Doctor Who Season 4 Episode 3 Planet of the Ood

Doctor Who Planet of the Ood 3/13

The Doctor uses the TARDIS to land at a random point in time and space. On leaving the TARDIS, he and his companion Donna Noble 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 notes an increase in the phenomenon, and considers it to be similar to foot-and-mouth disease; CEO Klineman Halpen tells the Doctor the method of killing 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, noting that no species could naturally evolve to serve. The Doctor also feels he has a debt to repay after allowing the Ood aboard the Sanctuary Base to die. 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", giving them their individuality; 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 storing a large brain. This third brain, combined with the Ood's front and hind brains, forms the Ood's collective conciousness.

The brain's control of the Ood is limited by a circle of pylons emitting a forcefield. 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; Ood Sigma has used Halpen's hair-loss medication to slowly convert Halpen into an Ood.

The Doctor shuts down the circle, freeing the Ood and allowing them to all rejoin in a telepathic collective. Before leaving, Ood Sigma promises to include the "Doctor-Donna" in the Ood's song and honour their names forever, but comments that the Doctor's song may soon end.