Previously: Donna Noble continued to be awesome, even on Volcano Day.
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Planet of the Ood
Marines: A business-y man watches a commercial for an Ood and talks about it with someone on the other side of a wrist communicator. Business is down so they are dropping the price all the way to 50 credits. After the wrist conversation is over, Business Man tells a nearby Ood to pull some military reports, because the military are always looking for some extra help.
Another call comes into Business Man’s watch, just so we’re super clear that this man is selling Ood. The Ood from a second ago comes back with a file, but Business Man says it’s the wrong one. The Ood says that’s irrelevant. A little surprised and a little upset, Business Man asks why that is. The Ood responds by shocking the crap out of Business Man with its translator ball.
Kirsti: A+ choice, Ood. Just to be clear: the Ood are a slave race and everything about this opening scene is super icksville, so I’m more than okay with giving a high five to the Ood for straight up murdering that fucker.
Mari: DOO WEEE OOOH.
Donna and the Doctor are hanging on while the TARDIS bumps around and lands. Once they do, the Doctor explains that he set the controls to random and they could be anywhere at anytime. He stops mid gloat, though, to ask if Donna is okay. She says she’s terrified. Going back in time is one thing, but now they are talking alien planets. She’s full of excited feelings she can’t quite express, but the Doctor gets it. He feels this way, too, even though he travels all the time.
K: TOO SOON, MARI. TOO SOON.
Mari: I apologize, but it was all I could think.
On that burst of energy, Donna goes outside to see where they are and… it’s snowing. Her complete lack of enthusiasm for that speaks to my soul. The Doctor is all, “it’s beautiful,” and Donna shivers.
The Doctor keeps on with his speech about how Donna was born in Chiswick and now she’s here on an alien planet. A citizen of the Earth. He turns back to see what she thinks of that, but she’s back inside the TARDIS. One second later she comes back out in a parka, like the sensible citizen of the Earth that she is.
K: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you don’t love Donna Noble, you’re wrong. The wrongest. Also, what the HELL is Tennant’s hair doing in this episode?! It’s like it’s suddenly grown an extra six inches, and all of it was in a forwards direction…
Mari: I’m pretty sure that’s called a bang (or a fringe).
As they stand there, a rocket flies by and Donna is super impressed. She calls it a “proper rocket,” saying that the Doctor has a box and that rocket is a Ferrari. She starts after it.
Back at the Ood… factory (cringe), a Dr. Ryder introduces himself to a Mr. Halpern. Halpern doesn’t want chats or introductions; he just wants the facts and figures on how many are dead. Dr. Ryder defers to the woman standing next to him. She introduces herself as Solana, head of marketing and galactic liaison. Halpern is still not having any of this and just wants to talk about deaths, dammit.
Inside the compound, Solana says there have been three deaths in the last quarter and they all watch Business Man die in some security footage. Halpern asks how the Ood are using the translator ball as a weapon, but Ryder doesn’t know yet. They are assuming the killer Ood had Red Eye, but he ran away and they haven’t found him yet. Solana asks what Red Eye is and Ryder explains that it’s some sort of infection that changes the Ood’s eye color. Halpern calls out for a drink and Solana reminds him alcohol is against his own rules. It’s hair tonic, though, because stress is making his hair fall out.
K: Do you think I could get away with the “it’s hair tonic” excuse on really long, boring afternoons at work??
Mari: No. #HRprofessional
Out in the cold, the Doctor and Donna are skipping around merrily until the Doctor hears something.
The Doctor runs off because he sees something: an Ood, passed out in the snow. Donna is like, “WTF is that tentacle face” (basically) but there’s no time for that. The Doctor has got his stethoscope out even though he doesn’t know if Oods have hearts, and he tells Donna to keep talking to the Ood. She asks for his name and his translator lights up as he replies, “Delta 50.” Donna grabs the translator and speaks into it that her name is Donna. The Doctor (kind of impatiently) tells her that she doesn’t need it. She apologizes and freaks out a bit about this dying alien in the snow. (K: Legit.)
Delta 50 struggles a bit to say, “the circle must be broken.” The Doctor asks what circle, but suddenly Delta 50 bolts upright and his eyes glow red. The Doctor grabs Donna and they back away, but the Ood just collapses and dies.
Donna goes back to kneel beside the body. She strokes the Ood’s head and asks the Doctor if they should bury him. God bless Donna Noble.
K: Seriously. She’s just the best.
Mari: The Doctor says the snow will take care of burying. Donna next asks what an Ood is. The Doctor explains that they are servants to humans in the 42nd century. This Ood’s eyes turned red, though, which means they’ve got trouble.
As they walk away, the Doctor continues his explanation: The Ood are harmless, but last time he met them, there was another force that was taking them over. It’s a long story, but Donna insists and the Doctor tells her the force was the devil. (One of my favorite episodes this rewatch.)
They reach a place where they can see the Ood factory.
Just outside the factory, Solana is greeting a group of buyers. The Doctor and Donna come running up, apologizing for being late. The Doctor flashes psychic paper at her as Donna introduces them as part of, “the Noble Corporation PLC Limited, Intergalactic.” (K: BEST) Solana buys it and hands them a welcome kit. As they head inside, an alarm starts blaring. Solana explains it away as an end of work shift alarm.
Inside, though, Halpern has to throw back another hair tonic because another Red Eye Ood is on the loose. Footage of security chasing down Red Eye Ood is intercut with Solana’s sales pitch about how the Ood are happy to serve. As Solana finishes, security corners Red Eye Ood. Head Security Guy calls into Halpern and tells him that this is more than Red Eye. This Ood is rabid. Halpern tells Security Guy to just get the Ood out of sight. On his way out of the office, Halpern examines his receding hairline and makes a disparaging comment toward his Ood.
K: It was about this point of the episode that I realised that Halpern is Lord Percy from Blackadder, and my ability to take him seriously instantly disappeared out the window.
Mari: I can see why.
Back at the sales meeting, Solana explains some new features where the translator ball can sound like a sexy woman (what the…) (K: Let’s sexualise a slave race on a children’s television show! Um, EW.) or can come with a comedy setting that gives a Homer Simpson, “doh!” Everyone chuckles like this is the best thing ever. The Doctor puts on his glasses and goes to examine the nearest computer. He pulls up a picture of the solar system they are in. The Oodsphere. He widens the view and tells Donna it’s the year 4126 in the second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Donna is amazed, especially because back home, by all reports, humans don’t have long to live what with global warming, flooding and the bees disappearing. The Doctor mentions again how weird the bees thing is. Donna wonder if humans are striking out like explorers or more like a virus. The Doctor wonders too.
Donna asks about the red dots on the map. They are Ood distribution centers. Donna heads to the nearest Ood and awkwardly asks them if they are all “like this.” The Ood doesn’t understand so she asks if there are any free Ood. The Ood says that Ood are born to serve. Otherwise they would die. Donna says it can’t always have been this way. The Ood kind of twitches and says, “the circle.” The Doctor questions him about this circle, but Solana shows up and orders the Ood to hospitality stations. The Doctor is done with the schmoozing and wants to get on with the breaking and entering, I guess.
Halpern and Ryder examine the rabid Ood, who is even foaming at the tentacles. Ryder says there’s only one thing he hasn’t checked yet: warehouse 15. Halpern doesn’t get why that would matter but agrees to take Ryder there, even though he hates the place. Before they go, Halpern tells the security guards to kill the Rabid Ood.
Breaking and entering. The Doctor sonics open a gate and he and Donna watch Ood march two by two. One falters and falls to the floor. Head Security Guy comes over with a whip. They aren’t servants; they’re slaves. The Doctor said that last time he met the Ood, he was too busy to question their status. He owes them one now.
K: I very much appreciate that they addressed the Doctor not questioning it last time and then changing his tune here.
Mari: Halpern leads Ryder and some Ood into warehouse 15. We don’t ever see what’s there, but apparently it stinks and also nothing appears to have changed. Halpern tells his Ood to, “say hello to daddy.” Solana calls Halpern and tells him that Noble Corporation is fake and now the Doctor and Donna are missing. Halpern orders a search. Then, for some reason Halpern thinks it’s a good idea to pour some hair tonic on the thing we can’t see. Halpern leaves. Ryder bumps into Ood Sigma on the way out. Ood Sigma gives The Thing one last, long look.
The Doctor concentrates on a map as he walks ahead of Donna. She notices a door and whistles loudly to get the Doctor’s attention. He asks her where she learned to whistle. “West Ham, every Saturday.” This exchange is odd, but cute.
Behind the door, there are a lot of shipping containers. The Doctor opens one and there are a bunch of Ood packed in. Donna is horrified. She calls this a great empire built on slavery. The Doctor doesn’t think that it’s much different from her time. Donna balks because she doesn’t own slaves. “Who made your clothes?” the Doctor asks.
Donna asks why the Ood don’t run away to freedom, but the Ood that responds doesn’t understand the question. The Doctor asks about the circle and they all answer that the circle must be broken. The Doctor asks why and they answer, “so that we can sing.”
Head Security Guy has spotted Donna and the Doctor. He sounds an alarm and Halpern freaks out because he said no alarms. Solana tries to calm the buyers. The Doctor and Donna run, but Donna stops when she spots a door and is soon captured. Security throws her into a container. She looks up and sees she’s in there with some Ood. The Doctor heads back to find her. Head Security calls off the rest of the guards and says he’ll take care of the Doctor. Basically, he wants to use the huge claw to pick the Doctor up like a carnival game.
K: This made literally zero sense. I mean, it was exciting from a viewing perspective, but the second you think about it, you’re all “………….whut.”
Mari: Basically a two line description of this entire show.
As the Doctor runs for his life, the Ood in Donna’s container all look at her with glowing read eyes. She calls for help. The Doctor falls and the giant claw hovers over him but stops suddenly. We cut to Solana pulling the plug on Crazy Security Guy, saying that Halpern wants the trespassers alive. Two guards grab the Doctor and they march past Donna’s container, where she is still calling for help. The guards let Donna out.
And then the Rabid Ood also come out of the container and kill one of the guards. The guards start shooting and Donna and the Doctor are able to run away. Solana is right behind them.
Outside, Donna starts to say that if the people on Earth knew what was going on here… Solana says that of course they know. Or, really, they don’t ask, which is the same thing. The Doctor wants to know what the company does to the Ood to make them obey. Solana says she doesn’t know (…and she doesn’t ask), but she does eventually direct them to where Dr. Ryder is. The Doctor asks her to go with them and help them. Instead Solana alerts the guards to their presence. As she watches the Doctor and Donna run away, she calls Halpern to tell them where they are going.
Next, Crazy Security calls Halpern to tell him that they’ve contained the Ood, but it seems Red Eye has contaminated all of them. Halpern calls the whole lot a loss and wants to kill them all. He strokes his hair and loses another chunk.
The Doctor and Donna keep running. They find the right place because the Doctor can hear some more of that telepathic singing. They find a cage of Ood, all huddled together and holding something in their hands. These are natural born Ood, before they are processed. Donna still can’t hear the singing and the Doctor asks if she wants to. She does, so he puts his hands to her temples and works some of his psychic mojo that we see so infrequently. We hear the haunting song– The Song of Captivity– and Donna starts to cry. After just a few moments, Donna tells the Doctor to take the song back. He does, but he can’t get rid of the song in his own head.
K: Catherine Tate’s acting at this point was WONDERFUL.
Mari: Halpern and Solana arrive at the Ood holding cells, but the Doctor fused the door shut.
The Doctor sonics his way into one of the cells, where the Ood all back away from him. He approaches them cautiously, saying “Doctor. Donna. Friends.” He asks what they are holding. One of the Ood slowly uncovers his hand to reveal a little brain. The Doctor figures out that the Ood are born with a secondary brain that processes memories and emotions. The company cuts that off and stitches on the translators, effectively lobotomizing them. Donna is again horrified and says she wants to go home. (K: Legit.)
Halpern enters with security and the Doctor closes the cell door, asking what they are going to do. Arrest him and throw him in a cage? Too late.
K: Not gonna lie, that face is pure Barty Crouch Jr. Definite Dark!Doctor tendencies…
Mari: Cut to the Doctor and Donna standing handcuffed in Halpern’s office. Halpern is saying stuff about how they are helping the Ood and they welcomed it. Donna calls him an idiot. These are creatures born with their brain in their hands. They’d have to be peaceful and trusting. (K: This speech is one of my all time favourite Donna Noble speeches.) Halpern says all they’ve got is a rogue batch, and it’s cool, because he’s going to kill those off. Crazy Security Guy has all the gas canisters ready to go. Solana tries to get the buyers to leave or the Ood to leave, but no one moves.
The Red Eye Ood that are quartered off form a circle and stand hand to hand. The unprocessed Ood expose their brains and hold them out. All the Ood out and about the factory start shaking and their eyes go red. Chaos and dying ensues.
Solana runs away but it isn’t long before she’s cornered by an Ood and electrocuted.
Alarms are blaring. Halpern and Ryder run out to see that things have turned into a full-on revolution.
Inside the shipping department, Red Eye Ood have broken out the rest of the Ood. They leave Crazy Security to be killed by the gas.
K: It’s times like this that you remember this is an episode of children’s television, and you’re all “…O.o”
Mari: Back in the office, Ryder reports that there doesn’t seem to be any off world problems with the Ood, so all of this is still contained to the factory. Halpern says he’s leaving the Doctor and Donna to the mercy of the Ood. The Doctor says there must be something else going on. The Ood must be connected to some kind of third element. Halpern crazies that “it” won’t exist much longer. Halpern leaves with Ryder, Ood Sigma and two guards.
Outside, Halpern tells Ood Sigma to join his people while she still can.
Red Eye Ood enter the office where Donna and the Doctor are still trapped. The Ood approach and the Doctor starts yelling, “Doctor. Donna. Friends” while Donna shouts, “the circle must be broken.” We see the unprocessed Ood all listening to this. They stand and just as they do, the Ood attacking our heroes stop. They twitch and when they look again, the red eyes are gone. One of the Ood says, “Doctor. Donna. Friends,” and the Doctor is like, “YES. That’s us!”
Outside, there is still chaos. Halpern runs toward Warehouse 15. The Doctor and Donna soon join the fray, though they aren’t sure where they are going.
Halpern reaches Warehouse 15. Ryder is talking about evacuation but Halpern’s plan is to blow up Daddy Ood so the rest of the Ood die.
The Doctor, Donna and Ood Sigma also arrive at Warehouse 15. They look down into what we haven’t see before and it’s a giant brain. This is what connects all the Ood. Halpern shows up and he’s wielding a gun. Donna notices some pylons in a circle. “The circle must be broken.” Halpern notices Sigma and says he expected better. Sigma says his place is by Halpern’s side and walks over to him.
Donna asks how come the Ood started breaking out if the barrier is still in place. Dr. Ryder steps forward and says he lowered the barrier to a minimum because he’s part of the Friends of the Ood movement. He infiltrated the company. He decided to make this grand speech, though, like an inch from Halpern’s face, so Halpern just knocks Ryder over the banister and right into the Ood brain. Ryder doesn’t in fact bounce on the squishy brain. He gets sucked into it.
K: This whole industrial sabotage subplot was super weird, even if it only lasted 30 seconds.
Mari: That’s all it takes.
Donna, always one for stating the obvious, tells Halpern that he murdered Ryder. Halpern gets ready to murder them, but first he’s got a little bit of talking to do, mostly so we can notice that his speech is becoming slow and slurred. Ood Sigma steps in the way of the gun and asks if Halpern would like a drink. It takes him a second to catch on and Halpern asks if Sigma has poisoned him. Sigma says that Ood can’t kill, but he has been giving him “Ood-graft suspended in a biological compound.” The Doctor is like, “OH SNAP.”
And, indeed. Because as we watch, Halpern’s scalp peels away and he kind of vomits some tentacles and he turns into an Ood. The last thing that happens is that a small brain pops out of his mouth. The Ood turned him into an Ood. Sigma says that they’ll take care of Halpern. Donna’s WTF face is priceless. (K: This whole transformation felt very…Indiana Jones somehow.) She says that being with the Doctor, she doesn’t know what’s right and wrong anymore. The Doctor says it’s better that way. People who know for certain end up like Halpern.
The bombs start beeping and the Doctor runs over to turn them off. He asks for the honor and Sigma says it’s his. After 200 years, the Doctor switches off the barrier and the Ood song fills the factory. All the Ood still surviving all stop fighting and lift their hands.
We cut to the ridge where the TARDIS is parked. The Doctor is telling Sigma and the gathered Ood that the message went out. The song went out through the galaxy and the Ood are coming home. Sigma asks if they won’t stay and become part of the song. The Doctor says that he’s kind of got a song of his own. Sigma says that that song must come to an end soon.
D:
K: NOPE. NOT OKAY. HOW DARE YOU, OOD SIGMA.
Mari: The Doctor asks Donna if she still wants to go home. She says no, so it’s time for them to go. Sigma and the other Ood lift their hands and tell Doctor, Donna to take the song with them. They promise to and Sigma sends them off with, “And know this, Doctor Donna. You will never be forgotten. Our children will sing of the Doctor Donna, and our children’s children. And the wind and the ice and the snow will carry your names forever.”
K: FORESHADOWING FEELS.
Mari: The Ood continue singing as they watch the TARDIS dematerialize.
I liked this episode. This is a special kind of continuity, because we previously met the Ood and saw that they were taken over by that other consciousness. That was that until this episode picks up the thread and takes us to Ood planet to hear the rest of the story. It’s especially poignant because by the Doctor’s own admission, the last time he came across the Ood, he left them to die.
It’s a story to which the Doctor and Donna are mostly just witnesses. There isn’t much that they do except present this presence of sympathy. That is to say that they are the sympathetic eyes through which we the audience get to witness this story. It’s interesting because in the end, both are remembered fondly by the Ood, immortalized in their not-so telepathic-anymore song, and yet they do very, very little. This is a revolution that started before they got there and was carried out without them.
While some of this episode has that characteristic over-the-topness of a Doctor Who episode, especially with the giant brain that was somehow a thing, it really did strike some feelsy notes (thanks in large part to Donna) and some of the capitalism + slavery observations the episode manages to make.
K: There are definitely some elements of this episode that fall flat, especially when recapping. But on the whole, it’s pretty stinking good, and a nice throwback to an old favourite without feeling like it’s totally repeating what we’ve already seen.
Next time on Doctor Who: We meet a bratty genius and the Sontaran in S04 E04 – The Sontaran Stratagem.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.