'Doctor Who' Series 12 Episode 3: The grim warning about climate change could have been presented more subtly
Warning: Spoilers ahead for 'Doctor Who' Series 12 Episode 3 'Orphan 55'.
'Doctor Who' Series 12 Episode 3 'Orphan 55' paints a pretty dark picture of what could happen to the planet if the state of the world continues as it is today with the concept of Orphan planets, worlds so devastated by climate change and nuclear war that life as we know it cannot sustain. It's a powerful message and we definitely appreciate the thought though the execution could have been better.
The episode follows a pretty familiar format. The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her companions find themselves on what seems like paradise, only to realize it's actually a dystopian world with monsters aplenty.
The big twist that makes the story more relevant? The planet is actually Earth in the future and the monsters living on the planet are the dregs of humanity (imaginatively called the Dregs), mutated by radiation to become apex predators that are surprisingly easy to deal with.
Granted, what the writers were going for was clearly a more moralistic story about the consequences of our actions in the present. This is made painfully clear towards the end of the episode when the Doctor monologues about it at length.
"You want me to tell you that Earth's gonna be okay? Because I can't," she says. "In your time humanity's busy arguing over the washing up while the house burns down. Unless people face facts and change, catastrophe is coming."
Perhaps the scariest part of the future, and one that doesn't get more than a passing mention, is the fact that the rich and powerful were able to escape the fall of the planet, leaving ordinary people to be killed, mutated, and twisted into something inhuman. We do see what appears to be humans in the episode so what's really shocking is the fact that humanity, or at least some of humanity, might still make it out and leave the rest of the species to die.
This isn't the first time we've seen mankind reach a terrible end on the show (the Toclafane and Lady Cassandra are two excellent examples that come to mind), but this is certainly the most contemporarily relevant dystopia the show has presented in a while. That said, a little more subtlety would have been advisable because as much as we love a story with a strong message, nobody likes to be preached at.
'Doctor Who' Series 12 Episode 4 'Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror' will air on BBC America on January 19.