Friday 17 January 2014

Day 785 - The Planet Of The Ood



Last time the Doctor met the Ood he was unable to save any of them as the planet they were on fell into the centre of a black hole. Here he realises the terrible truth behind their relationship with mankind.

In their previous story the Ood were introduced as beings who lived to serve others. That's all well and good, if that is really what they live for. In actual fact they are more slaves than humans. The "Persil ball" that they use as a communicator is obviously not something they are born with but the awful truth is that where the ball is attached is where the Oods' second brain should be. The humans have effectively been lobotomising them.

The stage is therefore set for a revolution as the Ood, with a little help from some humans involved with the "friends of the Ood" movement overthrow their human masters. 

The Ood live peacefully together because, as Donna brilliantly surmises, a creature who is born with its brain in its hand would have to trust everyone. The telepathic link which binds them allows them to sing to one another, which is quite euphoric in the scenes where their freedom is restored.

This is a fantastic episode but one thing that is slightly odd ( I said odd, not Ood, so difficult to get those two word mixed up that by autocorrect is going into overtime) is that this is one of the rare stories, especially in the new series, where the Doctor and his companion have pretty much no affect on what is happening around them. If the Doctor and Donna had never visited this world then it most likely would not have had any effect. The revolution would have still happened. I'm not criticising this. It's actually quite a refreshing way to tell a story, just having the Doctor and his companion as observers. But the weird thing is that at the end of the episode the lead Ood is thanking the Doctor and Donna for their help and telling them that their children will be singing of the "Doctor Donna" forever. But why? They didn't really do anything!!

There is also one moment in this final scene that when I first saw it, shocked me. The Ood asks the Doctor is he will stay and join in the song. The Doctor says he has to leave as he sort of has his own song, to which the Ood replies "I think your song must end soon". Yes it seems the seeds of David Tennants departure from the series have begun to be sown. And I'm a little sad as right now...well.....I don't want him to go....

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