It is on record that Orphan 55 had quite a few production issues which meant compromises had to be made.
For all it’s faults, I found it a perfectly enjoyable watch when I popped it in the DVD player recently.
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It seems to be a v unpopular opinion but I didn’t at all hate Orphan 55. It was a bit daft but that’s hardly the worst crime a DW ep can commit
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I haven’t thought about it in an age, and it’s a very rough idea with so many holes, but I think Orphan 55 could be really interesting if you swap the season order around a bit.
Move Villa Diodati earlier in the season, have Orphan 55 be a resort that’s only got aliens, and have the reveal be that it’s earth post-cybermen screwing everything up.
You do lose the environmental message, but Praxeus is in the season anyway and I feel that does it a lot better.
7 Likes
Also unrelated tangent, but wow, I didn’t realise how earthbound season 12 is.
Spyfall Part 1 - Earth
Spyfall Part 2 - Earth and Past Earth
Orphan 55 - Messed up Future Earth
Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror - Past Earth
Fugitive of the Judoon - Earth
Praxeus - Earth
Can You Hear Me? - Earth
Haunting of Villa Diodati - Past Earth
It takes up until episode 9 to really get off Earth
Edit: She really only gets 6 off earth stories - Ghost Monument, Tsuranga, Kerblam, Ranskoor Av Kolos, Ascension/Timeless Children, and Flux (given the non-earth episodes are mostly tying into that central plot vs village and war which do but are a bit more stand alone)
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And then season 13 comes around and destroys most of the stuff that’s not on Earth… 
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Well I keep seeing ‘Doccy Who’. That makes irrationally angry.
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CCPC Grammar Police Division here
When people don’t capitalise character names, title names or place names 
david tennant is the tenth doctor in the satan pit on krop tor, how does that not drive people mad?
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Or not use capital letters at the beginning of a sentence or on the pronoun ‘I’…
And breathe…
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Years of using an iPhone has killed my ability to naturally use a capital ‘i’. I do wish on PC I could double-tap spacebar for a fullstop. It would make my life so much easier.
Cancel that subscription to iGrammar!! 
1 Like
I’m sorry, but this means nothing to me.
Doctor x Companion romance.
Yeah sure, i’m aro (and ace) and don’t like romance that much in general, but having grown up watching the classic series, I really hated how RTD and nuwho in general threw in romance to “modernise” the show and make the doctor “more relatable” or some bs. Part of the reason the show is so unique is because romance wasn’t a huge focus, and the main important relationships were platonic and/or familial etc. Even as a kid who had no idea what amatonormativity was, I still kind of picked up on it and hated 10rose and other attempts at forcing romance into the focus of the show. Not to mention retroactively making some companion relationships “romantic” (e.g. Sarah Jane) and setting them apart as “more important” than other companions [insert Brig!TARDIS friendship speech from Zagreus here]
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Definitely one reason Donna & Bill > Rose for me in new Who. No romance, and a different Doctor/Companion dynamic.
And definitely one reason why I love 4’s “You’re a beautiful woman, probably.”…
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I dislike how they made River Song force her romantic inclinations on all of the Doctors (and at the expense of their characterization). River Song in general is a giant Ick for me.
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Big worm mood same. IK doctor who canon is flimsier than wet cardboard, but Moffatt establishing that 10 is the first to meet River in the Doctor’s timeline is A Pretty Defining Moment, and yet BF have shoehorned her in with nearly every other pre-10 doctor (AND forced it to be romantic and OOC as you mentioned). She annoyed me beforehand but now I absolutely Cannot Stand her. Not to mention it’s really to the detriment of her character as well since she barely exists outside of her relation to the Doctor (and lbr is just a worse written Benny rip off)
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I think referring the Doctor’s travel companions as their carers is most accurate. Even 12th says “yes, she cares so I wouldn’t have to” 
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Couldn’t agree more. That’s exactly why I straight up skipped all River audios and now venturing to Benny’s (and you get Brax in them, too!)
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Whovian, Whoniverse, Doccy Who - yep all these things make me shudder. But I mostly agree with current debate on romanticising the Doctor’s companions… that was a TERRIBLE mistake
My current ick though? All this bloody singing and dancing 
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It’s weird that I hate Whovian but am totally on board with Whoniverse. I think it’s because what word, exactly, is Whovian playing on? Whereas Whoniverse sounds natural because it’s only a stone’s throw away from the word is it based on.
As for the romanticising - I get that it isn’t a direction some fans have ever got on board with - I remember the furore over the kiss in the TV Movie which seems positvely chaste by comparison nowadays - but it is part of what made the show successful for a modern audience and, I believe, helped widen the fanbase beyond what made up the majority in the classic era/wilderness years.
The Doctor/Rose stuff did become almost unbearable though 
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This might be crazy biased of me but immediately writing off any Big Finish release just cause of the medium i find frustrating:/ like “non canon” “oh just an audio” or similar statements. And i get a lot of the anti BF opinions, honestly i feel like they could be doing a lot more to be accessible to everyone, but audio’s just as valid a medium as tv!
16 Likes