This is generally considered one of the worst episodes in all of Doctor Who, and I'm quite inclined to agree.  With grade-school level politics, lame characters, disappointing acting, terrible editing, boring sets, and a complete waste of our main cast, there's not a lot to like about Orphan 55.  The monsters could have been cool but they aren't filmed very well.  I don't love the twist around this being Earth and the result of wicked humanity - aside from it being a bit against scientific consensus (the Earth will survive us - we just might not survive ourselves) - it's an old twist that is basically the same bit as the original Planet of the Apes.  Consider me unimpressed.

Sorry, I can't provide any sort of contradictory take to the popular sentiments around this one - it's just a bad episode.  Not even entertainingly bad, either.

An abysmal episode of the show, and honestly deserves the reputation it has. I think a lot of the Chibnall era isn’t as bad as they say, but this is like a bottom five episode no problem. The Dregs are the most obvious problem. They look like shit and are are not compelling whatsoever. Every shot is either a Dreg that looks like it came from a ps2 game, or a basic corridor except the color of the light is going crazy for some reason.

The twist is really basic and brings nothing new to the table. 13 and the fam are not on top form either. There is a little good stuff with Ryan, but it’s only like one scene where he’s trying to flirt with a girl who can’t act. The “Benni” line has been memed to death but again, it’s warranted. It’s very grating on the ears and it never succeeds in making me care about these two because that old woman can’t act. And then she dies for absolutely no reason.

Overall this is completely skippable. It tries to be an homage to JNT Doctor Who, but doesn’t have any fun with itself. It’s a bore and an annoyance.

you are all so dramatic. this is not even close to as bad as some of you like to pretend.

Well that was another really strong episode of Doctor Who. Some more scary new monsters again, great 13 and Graham moments and a very powerful ending reminiscent of Girl In the Fireplace, only with a companion.

Horrible writing, horrible plot, horrible character writing, an overly telegraphed 'twist', a moral that is condescendingly simplistic and over-explained, honestly, is there anything of merit to find in this episode? I honestly, really do not think so, the only small comfort I can find here is that I never have to watch this episode again, because truly, once was more than enough.
1/10