Planet of the Ood (Yeah, it only recently aired here): Spoilers in Comments

[james_davis_nicoll]

Wow, sucks to be the guy who actually did the heavy lifting the plot required.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Our villain of the piece, you mean?

Oh yeah. Disturbing as Hell, that "mercy".

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I meant the flunky who risked his life to free the Ood, who seems to be forgotten by all seconds after his demise.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was peculiar in that the supposed heroes didn't really do anything, and nobody seems to notice.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Also disturbing, yes.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

The Doctor did criticize 21st Century sweat shops and that's what really matters, right?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

And then the Ood thank the Doctor and the companion for freeing them.

It's possible that the Ood are a little shaky on the whole one body - one mind thing and they thought they were thanking the person who just had a body injested by their Very Large Brain.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

And I guess until things change in Beijing, that's one episode that'll never air on TV there.

Pirate edition DVDs, though...

[kaffy_r]

The Doctor and Donna appear to have been catalysts, moving the action forward faster than our PETAoid fellow might have initially intended. Also, the intent, partially telepathic listening they did to the captive "wild Ood" appears to have focused the Ood throughout the complex in some fashion, so that also could have impressed our Chthuluesque innocents. The Ood are a little fuzzy on the individuality of beings, so they might not even have noticed PETA Lad being digested. Or they might even have considered it a good thing, along the lines of "Hey, he wanted to save us, he must want to be one of us!"

Of course, it's the Whoniverse. It need only make sense when it wants to.

[julesjones]

I did notice that, but it was in the queue behind the suspension of disbelief problem caused by creatures that carry their brains around in their hands, and being creeped out to the max by the way the Ood sound like the Voc robots from Robots of Death. (I'm still not sure whether that last is deliberate.)

[ionlylurkhere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's one story where the protagonists abjectly fail to do any protagging, and yet the guest cast all know what the name of the show is and suck up to them anyway.

Also, the whole "look, viewers, the evils of slavery" thing got my goat because they'd completely ignored the basis of the ancient Roman economy in the previous episode about Pompeii.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

Did anyone else expect the ood planet to get blowed up real good the moment the tardis faded out?

[traviswells.livejournal.com]

That actually ties into something very spoilery in a later episode , watch on.

[avram]

The writers only have space in their heads for one moral issue per storyline, and the moral issue for the Pompeii story was Delenda Est.

[armb.livejournal.com]

At the risk of getting spoilery, it's now canon that the Doctor can defeat monsters just by telling them that it's his show what a badass he is, once they've killed a few minor characters.

[armb.livejournal.com]

P.S. Though the guest cast knowing what show they are in can be handwaved as the telepathic influence of the Tardis. As well as transparently solving language problems, it makes the locals assume it's fine, indeed a good thing, that the crew have just turned up, no matter how suspicious the locals might naturally be.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Plot? There was a plot? Are you sure you watched the same show I did? As far as I could see there was a lot of
• Running
• Shooting
• Running and shooting
• Craaaazy alien frothing (crazy!)
• Small amount of witty banter
• Repeated confirmation of the Who writers' anti-corporate bias
• Treacly sentimental twaddle about We Are All One In Song foofahrah

None of this really seems to amount to a plot. Frankly, while I don't mind Catherine Tate as the lady-who's-not-gonna-fall-for-the-doctah (nope, absolutely not), as I think she at least has a decent sense of comic timing, so far I can't say that the new season of Who really has anything going for it.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

while I don't mind Catherine Tate

I should probably add, one of the reasons I don't now mind Tate is that at least (so far) the writers seem to have moved on from her previous characterization as a bubble-headed, self-involved screamer. But there's still a fair bit of waffling around about what exactly her motivations are. And quite often I find myself shocked that she doesn't give herself whiplash with her emotional careening... (Anger, Catherine! Terror! Sorrow! More!)

[selidor]

Exactly. The best one for that: "Jr'er va gur ovttrfg yvoenel va gur havirefr...ybbx zr hc."

[armb.livejournal.com]

That's the one I was thinking of. But the end of Snzvyl bs Oybbq is pretty much "I'm the Doctor, so I win".

[selidor]

I'd argue a little differently - the end of Snzvyl bs Oybbq unf gur Qbpgbe npghnyyl hfvat Gvzr Ybeq cbjref, naq qbvat fb sne zber npgviryl ntnvafg rarzvrf guna ur rire qbrf va guvf frnfba. Genccvat na rarzl va n zveebe, guebjvat nabgure vagb n oynpx ubyr, serrmvat bar vafvqr bar zbzrag bs gvzr - ur qbrf abguvat yvxr gung va guvf frnfba!