4.3: Planet of the Ood
Synopsis: The Doctor and Donna land on the Oodsphere, the native planet of the Ood, the servant race last seen in series 2, The Satan Pit. Humans have set up shop, and have been selling the Ood as livestock/slaves. However, there have been multiple incidents of an Ood's eyes turning red, and using its translator globe to kill any humanoid in its path.
The Doctor, able to hear a "song" that none of the humans can hear, understands that the Ood must be bound by a common force, and something to do with this force is causing the anomalous behavior, and he begins to dig. Mr. Halpen, a businessman whose livelihood appears to rest upon the sales of Ood units, of course, pursues the Doctor and Donna as intruders, and will keep his customers from finding out about the red-eye phenomenon at any cost. He is aided by Ood Sigma, his personal servant, whose chief responsibility seems to be to provide him with hair tonic, upon demand.
In their pursuit of Halpen (and vice versa) our heroes discover a massive brain, part of the collective Ood consciousness, kept prisoner by the humans-in-charge. A field surrounds it, preventing it from fully communicating with the Ood. The Doctor manages to disarm the field, just as Halpen realizes that the "hair tonic" he has been taking is some sort of potion that has been slowly morphing him into an Ood. Sigma takes responsibility and vows to care for him as one of their own.
Golden Comic Moment: Partners in Crime touched on it a bit, and it has been cited as one of the reasons why Donna is (in some circles, according to some polls) the favorite Companion: she appears to be utterly unimpressed by the Doctor. Sure, yeah, she's floored by the whole time-and-space thing, and she does intentionally go looking for him, asking to be his Companion. And, in the following episode, she will confess to her grandfather that she finds the Doctor "just dazzling." But she does not go all swoony every time he tips his admittedly very compelling eyebrow. She does not hang on his every word, and goes out of her way to inform people that they are, "So not married... never, ever." After two (arguably, three) years of sexual tension with the requisite Companion, even we will admit, it's a bit refreshing.
Case in point, as they leave the TARDIS, for the first time together on a different planet, the Doctor gives Donna a fairly grandiose pep-talk, which she absolutely ignores.
Doctor: Born in Chiswick. Oh, you've had a life of work and sleep, telly and rent and tax and takeaway
dinners, all birthdays and Christmases and two weeks holiday and year, and then you end up here!
Donna Noble, citizen of the Earth, standing on a different planet! How about that, Donna? (He turns
and finds she's not even there.) Donna?
Donna: (Comes out of TARDIS, now wearing a heavy coat, Eskimo-like.) Sorry, you were saying?
Doctor: Better?
Donna: Lovely, thanks.
Doctor: Comfy?
Donna: Yup.
Doctor: Can you hear anything inside that?
Donna: (With a slightly cheeky smile) Pardon?
Doctor: (Smirks, and continues talking.)
This is followed by a remark about a spaceship flying above, and how cool it is in comparison with the TARDIS, almost an affront to the Doctor's manhood.
Golden Fangirl Moment: Honorable mention needs to go somewhere to the Doctor being chased by a giant arcade-style grabber claw. But it's not exactly Golden, nor is it cringeworthy nor funny... so we'll mention it here. We think it's kind of awesome.
What do fangirls and boys do better than muse over, fret about and pick at the scabs of continuity? And this episode gives us a healthy dollop of it. Not just some seeds of things to come, but some super-heavy doom and gloom that begins a downward spiral for our favorite Time Lord! Arguably, it can only be seen in retrospect, but in the last few moments of this episode, we see the Beginning of the End of the Tenth Doctor!
When the Doctor and Donna are on their way out, this is part of the exchange:
Ood Sigma: Will you stay? There is room in the song for you.
Doctor: Oh, I've sort of got a song of my own, thanks.
Ood Sigma: I think your song must end soon.
Doctor: Meaning?
Ood Sigma: Every song must end.
Doctor: (uneasily) Yeah.
Ood Sigma, is, of course, telling the Doctor that his Tenth incarnation is coming to a close. In about a year, someone else who is remarkably prescient will use similar words that resonate with the Doctor, back to this moment. And though our pin-striped hero will dodge it until he absolutely cannot anymore (just ask Queen Elizabeth), indeed, it is Ood Sigma who, in about a year and a half, will help usher the Tenth Doctor to his regeneration, at both ends of his final adventure. Events are not in motion yet, but it might be said that this is when Ten begins to think about his upcoming demise... which, as we know from the 2009 specials, does not lead to good things.
Though, one might argue that there is a near-miss regeneration at the end of this series. Perhaps after that, he thinks, "Well, disaster averted... on with the show."
There is also the fact that the Ood seem to refer (though not always) to the Doctor and Donna as though they are a single entity, even including the definite article: "The Doctor-Donna." This is foreshadowing to the events of Journey's End, which closes out the series...
Cringeworthy Moment: In quite an effective piece of concise storytelling, the PR representative Solana is heard giving the sunny-days-and-rainbows speech to potential customers: "As you can see, the Ood are happy to serve, and we keep them in facilities of the highest standard. Here at the Double-O, that's Ood Operations, we like to think of the Ood as our trusted friends. We keep the Ood healthy, safe and educated. We don't just breed the Ood, we make them better. Because, at heart, what is an Ood, but a reflection of us? If your Ood is happy, then you'll be happy too." This monologue is intercut with, and serves as voice-over in scenes of Halpen's henchmen running about the complex outside, chasing down Ood who have gone rabid. They show absolutely no regard for the rights or the lives of the Ood,, demonstrating unequivocally that what Solana is saying is a bald-faced lie. It is a very good way of delivering exposition as to the overlying conflict the Doctor will face, without insulting the audience.
From a storytelling, acting or TV-content standpoint, it is not at all cringeworthy. But, as humans, it is quite unpleasant to watch our darker nature at work. There's a little part of all of us that knows, given the right circumstances, we could all be those people who buy, sell, and abuse innocent creatures, for our own gain. Over the millennia of humankind, it has happened time and time again. These scenes (and the entire episode, if we're splitting hairs) imply that our nature will never change, that even in the year 4126, we still haven't learned our lesson. If this episode has anything compelling to say about that old Doctor Who staple, human nature, it is this.
Golden Moment: It's not a very well-remembered episode... perhaps because it's sandwiched between the visually rich, emotional Fires of Pompeii, and a two-parter which resurrects villains from the classic series. Also, perhaps because it has very little to do with the Doctor himself, and it tries, but has not much that's very profound to say about the complex topics of slavery (it's bad), oppression (even the oppressed can be unaware of their own lot), or capitalism (beware!). Except, that is, for one Golden Moment.
The axis of the story is the ill, callous treatment of the Ood by humans, who are, unfortunately, directed (and represented) by Mr. Halpen. He shows no comprehension whatsoever of the fact that the Ood are sentient beings with feelings and rights. His organization lobotomizes them with impunity, and then sells them off like objects. The greatest possible piece of karmic justice for him is to become the very being he has mistreated for so long. At the climax of the story, as with all good, old-school climaxes, we see the bad guy get his comeuppance: his very patient, and intelligent, personal servant, Ood Sigma, turns him into an Ood.
And so, after watching the Ood enslaved, beaten, killed and dismissed by Halpen for 40 minutes, how could it not be Golden to watch him literally pull off his own face, vomit tentacles and sneeze out a hind-brain as he becomes one of them? And it's all the more poetic, since we've seen him taking the "hair tonic" that does the job, all episode long, and he has, in more than one sense, done this to himself.
Why I Beg To Differ: For its Golden Moment, Doctor Who Magazine names the scene in which the Doctor and Donna find the "unprocessed" Ood in cages, and the Doctor opens up Donna's mind so that she can hear their song. She says, "I can't bear it," and begs him to make him stop, and take her home. It is a rather jarring revelation for her - the song is the embodiment of pain, longing, captivity, and the Doctor can hear it all the time. It is part of his burden, along with knowing which events are fixed. Not to mention, how well this sequence presages the tragic events of the end of the series, when the Donna receives some of the Doctor's abilities, and he has to take them away because she "can't bear" them.
From a continuity standpoint, this is true (and see above: we fans do love our continuity), as well as from a characterization standpoint. Quite apart from the episode's plot, the moment shows us more of Donna earning her stripes as a Companion, finding out that the dangers of living in the Doctor's world go beyond simple mortal peril, like in Pompeii.
But the moment when Halpen realizes what's about to happen to him has a certain ring of perfect poetic justice about it that just cannot be ignored!
Also, one might mention, the two Golden moments (ours and DWM's) go hand-in-hand. The Ood's painful song of captivity is the reason why Halpen's transformation is so satisfying to watch.
The Doctor, able to hear a "song" that none of the humans can hear, understands that the Ood must be bound by a common force, and something to do with this force is causing the anomalous behavior, and he begins to dig. Mr. Halpen, a businessman whose livelihood appears to rest upon the sales of Ood units, of course, pursues the Doctor and Donna as intruders, and will keep his customers from finding out about the red-eye phenomenon at any cost. He is aided by Ood Sigma, his personal servant, whose chief responsibility seems to be to provide him with hair tonic, upon demand.
In their pursuit of Halpen (and vice versa) our heroes discover a massive brain, part of the collective Ood consciousness, kept prisoner by the humans-in-charge. A field surrounds it, preventing it from fully communicating with the Ood. The Doctor manages to disarm the field, just as Halpen realizes that the "hair tonic" he has been taking is some sort of potion that has been slowly morphing him into an Ood. Sigma takes responsibility and vows to care for him as one of their own.
Golden Comic Moment: Partners in Crime touched on it a bit, and it has been cited as one of the reasons why Donna is (in some circles, according to some polls) the favorite Companion: she appears to be utterly unimpressed by the Doctor. Sure, yeah, she's floored by the whole time-and-space thing, and she does intentionally go looking for him, asking to be his Companion. And, in the following episode, she will confess to her grandfather that she finds the Doctor "just dazzling." But she does not go all swoony every time he tips his admittedly very compelling eyebrow. She does not hang on his every word, and goes out of her way to inform people that they are, "So not married... never, ever." After two (arguably, three) years of sexual tension with the requisite Companion, even we will admit, it's a bit refreshing.
Case in point, as they leave the TARDIS, for the first time together on a different planet, the Doctor gives Donna a fairly grandiose pep-talk, which she absolutely ignores.
Doctor: Born in Chiswick. Oh, you've had a life of work and sleep, telly and rent and tax and takeaway
dinners, all birthdays and Christmases and two weeks holiday and year, and then you end up here!
Donna Noble, citizen of the Earth, standing on a different planet! How about that, Donna? (He turns
and finds she's not even there.) Donna?
Donna: (Comes out of TARDIS, now wearing a heavy coat, Eskimo-like.) Sorry, you were saying?
Doctor: Better?
Donna: Lovely, thanks.
Doctor: Comfy?
Donna: Yup.
Doctor: Can you hear anything inside that?
Donna: (With a slightly cheeky smile) Pardon?
Doctor: (Smirks, and continues talking.)
This is followed by a remark about a spaceship flying above, and how cool it is in comparison with the TARDIS, almost an affront to the Doctor's manhood.
Golden Fangirl Moment: Honorable mention needs to go somewhere to the Doctor being chased by a giant arcade-style grabber claw. But it's not exactly Golden, nor is it cringeworthy nor funny... so we'll mention it here. We think it's kind of awesome.
What do fangirls and boys do better than muse over, fret about and pick at the scabs of continuity? And this episode gives us a healthy dollop of it. Not just some seeds of things to come, but some super-heavy doom and gloom that begins a downward spiral for our favorite Time Lord! Arguably, it can only be seen in retrospect, but in the last few moments of this episode, we see the Beginning of the End of the Tenth Doctor!
When the Doctor and Donna are on their way out, this is part of the exchange:
Ood Sigma: Will you stay? There is room in the song for you.
Doctor: Oh, I've sort of got a song of my own, thanks.
Ood Sigma: I think your song must end soon.
Doctor: Meaning?
Ood Sigma: Every song must end.
Doctor: (uneasily) Yeah.
Ood Sigma, is, of course, telling the Doctor that his Tenth incarnation is coming to a close. In about a year, someone else who is remarkably prescient will use similar words that resonate with the Doctor, back to this moment. And though our pin-striped hero will dodge it until he absolutely cannot anymore (just ask Queen Elizabeth), indeed, it is Ood Sigma who, in about a year and a half, will help usher the Tenth Doctor to his regeneration, at both ends of his final adventure. Events are not in motion yet, but it might be said that this is when Ten begins to think about his upcoming demise... which, as we know from the 2009 specials, does not lead to good things.
Though, one might argue that there is a near-miss regeneration at the end of this series. Perhaps after that, he thinks, "Well, disaster averted... on with the show."
There is also the fact that the Ood seem to refer (though not always) to the Doctor and Donna as though they are a single entity, even including the definite article: "The Doctor-Donna." This is foreshadowing to the events of Journey's End, which closes out the series...
Cringeworthy Moment: In quite an effective piece of concise storytelling, the PR representative Solana is heard giving the sunny-days-and-rainbows speech to potential customers: "As you can see, the Ood are happy to serve, and we keep them in facilities of the highest standard. Here at the Double-O, that's Ood Operations, we like to think of the Ood as our trusted friends. We keep the Ood healthy, safe and educated. We don't just breed the Ood, we make them better. Because, at heart, what is an Ood, but a reflection of us? If your Ood is happy, then you'll be happy too." This monologue is intercut with, and serves as voice-over in scenes of Halpen's henchmen running about the complex outside, chasing down Ood who have gone rabid. They show absolutely no regard for the rights or the lives of the Ood,, demonstrating unequivocally that what Solana is saying is a bald-faced lie. It is a very good way of delivering exposition as to the overlying conflict the Doctor will face, without insulting the audience.
From a storytelling, acting or TV-content standpoint, it is not at all cringeworthy. But, as humans, it is quite unpleasant to watch our darker nature at work. There's a little part of all of us that knows, given the right circumstances, we could all be those people who buy, sell, and abuse innocent creatures, for our own gain. Over the millennia of humankind, it has happened time and time again. These scenes (and the entire episode, if we're splitting hairs) imply that our nature will never change, that even in the year 4126, we still haven't learned our lesson. If this episode has anything compelling to say about that old Doctor Who staple, human nature, it is this.
Golden Moment: It's not a very well-remembered episode... perhaps because it's sandwiched between the visually rich, emotional Fires of Pompeii, and a two-parter which resurrects villains from the classic series. Also, perhaps because it has very little to do with the Doctor himself, and it tries, but has not much that's very profound to say about the complex topics of slavery (it's bad), oppression (even the oppressed can be unaware of their own lot), or capitalism (beware!). Except, that is, for one Golden Moment.
The axis of the story is the ill, callous treatment of the Ood by humans, who are, unfortunately, directed (and represented) by Mr. Halpen. He shows no comprehension whatsoever of the fact that the Ood are sentient beings with feelings and rights. His organization lobotomizes them with impunity, and then sells them off like objects. The greatest possible piece of karmic justice for him is to become the very being he has mistreated for so long. At the climax of the story, as with all good, old-school climaxes, we see the bad guy get his comeuppance: his very patient, and intelligent, personal servant, Ood Sigma, turns him into an Ood.
And so, after watching the Ood enslaved, beaten, killed and dismissed by Halpen for 40 minutes, how could it not be Golden to watch him literally pull off his own face, vomit tentacles and sneeze out a hind-brain as he becomes one of them? And it's all the more poetic, since we've seen him taking the "hair tonic" that does the job, all episode long, and he has, in more than one sense, done this to himself.
Why I Beg To Differ: For its Golden Moment, Doctor Who Magazine names the scene in which the Doctor and Donna find the "unprocessed" Ood in cages, and the Doctor opens up Donna's mind so that she can hear their song. She says, "I can't bear it," and begs him to make him stop, and take her home. It is a rather jarring revelation for her - the song is the embodiment of pain, longing, captivity, and the Doctor can hear it all the time. It is part of his burden, along with knowing which events are fixed. Not to mention, how well this sequence presages the tragic events of the end of the series, when the Donna receives some of the Doctor's abilities, and he has to take them away because she "can't bear" them.
From a continuity standpoint, this is true (and see above: we fans do love our continuity), as well as from a characterization standpoint. Quite apart from the episode's plot, the moment shows us more of Donna earning her stripes as a Companion, finding out that the dangers of living in the Doctor's world go beyond simple mortal peril, like in Pompeii.
But the moment when Halpen realizes what's about to happen to him has a certain ring of perfect poetic justice about it that just cannot be ignored!
Also, one might mention, the two Golden moments (ours and DWM's) go hand-in-hand. The Ood's painful song of captivity is the reason why Halpen's transformation is so satisfying to watch.