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Planet of the Ood Format Reviewed: TV Review Planet of the Ood continues the fourth series of the new television adventures of Doctor Who. We also see a returning race, and one that were only introduced during the new adventures too, the Ood. The basic premise of the race is the same, the Ood are a slave race for the Human colonies, but here we visit their homeworld, the Oodsphere, and meet the company who are selling them for slavery. The Doctor uses a random generator to find his and Donna's next destination, and they find themselves on a desolate and snowy landscape. They stumble accross an Ood dying in the snow, and see he has the infamous 'red eye' that makes the Ood dangerous. At Ood Operations factory close by, the head of the corporation arrives, Mr Halpen, to find out why there are problems with Ood production. He discovers that several Ood are suffering from 'Red Eye', thought to be an infection. There is also a second stage now being exhibited, a rabid phase. There is a sales party in though, and they are being shielded from the problems by PR woman Solana Mercurio. The Doctor and Donna infiltrate the base, finding Ood on mass ready for transportation. They also manage to discover unprocessed Ood, who have their external fore-brains removed and replaced with a translator. The Doctor works out that there must be a third part to the communal brain, and tries to find it. He eventually discovers a massive brain that is being dampened by a circle force field, but Halpen stops the Doctor from destroying it. It is the central brain that is making the Ood have 'red eye' and go rabid, rebelling against Ood Operations and the slavery of the race. It is then revealed that the hair tonic that is being given to Halpen is actually a serum that is turning him into an Ood. The transformation completes, and The Doctor, along with Ood sypathiser Dr Ryder, free the large brain and therefore the Ood themselves. It is then revealed that ood will be shipped back to the Oodspere and freed. After the first two episodes of the series which were largely reduced to thin character pieces that are setting up stories for later on, it is a relief to see an episode that is reliant upon plot and story. In a way, it is a shame that this re-introduces an old race and doesn't show something new, but I feel the Ood had a story to tell, and it really does round off the race very well. Hopefully this will therefore be the last Ood story we have, as I feel we have now come as far as we can with them. This is also the first time that Donna gets to go offworld. It will always be a big thing for a new companion to see another planet for the first time, and gatting a different type of reaction for Donna was accomplished well, further distinguishing the character from her predecessors. Regular cast The Doctor and Donna are again played by David Tennant and Cathering Tate respectively. Thier interactions are simply a delight, ahd the characters seem to bounce off each other very effectively in the scripts. The character of Donna has such an earthy element, which contrasts The Doctor's fantasy so well, and is well played by Tate, especially in pacey scenes. She is still slightly overacting in the slower scenes, but this is becoming less. The guest cast is headed up by Tim McIinnerny as Mr Halpen, who really does give a good performance. The rest of the cast does OK, with Ayesha Dharker as Solana Mercurio and Adrian Rawlins as Dr Ryder were the more prominent members. Halfway through this episode, I was convinced that the telling of the story would suffer being forced into 45 minutes, and should be broadened to a two-parter. As the copnclusion played out, I realised how wrong I was. There was exactly the right amount of story for the single episode format, and if it were extended over two there would undoubtedly be a lot more padding and probably more setting up for later episodes. As a criticism though, the story tries make several political points about society, and parrallel many aspects of our life today. There is still a reliance on relationg everything to Earth, although this is being quite picky for this particular episode. Overall, Planet of the Ood takes a race introduced in the new series and rounds them out very nicely. It answers any questions there might have been about them in the original epiosodes, and succeeds in being a good new take on the collective intelligence tale. It is also good to see an episode that is really telling a story, as opposed to the character driven pieces of the last two episodes. Rating:  |