The third episode of Doctor Who features the return of my personal favorite alien species introduced in the current version of the show, The Ood. We last saw these squid faced, scary yet subservient creatures in the Series 2 episode THE SATAN PIT, where they turned on their human masters and apparently served Satan himself. “Planet of the Ood” begins with one of the new series’ first well-done exterior environment scenes, with the TARDIS arriving on an icy, winter planet. The Doctor exhuberently talks about the view while Donna runs back inside to get a huge winter coat, missing everything he rambles on about. Aside from seeing the Earth of the future, and that was a not-so-amazing matte shot, we rarely see any truly alien environments on WHO. The new show has a great budget, but I think we’ve all realized that it goes into warehouses and boiler rooms A LOT. But I was impressed with this episode at least keeping the exteriors snowy, which was a great change of pace.

The Doctor and Donna come across a dying Ood and the Doctor explains to Donna that he’s familiar with the species and feels bad about not being able to help them the last time he saw them. He figures he “owes them one.” While discussing the being, his eyes suddenly turn red and he tries to attack them, before dying.

Our heroes come across a massive industrial complex, hosting some potential buyers of their product – Ood slaves. The company is run by a gentleman named Klineman Halpen, and he is under a lot of stress. Apparently there have been random individual Ood getting this “red eye” and becoming aggressive against their owners. Halpen claims the stress is making him lose his hair and his personal Ood attendant is constantly nearby to give him his hair tonic. Halpen treats the “infected” Ood like cattle that’s become sick and has them put down. The infected Ood shout that “the circle must be broken” once their eyes turn red.

Donna and the Doctor enter the complex among the VIP buyers and are informed by a hostess about the business breeding and selling Ood since 3914. The Doctor figures out that they are on the Ood-Sphere and the year is 4126. Donna is appalled that humanity is engaging in slavery, claiming it’s been eliminated in our present. The Doctor snipes at her, asking where she thinks her winter coat came from, which gives Donna pause. Donna is sympathetic to the Ood and wants to help them. Similarly, the Doctor doesn’t believe in the company’s claim that the Ood naturally want to serve. The Ood say as much, but the Doctor says that no species could evolve to serve and survive.

The two explore the main complex and find a group of non-slave Ood. They are different. Instead of holding a translation sphere with cord extending from their tentacled face, like most Ood, they actually hold part of their brain, which the Doctor says is their “hind brain” giving them individuality. Once removed, they become subservient. The Doctor says they speak telepathically and that it’s sad. Donna asks if she can hear and the Doctor grants her the telepathic ability to hear their sad song. Donna protests that it’s too much, and the Doctor takes away the telepathy. I wish he hadn’t been so quick to agree with Donna’s request to “take it away.” The Doctor is doing the noble thing in this episode, trying to help the Ood, but he lacks any of his usual moral outrage. He seems a bit muted.

The Doctor and Donna are then captured by the Ood Operation security. At that same time, all of the Ood’s eyes turn red and they begin to revolt. Amidst the chaos, Halpen runs to a locked warehouse which the Doctor and Donna follow him into. Inside, they see that there is a massive brain, which completes the Ood’s hive-mind and allows them to communicate telepathically. However, it’s being limited by a circle of energy.

Halpen tries to kill the brain, and thereby, all the revolting Ood. He even throws his chief scientist over the railings into the brain below, killing him, when the scientist tries to stop him (he was working undercover as a liberation group operative). Right before he was thrown over, he revealed that he had slowly been lowering the telepathic field over the last ten years. Donna and the Doctor are still at Halpen’s mercy when he begins feeling sick. His assistant, Ood Sigma, gives him some of his tonic, but it doesn’t help. It turns out that Ood Sigma has slowly been giving him a drug that turns Halpen into an Ood. Pretty cool and slightly gross makeup effects on that one. Especially when his brain drops out of his tentacles.

The Doctor shuts down the forcefield around the brain, and the Ood become a peaceful community again. They have to be, since they normally would carry around their brains in their hands. The Ood wish them goodbye, but not before Ood Sigma tells the Doctor that they will sing about the Doctor and Donna to honor them, but that his song may end soon.

Overall, a solid episode. The Ood are visually amazing and very creepy because they look menacing but act very quiet and reserved (until their eyes turn red). Donna is not annoying, so she’s pretty much won me over. I just wish that in a story about slavery, there was some stronger emotion, especially from the Doctor. Also, there wasn’t much he had to do to figure out and resolve the problem. The heroes pretty much stumbled right onto how everything worked and watched as the scientist and Ood Sigma resolved the problem.

I like it anyway, so I’ll be nice and give it 3 and a half sonic screwdrivers: