add to the plot. Benni is attempting to propose to Vilma, Nevi and his son, Sylas, have a turbulent relationship, while Bella is hiding a plot from Kane- but we'll get to those.

The expectation thrust upon us with these characters almost pointlessly coming along for the ride further reinforces how little we know or care about this new ensemble. No time is given to really dig deep into these characters motivations until right at the point of expected emotion, and they subsequently amble through the episode like hollow husks not really contributing to the main narrative at play. Their own narratives however, come crashing in as and when they choose...

2. The Pointless Sub-Plots

Throughout the course of Orphan 55, these plot points introduced with the three pairs come up with no fanfare or build. Barri finally proposes to Vilma in a situation that will lead to his death. Bella drops a huge bombshell (quite literally) in revealing she is Kane's daughter, and intends to destroy the spa, killing her Mother in the process. Nevi and Sylas have a separation and reconciliation arc in the space of three minutes, and the reconciliation continues to between Kane and Bella, even though there were no narrative beats that would lead to any kind of forgiveness.

We, the audience, were suddenly expected to care for these characters. Not because we'd become close with the characters over our time with them, but because we were just meant to feel that way. None of the characters from Orphan 55 will be particularly memorable, except for maybe Vilma screeching "BARRI!" every chance she got.