There’s something a little ood about this episode.
Proving once again that no costume is inexpensive enough to use only once, the Ood have returned.
Synopsis
The story starts with the Doctor taking Donna to her first alien world, the Oodsphere, during the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. It will come as no surprise that they have landed at a time when the Ood are being effected by the mysterious Red Eye condition and beginning to kill people at the Oodsphere.
They infiltrate the Ood operations headquarters to investigate. Donna is appalled at the way the Ood are used as slaves.
The Doctor and Donna run around a lot, there’s an open revolt of Ood, finally we learn the slaver, Mr. Halpen and his family have been suppressing the Ood hive brain for two centuries and that the translator device each Ood has is actually a replacement for a removed second brain they all have.
The Ood turn Halpen into an Ood, the Doctor turns off the suppressing barrier, and the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire looses its workforce, probably destroying the economy of 3 galaxies.
The Ood return home, thankful to the Doctor and Donna
Analysis
It’s been two weeks since I watched this episode. I didn’t feel like reviewing it at the time because I didn’t feel like there was much to say, but I’ve re-watched the episode and now I can say, I still haven’t got much to say about this episode.
It was great to see the old Blakes 7 factory-cum-Federation communication station/research facility (or one that looks just like it) being used for an installation on an alien world. Brings back good memories.
My main problem with this episode is that the Ood just don’t work for me. The original notion that the Ood are a creature which would evolve to be a servant race doesn’t make sense, and the Doctor, rightly, points that out in this episode. The problem is, once the Doctor starts using logic, suspension of disbelief can be tossed out the window. “Oh,” Doctor, “Are you saying then that a creature could evolve so supremely ill-adapted that it would have to carry its brain around in its hands?!”
Wouldn’t it have evolved something to carry the brain around without wasting a hand? If it did use the hand, would the brain and non-brain hands evolve differently to reflect the different uses of them? The lobotomized Ood stick their translators to their shirts and use both hands naturally. Surely that’s not a reflection of nature. How come when the episode is over, the lobotomized Ood seem to be perfectly normal, despite their missing brain?
Surely most significant in this episode is the Ood’s comment about the Doctor’s song ending soon. With the huge companion cluster coming up later in the series, I can’t help suspecting that the production crew is trying to pull a fast one.
Perhaps stung by their complete failure to keep Eccleston’s departure a secret, maybe they’ve invented this cover story of Tennant doing Shakespeare for a year while they make movie versions of Doctor Who. Maybe that’s just so that Tennant can do other work after he is written out of the show without raising as many eyebrows. I’m expecting a full, proper regeneration at the end of this series – but I’l be overjoyed if it doesn’t happen. It isn’t Tennant’s time to go. Surely, Baker’s record should be something to shoot for.
Once again, though, we’re going to be hammered over the head throughout the series with their overbearing foreshadowing techniques. Does the Bad Wolf syndrome have to occur in neatly defined time units that just happen to coincide with the first and last episode of a series?
Next episode, the Sontarans are back for a two-parter. Review after the second episode airs.