{"id":166,"date":"2011-02-21T12:28:41","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T20:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=166"},"modified":"2011-03-02T15:51:44","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T23:51:44","slug":"mark-watches-doctor-who-s04e03-planet-of-the-ood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/02\/mark-watches-doctor-who-s04e03-planet-of-the-ood\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S04E03 – Planet of the Ood"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third episode of the fourth series of Doctor Who<\/em>, the Doctor and Donna land on the home planet of the Ood, where the Doctor must face the fact that he ignored their plight the last time he saw them. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I’m fascinated by the very obvious turn to this season: Donna Noble acts as a foil to the Doctor’s previously unchecked behavior. I don’t think Doctor Who<\/em> is a particularly subtle show, though there have been plenty of beautifully written, subtle moments in the past. The writers love making big, rash, and grandiose statements about the human condition. Spaceships crash into Big Ben, and entire worlds are destroyed in seconds. The stakes are high, the risks are real, the body count is immeasurably high, and the Doctor routinely saves the day. It’s an entertaining formula, for sure, and I don’t want this to seem like I’m at all criticizing what Doctor Who<\/em> does. That’s half the fun, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

So I’m not surprised that each episode we’ve seen so far, it’s been very obvious that Donna confronts the routine and morality of the Doctor. I don’t necessarily expect this to be something shoved into the background, quietly working behind the main plot. It’s not even within Donna’s character to be that non-confrontational. She’s not as intense as she was in “The Runaway Bride,” certainly, but to expect a calm, brooding Donna would be unrealistic. She is<\/em> loud and brash and loves to take the piss out of your unnecessary seriousness.<\/p>\n

In “Planet of the Ood,” Donna’s perspective on the Ood is entirely different because she doesn’t look at them in the way that the Doctor does. To the Doctor, he just accepts<\/em> that they are a slave race. He does acknowledge that he was a tad distracted the last time he came across the Ood in “The Impossible Planet” \/ “The Satan Pit.” I mean, RIGHT<\/em>. He battled GODDAMN <\/em>SATAN<\/em><\/strong> and that may have been a bit more important at the time.<\/p>\n

It was great to return to the Ood, who still have one of the best costumes\/prosthetics\/makeup out of any alien race on the entire run of the show. (I cannot get over how cute their blinky eyes are. WHY IS THIS THE CASE.) “Planet of the Ood” takes a much deeper look at the concept of slavery and how other people can turn living things into commodities. Ood Operations is the corporation exploiting the Ood this time and somehow, they’re worse than Satan. That’s saying a lot. They’ve turned the Ood into products to be scattered throughout the Second Great Human Empire, to be used as servants with no real desires or feelings of their own. We were repeatedly throughout the episode by the people in power that the Ood were designed this way. Or born this way. That they loved to serve, that they needed it to survive. (Sound familiar, Harry Potter<\/em> fans?)<\/p>\n

The episode’s big mystery involves a phenomenon called “Red Eye,” in which the Ood begin to go rabid. Through this bizarre experience, the Doctor and Donna set off to find out what’s going wrong and deal with a larger problem: how is it possible that a species evolve naturally to become servants? And it’s a fantastic question that even I failed to ask. How do beings come into existence in a purely altruistic way?<\/p>\n

The brilliance of “Planet of the Ood” lies in the fact that, through the Doctor and Donna, the idea that a species wanting to be enslaved is entirely dismantled here. The owners in this episode have rewritten history, or at least completely lied about it, in order to justify their ownership of the Ood. But even further than that, I really, really enjoyed the idea that the Ood used music to communicate complicated and emotional messages through song. I think it could have been really, really cheesy when the Doctor and Donna found the unprocessed Ood. But through the believable acting of David Tennant and Catherine Tate, as well as the gorgeous music composed for the Ood, I completely believed it. I mean, even at a base level, music has provided the catharsis for oppressed people worldwide and I appreciated the sensitivity the writers gave that scene.<\/p>\n

Also THE OOD WERE LOBOTOMIZED. JESUS. FUCKING. CHRIST. I will never get over how awful that is<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The end of this episode isn’t really disappointing to me, so much as\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6well, it’s just not quite as amazing as the rest of the episode. I loved the idea that a giant brain provided the consciousness to the Ood and that “breaking the circle” meant removing the circle of pylons that created a forcefield. But man, I was kind of sad that Dr. Ryder reveals himself to be part of Friends of the Ood and then immediately gets thrown into the giant brain. OOOPS. SORRY SIDE CHARACTER. I also was unsure what the implications were of tuning Halpen into an Ood. Did he still retain his identity and being or was he now 100% Ood?<\/p>\n

I’m glad the Ood were freed, and I’m glad that Donna’s new perspective changed the way the Doctor dealt with this situation. But\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6so what was the Red Eye thing? Or the rabies? Were the unprocessed Oods causing this? I felt it was hinted that they were starting a rebellion, but it wasn’t outright confirmed. Either way, I had a great time with this episode. It was satisfying, thought-provoking, and basically Donna Noble is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.<\/p>\n

THOUGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n