Another good one! And then I remember: this is how they all used to be, before that very dodgy Season Three.
Pitch dark this time, very very disturbing. I was quite upset after watching it. Not sure what young children would have thought of the whole slavery theme and the massive body count but I was quite moved. I'm enjoying Donna's continued character development as a deeply compassionate and intelligent woman (I feel like they are giving her a lot of what would normally be the Doctor's lines - eg about the Ood carrying their brains in their hands) and also David Tennant's hair's continued character development as modernist sculpture. Plus it's a welcome respite from all the 'aren't humans great' nonsense that has dogged Tennant's incarnation. I liked the revisiting of the Ood story, as they were pretty let down by the Doctor's last appearance. I experienced much retrospective guilt.
A somewhat frustrating episode though, as it would have been brilliant if some clangers hadn't let it down: man being killed by being absorbed into giant Ood brain? Company director gets turned into an Ood by drinking lots of Ood juice (shades of Human Dalek here, if we didn't all know that Human Dalek was a collective hallucination that *never happened*)? And such a wasted opportunity with the Doctor being chased by a giant claw which would have been a lot scarier if what we'd seen hadn't mostly been gurning man wiggling old skool joystick, as opposed to, say, CLAW. Also, I am already bored of the disappearing bees.
Still, it was properly nasty, and actually rather thought provoking. Three out of three!
Posts
13 comments:
See, I rather liked series three even if Martha was very poorly integrated and the Dalek story underwhelmed (I know you were far more vehement than that) AND that the ending was, well, a TAD all over the place (I know you were even MORE vehement on that score). I thought S3 was overall as consistent as I could have hoped for and with such great highs that I had to give it credit.
ANYWAY...
To the 'Planet of the Ood': I'm probably more ambivalent and cautious than you have been, but again I do think that in terms of consistency it's continuing a trend for overall fantastic-ness I'm sure many did not anticipate. How do you think Martha will compare alongside Donna next week?
I thought it was a very good episode. We have just been reading a book called Snowbone which is all about slavery (but this time it is wooden people) and the Ood reminded me a bit of that. The red-eye Ood with frothy mouths were a bit scary but not enough to make me poo my pants. Bits of it were quite funny.
I am not sure about Donna yet. She's OK.
It always takes a week or so before I know how much I really like an episode. The ones I dislike take rather shorter to identify; the Dalek two-parter, "42", and most of "The Last of the Timelords" were weak spots in what I thought was the strongest season yet (but then, as has been established, I like Martha and you don't --- which is okay; that's what makes it fun!)
This one I found disturbing which may or may not be a good thing. The Nazi overtones were a big part of the disturbance: the helmets, the gas, the falling Ood who is whipped back to his feet...
Catherine Tate's performance continues to be a good match for DT's. I'm not sure how many actors could have pulled off the grief and compassion needed for that mind-meld scene where Donna hears the Ood-song. Adrian Rawlins did seem kind of wasted, didn't he? Put there for exposition, revealed as a "good guy", then tossed into a giant brain? Hello? I thought the woman who played the PR rep did a wonderful job showing how difficult it is to make the right choice.
I think I enjoyed it on the whole, although my daughter got right ticked off with me for singing "Wahoo dorey, welcome Christmas" when the Ood finally got free....
Bah, I don't like the Ood much. But that was an excellent episode, well paced with slightly heavy handed metaphors and some fantastic evil humans. What DW should be about really.
I'm one who didn't hate series three either - though I thoroughly agree Daleks in Manhattan was awful. I am enjoying this series much more though because it has some of that energy of the first series back again.
Having said that, not sure this was my favourite episode so far, as I wasn't too keen on the Ood first time around, and thoroughly agree about that stupid death. Children loved it though, so what do I know. They didn't seem too traumatised either, though six year old a bit spooked by the red eyes.
Was the prophecy at the end about the Doctor singing his last song a nod to DT regenerating sometime soonish do you think? Or was that me reading too much into it?
And what is it with the bees? They are clearly important...
Donna does get some great lines, but I wish they wouldn't let her shout at all because I'm liking her mostly and then she shouts and all I can think of is Lauren...
"Was the prophecy at the end about the Doctor singing his last song a nod to DT regenerating sometime soonish do you think?"
I am in denial about that bit.
Sorry, sorry, sorry... I am very much hoping I have got that wrong....
I found it rather poignant - there's something about the Ood, their trusting nature and physical vulnerability (external brains - a bit of a steal from Pullman, but ok). And Catherine Tate - don't know how she does it, but she's saving the show, just compare the dire Titanic special (controversial?).
Not controversial on this blog!
Series three may have been consistent, but it just didn't excite. I didn't fizz with glee once until Blink... there's been a bit of fizzing already with this series and I've gotta say it's down to Donna. Love her!
As for this episode in particular, I'm not entirely sure. There were excellent elements, and then there was the dodgy dialogue and heavy-handed themes.... one to watch again, definitely.
The problem with those Dalek episodes was that there wasn't enough story to go around. The Doctor spent most of the first episode discovering something we already knew -- the Daleks were behind it all and Martha spent most of the second episode discovering what their plan was only for the Doctor to turn up having already deduced it himself making their actions in each episode horrifyingly superfluous from a writing perspective.
But apart from that, I did like season three. Martha was a grand character and even the slightly weak episodes were entertaining. And I'm in the minority of people who didn't think SOD U LOTT didn't trail off towards the end.
But parts of Planet of the Ood were truly nauseating. There's nothing entertaining about being preached at for forty-five minutes.
Off-topic: It's my birthday in 4½ hours, which means: It's your birthday now!
Many happy returns, birthday-buddy!
Brilliant episode, imo. Loved it - very retro sci-fi in places (an Ice planet, oh yes!), and the Ood are just the best baddy-monsters-turned-good ever. Donna was great, the Ood song was great and DT was also on form although that hair was in danger of eclipsing DT as the star of the show.
Nothing wrong with old skool joysticks Marie. I still have an Atari one somewhere, although admittedly it does not control a giant robotic claw. Shame that.
I am clearly in a minority of 1 when it comes to thinking that the Titanic episode was fab. But then, it did have Kylie, so what's not to love?
Bro
Post a Comment