Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: Planet of the Ood

Doctor Who: 

Planet of the Ood 

By Keith Temple

“The circle is broken.  The Ood can sing.”

As with most seasons in New Doctor Who, well mainly in the Russell T. Davies era, there is a visit to the future.  As was the case for each new series and when there was a new companion the theme for the first three stories has been one story in present day, the past and the future.  This story takes place in the future and thankfully it is not on New Earth but in fact the home of the Ood the Oodsphere.  This is the return of the Ood last scene in the classic story The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. 

Planet of the Ood more or less gives us a history of the Ood and more or less shows us how they unfortunately became slaves to the humans.  Planet of the Ood is pretty good as the story moved along very well and there was also a fair amount of action also.  The action was so precise and and the pacing was perfect a type of story you would expect directed by Grahame Harper.  Best sequence that had made the story really good was when The Doctor was being chased by the giant claw device that is used to pick up storage containers.  Just great direction in that sequence and it fits in really well.

Donna had some really good scenes in Planet of the Ood.  Mainly when the Doctor was able to let her hear the Ood sing and it drove her into tears of sympathy for the Ood.  She realizes they are slaves and a trusting and passive race that was completely taken advantage of by the humans that have enslaved them.  She even points this fact to Klineman that the Ood have to be trusting because they hold their brain in their hands.  Truly a good Donna moment and you can see her really coming into her own as companion in her third story.

There were some pretty good performances by the guest stars in Planet of the Ood.  Most notably form Tim McInnery from Spooks and Black Adder fame.  The way he played Klineman and how poorly he treated the Ood made you want to hate him and you were glad of his fate of being turned into an Ood.  That is a great performance when the actor can reach out and make that type of an impression on you and Tim McInnery did just that.

I was truly entertained by Planet of the Ood and have watched it repeatedly since it aired in 2007. Even though this story isn’t going down in Doctor Who history as one of the best all time it still has enough to be an excellent story that is pretty entertaining.  You have to give the production crew props for tackling the subject of slaver and to remind us that it still is unacceptable no matter what creature it happens too.

Grade B