History Recap / DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod

The Doctor and Donna land on a gorgeous snowy world-- your favourite alpine vistas, [[UpToEleven cranked up to 11]]-- 4126 AD, the time of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. It is the Oodsphere, home planet of the Ood, the apparently willing slave race we first met in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet The Impossible Planet]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit The Satan Pit]]".

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Planet_Of_The_Ood_5896.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The circle must be broken...]]

** The 42[-[[superscript:nd]]-] century is the time of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, which, unlike the Fourth, actually exists. Presumably this would be the same "empire" Mr. Jefferson mentioned in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]].

* LostAesop: The title species deal with the villain, Mr. Halpen, who enslaved them, by [[KarmicTransformation forcibly turning him into another Ood]] and promising he'll be cared for as [[HiveMind one of their own]]. Donna doesn't quite know how to feel about this and comments that she doesn't feel she knows right from wrong anymore. The Doctor replies, "It's better that way. People who know for certain tend to be like Mr. Halpen," which sounds a lot like AnAesop -- and in no way applies to the episode we just watched. Halpen was an [[CorruptCorporateExecutive amoral businessman who only cares about his profit]], not some kind of dogmatic KnightTemplar (whereas fighting against him ''was'' presented as a matter of plain right vs. wrong, and the Doctor and Donna certainly never seemed conflicted as to which side they should be on).

* NotSoDifferent: The Doctor mentions the situation with the Ood isn't that far away from contemporary Earth, pointedly reminding Donna that her shirts were made in sweatshops. She returns fire by asking if he only brings humans along so he can act superior at them, a point he concedes.

* RealityEnsues: The Doctor's psychic paper fails, not because, as has previously happened, the person in question was resistant to it, but because they bother to run a background check on the suspicious people who weren't on the guest list at the earliest possible opportunity and discover their credentials are entirely fabricated. It gets him into the complex, but doesn't do much more good than that before he and Donna are outed as frauds.[[note]]The reason why the background check happened? Well, in a deleted scene, Halpen appears during the presentation, and the Doctor asks him a lot of questions about the death of Delta Fifty. He tries to blame Delta Fifty's death on space pirates, but the Doctor doesn't believe him.[[/note]]

* ReverseMole: Dr. Ryder, for the Friends of the Ood social activism group. He spent the last ten years infiltrating Ood Operations so he could free the Ood.

* ArtMajorBiology: The Ood were already established as bald humanoids with dozens of thin dangling tendrils in place of mouths. This episode reveals they also have a secondary brain which hangs outside the body on a slightly thicker fleshy cord. Somehow their natural habitat is a SlippySlideyIceWorld. How do they not all freeze to death?

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Kess gets smothered by grey matter.

* CruelMercy: "Funny thing, the subconscious. Takes all sorts of shapes. It came out in the red eye as revenge, it came out in the rabid Ood as anger, and then there was patience. All that intelligence and mercy focused on Ood Sigma. [[ArmorPiercingQuestion How's that hair loss, Mr. Halpen?]]"

* OneWomanWail: Prominent throughout the episode in the background music. Ramps up further when the Doctor allows Donna to hear the Ood's songs. It's actually a [[SubvertedTrope One]]-''[[SubvertedTrope Man]]'' [[SubvertedTrope Wail]], as the Ood songs are performed by Mark Chambers, a countertenor with an incredibly high vocal range.

* OneWomanWail: Prominent throughout the episode in the background music. Ramps up further when the Doctor allows Donna to hear the Ood's songs.

The one with AnAesop about the value of brains, both big and small...\\

The Doctor and Donna land on a gorgeous snowy world — your favourite alpine vistas, [[UpToEleven cranked up to 11]] — 4126 AD, the time of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. It is the Oodsphere, home planet of the Ood, the apparently willing slave race we first met in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet The Impossible Planet]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit The Satan Pit]]".

The Doctor and Donna sneak off to interview some Ood, but the only hint the Ood themselves can give is that "the circle must be broken"[[note]] [[VideoGame/BioshockInfinite By and by, Lord; by and by...]] [[/note]]. The Doctor and Donna discover, to their horror and disgust, that the process that wild Ood undergo to turn them into slave Ood is... lobotomy. The communication orb isn't just an addition to their bodies: it's a ''replacement'' for their second, external brain. The Doctor gently connects to Donna telepathically and helps her hear the collective mind-song of those Ood that are still intact.

But even the unaltered Ood are being restrained somehow — something is holding back their song. That's when they come across the ''third'' brain of the collective Ood consciousness, a giant mass imprisoned in a ring of machinery and electricity — the circle which must be broken.

* RealityEnsues: The Doctor's psychic paper fails — not because, as has previously happened, the person in question was resistant to it, but because they bother to run a background check on the suspicious people who weren't on the guest list at the earliest possible opportunity and discover their credentials are entirely fabricated. It gets him into the complex, but doesn't do much more good than that before he and Donna are outed as frauds.[[note]]The reason why the background check happened? Well, in a deleted scene, Halpen appears during the presentation, and the Doctor asks him a lot of questions about the death of Delta Fifty. He tries to blame Delta Fifty's death on space pirates, but the Doctor doesn't believe him.[[/note]]

* SupportingProtagonist: The Doctor and Donna are mainly here to witness the revolution; the Ood (and their Friends of the Ood ally) do the rising-up on their own.

* Irony: Ryder being killed by the very thing he was trying to help.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Someone gets smothered by grey matter.
* CruelMercy:
-->"Funny thing, the subconscious. Takes all sorts of shapes. It came out in the red eye as revenge, it came out in the rabid Ood as anger, and then there was patience. All that intelligence and mercy focused on Ood Sigma... how's that hair loss, Mr. Halpen?"

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The overseer who tries to gas the Ood ends up being the only victim of the gas.

* IronicJuxtaposition: All of Solana's marketing BS is contradicted by the guards hunting down and capturing a rabid Ood for that extra effect.

* NotSoDifferent: The Doctor mentions the situation with the Ood isn't that far away from contemporary Earth, pointedly asking Donna who she thinks made her clothes. She returns fire by asking if he only brings humans along so he can act superior at them, a point he concedes.

* RealityEnsues: The Doctor's psychic paper fails — not because, as has previously happened, the person in question was resistant to it, but because they bother to run a background check on the suspicious people who weren't on the guest list at the earliest possible opportunity and discover their credentials are entirely fabricated. It gets him into the complex, but doesn't do much more good than that before he and Donna are outed as frauds.[[note]]A deleted scene of Halpen appearing during the presentation shows him ordering said background check in response to the Doctor asking questions about the death of Delta Fifty.[[/note]]

The Doctor and Donna land on a gorgeous snowy world — your favorite alpine vistas, [[UpToEleven cranked up to 11]] — 4126 AD, the time of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. It is the Oodsphere, home planet of the Ood, the apparently willing slave race we first met in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet The Impossible Planet]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit The Satan Pit]]".

* IronicJuxtaposition: All of Solana's marketing BS is contradicted by the guards hunting down and executing a red-eye Ood for extra effect.

* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: Nope. By the 42nd century, mankind's spread out over three whole galaxies.

* RealityEnsues: The Doctor's psychic paper fails — not because, as has previously happened, the person in question was resistant to it, but because they bother to run a background check on the suspicious people who weren't on the guest list at the earliest possible opportunity and discover their credentials are entirely fabricated. It gets him into the complex, but doesn't do much more good than that before he and Donna are outed as frauds.[[note]]A deleted scene of Halpen appearing during the presentation shows him ordering said background check in response to the Doctor asking questions about the death of Delta Fifty[[/note]]

-->"Blimey, a real, proper rocket! You've got a box, he's got a Ferrari!"

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Mr. Halpen.
-->"Well, we can write [two thousand Ood] off. That's what insurance is for."

** The Doctor gives Donna a brief recap of what happened the last time he encountered Ood. They were possessed by the Devil — or at least something that ''claimed'' to inspire the legend of such a creature.

* IronicJuxtaposition: All of Solana's marketing BS is contradicted by the guards hunting down and murdering a red-eye Ood for extra effect.

* KarmicDeath: Solana the PR rep is zapped after rejecting the Doctor's offer to stop the injustice against the Ood, and the overseer is gassed to death with the same gas he tried to use on the Ood.

* LargeHam: Mr. Kess, the overseer, takes this to impressive levels while he's chasing the Doctor around the warehouse with a giant claw machine, cackling, rocking back and forth in his seat, and making some ''very'' expressive faces just to be sure the viewer understands that he's [[EvilFeelsGood having fun]].

* RealityEnsues: The Doctor's psychic paper fails — not because, as has previously happened, the person in question was resistant to it, but because they bother to run a background check on the suspicious people who weren't on the guest list at the earliest possible opportunity and discover their credentials are entirely fabricated. It gets him into the complex, but doesn't do much more good than that before he and Donna are outed as frauds.

* RedEyesTakeWarning:

** The 42nd century is the time of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, which, unlike the Fourth, actually exists. Presumably this would be the same "empire" Mr. Jefferson mentioned in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]].

** The Doctor is all gleeful to walk out and find a snowstorm of ''actual snow''. (The last few times it's been, respectively, [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion the ashes of a Sycorax spaceship]], [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride bits of Racnoss web and artificial snow expelled by the TARDIS]], and [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned ballast dropped by a damaged interstellar cruise liner]].)

** The destruction of the circle around the third brain is very similar to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani a scene from the classic series]].
** The Doctor gives Donna a brief recap of what happened the last time he encountered Ood. They were possessed by the Devil — or at least something that ''claimed'' to inspire the legend of such a creature.
** Donna has learned to [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride whistle]].

** He's not the BigBad, but the overseer, Mr. Kess, definitely displays this trope once the Doctor's cover is blown. He specifically orders his armed {{Mook}}s back, so that he can have the pleasure of chasing the Doctor around a warehouse with a giant claw machine, instead of [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just shooting him]]. For bonus points, he even says, "[[IAlwaysWantedToSayThat I've always wanted to do this]]."

* BizarreAlienBiology: Lampshaded. The Doctor attempts to examine a dying Ood, but isn't familiar with their biology and has no idea where the heart is - or if they even have one.

* BodyHorror: Halpen's "hair tonic" turning him into an Ood. His hair and scalp peel away revealing an Ood head, and tentacles spill out of his mouth, followed by a brain. And this was after they ''toned it down''- the original scene was going to be a lot more graphic.
* BondVillainStupidity: He's not the BigBad, but the overseer, Mr. Kess, definitely displays this trope once the Doctor's cover is blown. He specifically orders his armed {{Mook}}s back, so that he can have the pleasure of chasing the Doctor around a warehouse with a giant claw machine, instead of [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just shooting him]]. For bonus points, he even says, "[[IAlwaysWantedToSayThat I've always wanted to do this]]."

** The 42nd century is the time of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, which unlike the Fourth, actually exists. Presumably this would be the same "empire" Mr. Jefferson mentioned in "The Impossible Planet".
** Donna wonders whether humans spreading out so far is a good thing -- does it make them explorers or a virus? The Doctor notes that sometimes he wonders; he had a similar conversation with Leela back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E2TheInvisibleEnemy The Invisible Enemy]]".

** The Doctor gives Donna a brief recap of what happened the last time he encountered Ood. They were possessed by the Devil -- or at least something that ''claimed'' to inspire the legend of such a creature.

* EscapeArtist: Subverted -- Donna assumes the Doctor's probably met Houdini [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders (which he has)]], but he's forced to admit, "These are REALLY good handcuffs."

** The Ood refer to the Doctor and Donna collectively as the Doctor-Donna. It takes the rest of the series for the Doctor to figure it out, but when he does, he thinks it's all quite clever. [[MotorMouth Partly because of the way he introduced them to the Ood in the first place]]. Truly an example of FridgeBrilliance.
** Mr. Halpen suspects that the Doctor and Donna are from the Friends of the Ood activist group. Dr. Ryder reveals himself as one in the climax.

* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: Guards with M4s and a guy with a PPK in the 42[[superscript:nd]] Century. Justified in that [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter it is believed that small arms have hit a peak where making them any more powerful would make them uncontrollable]].

* KarmicDeath: Solana the PR rep is zapped after rejecting the Doctor's offer to stop the injustice against the Ood, and the overseer is gassed to death with the same gas he tried to use on the Oods.

* MaamShock: Inverted -- Donna reacts to being called Miss. "Why do you say Miss; do I look single?" Never mind that she ''is''.

* RealityEnsues: The Doctor's psychic paper fails -- not because, as had previously happened, the person in question had resistance to it, but because they bothered to run a background check on the suspicious people who weren't on the guest list at the earliest possible opportunity and discovered their credentials were entirely fabricated. It gets him into the complex, but doesn't do much more good than that before he and Donna are outed as frauds.

* {{Sadist}}: Kess seems to take a particularly disturbing pleasure in trying to kill the Doctor with the hanger's grappling hook.

* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Despite nine hundred or more years traveling time and space, the Doctor ''still'' gets excited at each location he visits because the universe is amazing! Why else would he still be travelling?

* BatmanGambit: Ood Sigma's "hair tonic". He was counting on Mr. Halpen's concern about his baldness to blind him to the possiblity that it was something else.
* BizarreAlienBiology: The Doctor attempts to examine a dying Ood, but isn't familiar with their biology and has no idea where the heart is - or if they even have one.

* EscapeArtist: Subverted -- Donna assumes the Doctor's probably met Houdini, but he's forced to admit, "These are REALLY good handcuffs."

* SpeakInUnison: An entire cargo container full of Odd, whenever someone mentions "the circle". Donna admits it's creepy.