| Original Transmission
Cast The Doctor David Tennant
Written by Keith Temple
Plot Outline from Wikipedia The Doctor (David Tennant) uses his TARDIS to land at a random point in time and space. Leaving the TARDIS, he and his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) find a dying Ood, a species the Doctor previously encountered in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit". Before dying, the Ood's eyes turn red and it attacks the Doctor. The Doctor muses that the last time he met them, they were being influenced by the Devil, so their docility is being influenced by a different and closer being. The Doctor and Donna find an industrial complex controlled by Ood Operations, who are selling the Ood as a servant race. The Doctor locates their position: the Ood-Sphere in the 42nd century. The "Red Eye" phenomenon is affecting other Ood on the planet: several people have been killed in the weeks prior to the narrative. During the outbreak, the Ood state that "the circle must be broken". Ood Operations noted an increase in the phenomenon, and consider the problem similar to foot and mouth disease; CEO Klineman Halpen (Tim McInnerny) tells the Doctor that the method of killing the Ood is identical.
Throughout the episode, Donna becomes sympathetic to the Ood and is horrified by their status as slaves. The Doctor takes an interest in the Ood too: he notes that being born to serve would be against Richard Dawkins' "selfish gene" argument. He and Donna travels through the complex and finds a batch of uncultivated Ood. Instead of a translation sphere, the Ood hold a "hind brain"; the Doctor derides Halpen for lobotomising them. The Doctor and Donna are captured by Ood Operations' security force. Shortly after this, the Ood begin a mass revolution, and the complex is evacuated. The Doctor follows Halpen to a locked warehouse, which contains a large brain. The brain's control of the Ood limited by a circle of pylons. Halpen plans to kill the brain, and by extension, all of the Ood, but is stopped by a joint effort between the Doctor, Donna, and Halpen's personal Ood, Ood Sigma (Paul Kasey); Ood Sigma has used Halpen's hair-loss medication to slowly convert Halpen to an Ood.
The Doctor shuts down the circle, freeing the Ood. Before leaving, Ood Sigma promises to include the Doctor and Donna in the Ood's song, but comments that the Doctor's song may soon end.
Analysis by Cuisle First of all, lets remember that the Ood are not ‘Doctor Who Monsters’ as they are so often called. The term ‘monster’ in fact is a misnomer. Even ‘alien’ is wrong. The correct term ought to be creature or even lifeform, since they are far from just animals. For decades there has been this concept of ‘monsters and aliens’ against Humans, and in fact, on many occasions the real story is the other way around. Way back in the Hartnell era, there are two stories that stand out, The Sensorites and Galaxy Four, in which it turned out that the Humans were the villains. In the Pertwee reign, The Mutants, saw Humans from Earth behaving atrociously towards the indigenous population of that planet who they saw as little more than animals. Likewise in the Baker story Power of Kroll. In End of The World, the Ninth Doctor was careful to specify that the assorted ‘aliens’ were ‘people’. And here, again, we have a case of Humans deliberately misusing another species for profit.
There is a simple anti-slavery message at the heart of this episode. Donna’s disgust at an empire built on slavery is a reminder that the British Empire was built on that. But The Doctor’s response reminds us that slavery by any other name still exists. Sweatshops in third world countries are often involved at some stage in the production of our clothes, the coffee and tea we drink and many other things we take for granted unless we check for Fair Trade labels.
What was done to the Ood, keeping their central brain as a subdued prisoner, cutting off their hind brains and making them subservient, is an extreme and exaggerated version of the abuses humans on Earth have inflicted on other humans. It used to be a firm and widely held belief that African and Indian people were less intelligent than white people and were a commodity for them to use however they chose. The uprising of the Ood dealt the same shock to the great and bountiful Human empire in space, and rightly so.
Donna Noble, albeit she could have been wearing some clothes that didn’t have Fair Trade labels, outstripped The Doctor in recognising the needs of the Ood. He admitted that he had been remiss the last time he encountered them in not considering their plight. Granted, that he was a bit busy fighting the devil! Donna, was the more empathic of the two when the Ood song of slavery was heard. Or at least the most openly empathic. I strongly believe The Doctor heard and empathised, but without openly showing his distress. He bore the pain and sorrow that was too much for Donna as he bears so many other sorrows in his Time Lord soul. Yes, he hurt and when he said that he ‘owed them one’ it was heartsfelt.
In fact, though, The Doctor, as so often is the case, only had to be a catalyst to the Ood revolution. Not even that. The revolution was already beginning. His intervention simply helped prevent it being stopped by the destruction of the central brain. When Ood Sigma granted him the privilege of switching off the dampener that was stopping the brain from singing out to the individual Ood, it was an acknowledgement of him as the chief Friend Of The Ood.
Much has been made of that cryptic comment about The Doctor’s song coming to an end. I think too much. It is not a harbinger of doom. The Doctor will live on. We know he will. They’re filming the Christmas special in Cardiff! It is another of Russell’s teasers, just like when the Beast in Satan Pit, the other Ood story, predicted that Rose would die soon. I am fully confident of another clever get out clause in the finale this year.
Few modern viewers, got the throwback to the classic series in the name ‘Ood Sigma’, of course. Theta Sigma is The Doctor’s school nickname, as he mentioned two or three times in his history. In The Happiness Patrol, the surname Sigma meant ‘stranger’. Catherine Tate’s performance as Donna goes from strength to strength. Some critics have complained that she threatens to outdo The Doctor and make him a marginal character. If so, that is not the tragedy newer viewers imagine. In the early Hartnell stories, in many of the Troughton ones, the companions and incidental characters were centre stage, spurred on and inspired by The Doctor’s example. That is something that can continue. There is no need for him always to be the central character even if the programme IS called Doctor Who.
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