Planet of the Ood: Modern Who's Best Slavery Polemic
Illogic abounds on the Ood-Sphere, but the story is a classic morality tale that lets David Tennant and Catherine Tate shine.
Plot Summary
In the 42nd century, the Doctor and Donna battle snow, soldiers, and giant mechanical claws to free a slave race from their barbarous masters: human beings.
Notable for:
First episode shot for Series 4
Return of the Ood, first seen in The Impossible Planet
Directly references The Sensorites; the Ood-Sphere is in the same solar system as the Sense-Sphere.
The “Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire” is a reference to The Long Game, which described the “Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire” in the year 200,000 or so.
References to the bees disappearing, a plot point of The Stolen Earth later in the season.
First reference to the Doctor-Donna.
The working idea would have brought back the character of Ida Scott. Per the TARDIS Wiki, “she would now be a member of an investigative team looking into conditions on the Ood-Sphere, who would be dismayed to discover that her estranged father is now involved with Ood Operations — although it would later be revealed that he is secretly acting on behalf of the Ood.”
Pete commentary:
Planet of the Ood is a needed follow-up to The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, exploring how the Ood came to be this servant class for the future Earth Empire. You definitely had a “wait a sec” reaction to seeing them presented as willing slaves in that story.
That provides a nice background to what is essentially one of the first anti-capitalist screeds in NuWho, which includes Sleep No More, Oxygen, Arachnids in the UK and others. The background makes it stronger, though the depiction of the company enslaving the Ood is so clearly evil that it allows for zero nuance.
The cold open is one of the best in NuWho: short, hits you hard, and establishes the danger. You also get both the satisfaction of killing a CEO type that we’re not that sad to see die (some interesting modern context considering the online reaction to the assassination of the United CEO) as well as a cool callback to the “bad” Ood of The Satan Pit.
Another “proper” rocket like the Meep’s. Love that Donna calls it a Ferrari compared to the TARDIS.
This is an excellent story to have filmed first. Catherine Tate shows Donna as properly out of her element on her first alien planet, and her confusion/reaction to the dying Ood is perfect: first shocked and perhaps slightly disgusted, but then — with the Doctor’s guidance — quickly adopts a sympathetic and curious stance. A Who companion getting universe-savvy at 2x speed.
“It was the devil,” is a nice summary that’s really more about reminding viewers which episode we’re talking about.
This is a good episode for Donna, if not an outstanding one. She’s given many good lines, gets a chance to stand up to the bad guy (by lecturing him about the Ood brains and their need to trust), and has an excellent wake-up call moment when she realizes what she’s truly in for by traveling to the future.
The hair tonic thing is kinda dumb. For starters, there isn’t a more reliable way to regrow hair in the 42nd century? And if it is still just tonic, why do you need to drink it so often that you have to take a swig in the middle of meetings? You definitely know from the first instance that this is going to be some kind of plot point.
Considering the company is dealing with rabid and homicidal Ood, how is it they don’t essentially “lock down” the Ood right away? You’d think Mr. Halpen (and everybody) would be uncomfortably having Ood Sigma standing in the background of every meeting — something Grace commented about early on.
Ood custom voices are pretty silly — who wants a gross-looking alien to start talking in a sexy voice? Then again, this was made when ringtones were all the rage.
The company security policy feels very misguided:
Why kill a rabid or red-eye Ood if you’ve already captured it? Surely you’d want to study live specimens to try to figure out countermeasures — not just “post-mortems.”
Why use lethal force at all, for that matter? The Ood don’t have projectiles, and they are the company’s product. Destroying your product unnecessarily is wasteful. Why not just tase or tranquilize them?
The answer, I suppose, is the concern that a single Ood contaminates the rest, but then the question becomes: why not isolate/quarantine instead of kill?
Speaking of all the gunplay, you’d think there’d be way more slaughtered Ood by the end of this episode, but there are are so few — who is cleaning up the bodies? Also, it would be a much more tragic ending if it was clear hundreds of Ood had died in this revolution.
The actual whip is a little much. Everything’s already on the cartoony side, but I don’t think this adds much.
Kess trying to kill the Doctor with the crane is totally nuts. He actually calls off his guards so he can have fun with the crane and squeals in delight at making the Doctor run. Obviously it shows what a sadist he is, but it again makes the evil corporation stuff really paint by numbers. But, yes, for TV you need to pace things and on that level it works.
The outdoor location work, apparently done at a cement factory, looks very good and industrial, though you wonder what, exactly, all the factory equipment is doing. Is it all to maintain the brain?
The shipping containers are pretty excellent: a familiar thing that’s shown to be this society’s equivalent of slave ships. That said, I don’t think it makes physical sense to pack them in that tightly without even a strap to hold them in.
Ayesha Dharker as the PR woman is great. She’s the kind face painted on the whole monstrous idea, the euphemism — cruelty and slavery are easier to overlook if you dress them up in the trappings of tech and progress: all keynotes and demos and cocktail hours. It’s a good, if small twist that she has a momentary lapse but ends up betraying the Doctor and Donna.
Speaking of: there’s a great juxtaposition sequence early on, cutting from the rabid Ood being chased against the PR event.
Halpen is like Bill Murray from Scrooged, except he’s not redeemed in the slightest, at least not before he becomes and Ood himself. Which is honestly more forgettable than it should be. He becomes an Ood, but the Ood then promise to take care of him and rehabilitate him, I guess? There’s something very… uh. Ood about that ending. Like the Marshal in The Mutants, he never stands trial for his crimes, and what the Ood do to him isn’t exactly justice per se. If this had been more of the focus for the episode it might have worked, but then it would be a District 9 ripoff.
The climax is the giant brain is freed, lets the Ood sing and amplify the effect of the song, and everybody wants peace and harmony. Uhm, OK. I understand wanting to end on a positive note, but you’d like someone, somewhere to feel the shame of what this society has done — allowed brutal slavery to thrive to support the empire economically.
The brain “eating” the scientist guy is really weird — makes this thing we’re supposed to feel sorry for unnecessarily ominous.
Why is the company never named? Could it be… Villengard?
What did Pete’s family think?
Grace liked it, especially Donna. She thinks the Ood are a good monster.
Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete
Why did the Randomizer take us here? Officially completing “Planet of…” bingo! Also: empires falling because of misinformation, and the people being kept in the dark about what’s really happening — that’s a tad Nimon-ish, isn’t it? Also: the Doctor sets the TARDIS coordinates to “random!”
What if the evil plot had succeeded? Assume the Doctor isn’t saved by the PR woman, and the crane kills him. Donna is then killed by the red-eye Ood. Halpen destroys the Ood brain, which kills all the Ood, everywhere — genocide. Not to mention bankruptcy.
Where's the Clara splinter? Clara is a rival CEO who is marketing robot workers. She obviously has a deal with Halpen to get him a cushy executive job or board seat if he puts the Ood company out of business — it’s the only reason I can think of he likes destroying his own product.
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? Solid, moralistic Doctor Who. Feels like Barry Letts would have approved. It’s a Dalek with a tiny bit of tweed.
Chris commentary:
"Not very 42nd century" – RTD on adding a press cinema, and it could stand in for a lot of the decisions here. Why not, like in Impossible Planet and Satan Pit, just not give the year? Because Donna I guess
Target novelization on Spotify, and it's pretty good. Restores the "Friends of the Ood" scene early on and this involves a confrontation with the Doctor, Donna and Halpern at the same time. As it is cut, it's a bit weird that they avoid confronting him.
Love the Donna dialogue taking the Doctor to task for giving the moral of the story. It allows the moral to shine through, and also allows us to feel we're not being preached to.
Oodschwitz?!
Four Questions to Doomsday - Chris
Why did the Randomizer take us here? Planet bingo and Ood bingo, and also the Randomizer has been playing with politics … and this is a Tennant random destination … or is it? Is he even really in control of this thing?
What if the evil plot had succeeded? Halpern doesn't fall for the hair tonic thing, I guess? Or he manages to shoot Doctor, Donna and Ood sigma before he converts, and they get … absorbed by the Ood brain, I guess? And then we're in a totally new show: Doctor Ood.
Where's the Clara splinter? FOTO Head of OO PR
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? Giving it a Dalek for the script and a Hayter for the tired old bloodless battle-based execution.