Doctor Who 4x03 - "Planet of the Ood"
 

"Planet of the Ood" by Keith Temple
The Doctor and Donna land on an ice planet called the Ood-Sphere, and the Doctor discovers what drove the Ood to become a servant race.

If that didn't shut up the new who cynics, I don't know what will. That was the most brilliant and thought provoking episode ever! I just found it really scary and dark, and also sad. It makes a welcome departure from the Doctor banging on about how humans are "great" and "fascinating," to a more dim and horrid light which showed us as the bastards we really are, it's about time Doctor Who had that back.

I particularly enjoyed Tim McInnerny, but it was hard not to notice a couple of "Captain Darling" faces shine through :P. One scene that stuck out as awesome was where the "unspoiled" Ood were first seen, singing as they were. So well directed and superbly lit, and the music in this was just fine. I only hope that the Ood are left to rest and not brought back for a while. Their character and story are so strong so it would be a shame to see them overused and eventually shat upon. Next week's looks awesome, and another of my comedy idols (Christopher Ryan) stars. From what I saw he sounded really good, and very angry- perfect. Could still tell it was his voice though :P

A strong, firm and voluptuous 9/10 from me.

Got bored with all the *run away from X, run away from Y* that was going on.

Storyline was good though, and it's nice to see some background to the Ood.

I don't need to explain myself, it was a beautiful episode, with a beautiful performance, and it was...are what the hell, the whole thing was just beautiful. I can honestly say that I was almost moved to tears when Donna heard the Ood singing, I found that scene really powerfull.

I loved the episode but I have to re-watch the whole "Ood Healing" before I get it properly!

It seemed a bit odd (that isn't a purposeful pun). I do agree though it was very beautiful and it had a sort of "epic" feel to it. It was the Doctor's soul duty to do this. Everyone else feels a bit of what he does but the Doctor's the only one who will dare to stop it.

And Catherine Tate was great yet again. I'm looking forward to how the Doctor treats Martha now that she is a "soldier" next week

What can I say, the new series has gotten better and this was a cracking episode. not only was it great to see more background to the Ood but it was written in such a compelling and emotional way. the parallels to modern day Earth were moving and portrayed realistically and it was also quite creepy, especially the part where the boss guy gets transformed into an Ood. Tim McInnerny was splendid and it was a joy to see him again. I was quite reminded of Lord Percy and Captain Darling in parts. the ood remind me so much of The Borg in parts and that also made it quite creepy

What struck me was the line at the end which seems to hint at The Doctors future. i wonder if that might tie into The Doctors Daughter somehow and DT's future. I did like The Sensorites reference too.

Nexts weeks looks quite nice too, and as for me, this episode gets a 9/10, the Ood are some of the best written races and I hope we shall see them again in a few years. the series is definitely winning me over. I thought the Ood episode would be one of the better written ones and it did into disappoint.

Things I enjoyed:
- Ood being related to the Sensorites
- Lots of death and violence (can we get more of this plz? kthx)
- Fairly dark plot; concept of revolution
- Use of the Doctor's telepathic abilities
- Portrayal of humans as douchebags (because we are)

Things I did not enjoy:
- The whole episode was a bit random, wasn't it?
- Guy turns into Ood; wtf random
- Ending was not only random but annoyingly happy
- The scene with all the alternative Ood voices was cringeworthy
- Still a bit too hesitant to actually show all the violence
- Donna was embarrassingly annoying at the start
- The Doctor was also a bit too happy, excited, and energetic at the start
- Stupid ****ing Murray can't stop using ****ing Doomsday

Overall, I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

Things I already like about next week's episode:
- Yay Martha
- Yay UNIT

Things I already don't like about next week's episode:
- Sontaran faces are too cheesy-looking and should be much less expressive
- Sontaran voice isn't strained and whispery enough ("We have an intruder!" sounded almost gutteral)
- Interior design of the Sontaran ships -- what happened to the one-man spheres?
- Sontaran color choices -- blue for uniforms and purple for ships? um, no

Wow. It keeps getting better and better! 10/10.

Seriously? 10 out of 10? This ranks among the absolute best, most brilliant pieces of television you've ever seen in your entire life?

I wish people would learn to count their rating scales from the bottom up rather than from the top down. Just because an episode does not have anything majorly wrong with it does not mean it automatically deserves a perfect rating.

Personal opinions will differ. You might not agree with other people's opinions but it doesn't mean they're wrong. ;)

Of course it doesn't mean they're wrong. That's not what I was saying. I just think anyone who gives something a 10/10 either hasn't properly thought it through or hasn't properly justified it. Maybe there are things that actually speak to him enough to think that the episode is perfect, but it doesn't sound that way from his post. If I'm wrong then I'll stand corrected. But from his original post, it just sounds like "wow, this is good stuff, yay -- perfect score." I dislike that way of thinking. Count the points it earns -- not the points it loses.

Was it Doomsday or The Doctor's Theme that played?

And I agree with Danny, the Sontaran ship interior looked weird being purple. It looked like a disco room!

God, so what? Why can't they have new ships made? You think an alien race is going to use the exact same colour scheme and the exact same exteriors and the exact same body armor and the exact same everything for their entire run as a species? You think that someone watching us right now is going to think "**** what happened to silver body armour and horses, these camouflage suits and tanks just suck!" My point is evolution, if our human race changes things, makes things better, more suited, easier to use, upgraded, anything, why can't the Sontarans maybe devise a new ship that is more powerful, a new body armor that is stronger, their faces changed in the old series, why can't they change now? I also think by the way that the faces are very realistic and much more expressive. Sontarans are angry and warlike, and it will be nice to see that in their faces as well as their actions.

Whew, so, now that I know that this personally won't ruin the episode for me, I shall allow either the plot or the acting to spoil the episode for me.

I return briefly and unannounced to take a cheap shot!

Ever heard of leitmotifs?


Thank you, and goodnight.

Perhaps, but that doesn't mean he has to recycle the same piece every time something story-arc related comes up. Though to be fair, he did manage to edit this one into the soundtrack much better than the last time.

I just say get Frank Klepacki in to compose with Danny and Dom. As far as eliteness and awesome go it's a winning formula, although due to the amount of Awesome BBC Wales might explode.

Calm down a bit! I just said that the ship looks funny. Never said I didn't like it. I love the Sontarans new look. I agree with everything you say up there!

Also the newspaper says this will be the most "classic series" like episode we've seen since Doctor Who came back on our screens.

not attacking you, just making a point.

A good nugget of info, but then again, it *is* the newspaper. Which one was it by the way?

Does it really matter? They are all the same and act the same really.

Well it was Live magazine which comes with the Daily Mail.

Their ratings:
PiC: 4 stars
FoP: 5
PoO (:D):5
TSS: 5

Plus they were handing out lots of dates and facts about the Sontarans and UNIT, so they seem to now quite a lot. Either they spent a long time on Wikipedia or they are proper fans!

Yes, Chris I am aware of that. I was interested in reading the article.

Yuck, not reading it though because it is in the Daily Mail. My hatred for that shitrag is eeeeeeternal.

Maybe RTD seduced one of them?

Thought it was a good romp, loved the 'darker' touches about humanity, felt classic in that aspect.. I could rant about it all but Danny and others summed it up just fine.

Few random things,

I had such a geeky moment when he was about to share the telepathic song with Donna.. I auctually muttered 'Say 'contact', say 'contact'!'

After he didn't and I snapped out of my whovian fan boy moment, it made sense that he wouldn't say it, seeing as it always was used in a timelord - timelord situation as far as I remember.

Sadly no shadow proclamation or missing planet reference this episode.. but the whole "Your song is coming to an end" seemed foreboding. Almost as if he is going to die, but we're 99% sure that isn't the case?

Oh and another reference to bees vanishing? Setup for the Agatha Christie episode?

In closing, better than I expected.. looking forward to next week. :)

Really good episode, was good to finally see some carnage and destruction etc. though obviously that wasnt the only reason the episode was good. 9/10.

Next weeks episode looks brilliant. The Doctor swanning around on Earth with UNIT running all over the shop. Classic.

I doubt it. The Agatha Christie episode is called "The Unicorn and the Wasp." That, and it's set in the past, before Donna was born. What do you mean by "another," Larren? Have I missed one? :confused:

I've heard from a reliable source, well, Wikipedia, that this episode is to be a comedy one. I'm just hoping that it will be "word" funny and not "slipping over a banana skin" funny.

Oh, fantastic as it's another comedy. >.>

Just because it's a comedy doesn't mean you should instantly think "oshitz".

A lot of Baker's stories had comedy in them, as well as fantastic stories, it's what his era was renowned for. Comedy in Doctor Who has to be just right, or it fails miserably. The story is being written by Gareth Roberts, who also wrote the fantastic "Shakespeare Code." Roberts actually took advice from Douglas Adams, and I quote, "a danger one runs is that the moment you have anything in the script that's clearly meant to be funny in some way, everybody thinks 'oh well we can do silly voices and silly walks and so on', and I think that's exactly the wrong way to do it".

So never fear, relax a bit, dude!

That era did not have RTD squeezing the life out of it. Tom Bakers era was the peak of the old series in my opinion. I don't mind jokes in Doctor Who, the ones in Planet of the Ood were quite good plus it was a good mix of comedy, action, drama and Sci Fi.

This episode is not being written by RTD. Have we ever seen a terribly bad non-RTD episode in the new series? Yes, Russell's episodes are the weaker ones in a series, bar 'Atoll K,' 'The Sound of Drums,' 'Doomsday,' 'Army of Ghosts,' 'Bad Wolf,' and 'Parting of the Ways,' but episodes written by the likes of Steven Moffat, Chris Chibnall and Stephen Greenhorn have always ranked "good" to "magniff" in my opinion.

Both very good points, however the Agatha Christie episode is the only one I've thought of upon hearing these references. What else do you think it's referencing? Wouldn't it be odd if there were two suspiciously similar bee-esque storylines this season?

It was referenced in "Partners in Crime" as well.

Well, what was the reference in PIC, and I'll have a think about it from that. (I'll Wikiquote it if you don't want to watch it again :P)

(PS. 'Bee-esque' is my new favorite word, because it sounds a bit like 'BS')

Honestly, I don't remember, and I really can't be bothered to sit through it again. It was some conspiracy theory that Donna found on the internet while searching for the Doctor. It was mentioned while they were on the roof, I'm pretty sure.

Haha, even better when read in my original context. "BS storylines this year." :P

Although so far that hasn't been the case :P

Story arc wise, Danny, were you aware that RTD has told us that this year features no arc 'word' (e.g. Torchwood, Bad Wolf, Mr.Saxon) but an element from every episode, "whether it's a person, a phrase, a question, a planet, or a mystery," builds up to the grand finale! "You've got to watch and listen closely. It's been seeded for a long time, with small but vital references going all the way back to Series One." Man, this series is really gonna be awesome!

This calls for some speculation! Shall we call them "Arc Points"? We can all try and spot it each time we watch an episode. Here are my guesses so far.

Partners in Crime- Can't remember it enough
Fires of Pompeii- "She's coming back"
Planet of the Ood- "Every song must come to an end."

Could that last quote possibly be a reference to the new theme this year?

Lets hope so. I don't really like it that much. I don't feel hate of the highest degree towards it but it's not as good as the last one.

Maybe bees and wasps are getting mixed up in the online rumors they mention in PiC.

Maybe all the bees (or wasps) are flying into a rift which takes them to Agatha Christie's time.

or maybe RTD's trying to throw us off course with the whole season arc thing!

Please tell me that wasn't a serious suggestion...

Nothing's serious in RTD-land.

Ronnie if its RTD land anything can happen.

So yeah serious.

It's probably a land reminiscent of a Dr Suess story.