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Post By
HH
In Reply To
CrazySugarFreakBoy!

Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
Subj: Re: Doctor Who, "Planet of the Ood:"
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 at 08:45:08 am EDT (Viewed 1 times)
Reply Subj: Doctor Who, "Planet of the Ood:"
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 at 03:45:11 am EDT (Viewed 408 times)


> For an episode with some extremely dubious xenobiology, even by sci-fi standards, and a rather pedantically preachy message, I didn't mind this one nearly as much as I suppose I should have. Granted, part of that is because its aforementioned flaws make it feel a lot more like an original series episode than most of NuWho has done, but then again, this whole season to date has really managed to capture a surprisingly strong classic Who vibe.

I'm not as much in love with the Ood as the production team are (same with the Adipose) and I felt that this episode took it at face value that "everybody loves the Ood". It also set up a straw man argument "exploiting people is bad" which made for a pretty simplistic conflict.

That said, the story was again rescued by the performances of the regular cast and a bit of jaunty action directing by Harper.

> Upon reflection, I realized that the Doctor's presence actually didn't make much difference to the outcome of the Ood's struggle. While I have mixed feelings about that, since the standard laws of narrative fiction dictate that the protagonist should be the primary character who drives the story forward, I've decided that I don't mind as much as I would otherwise, since one of the themes of the episode was the humbling of the Doctor, which was also manifested in his desire to atone for his past indifference toward the Ood.

I was interested by the tiny character arc of the PR woman, who got handed a lifeline and threw it away. When she chose not to change we knew she was dead.

> I'm far from opposed to allowing the Doctor some romantic involvements with certain of his companions

I rather think it's been done to death and is starting to feel like fan-service. I'm dreading rather than anticipating Rose's return. Stop all this feeling and get on with the story, folks!

> And I can't believe I almost forgot to mention this, but Donna's need to hear the Ood's song, even after the Doctor warned her how painful it would be, and her subsequent shame at asking him to "take it away," underscored her compassion and courage in an achingly quiet way.

Indeed. Althould Donna's tendency to burst into tears every episode is becoming a bit of a cliche (c.f. episodes 2, 4 etc).

And good for Ten, for showing her such understated acceptance, by telling her that her reaction was perfectly "okay," when she needed to hear such consolation the most. He's come a long way from the Ten who told Martha in "The Shakespeare Code" that "Rose would know what to do."

I don't recall that line.