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« Kelvington's Corner
Doctor Who - Planet Of The Ood...
Tonight the Doctor and Donna travel to the planet of the Ood, where they get caught up in all sorts of mischief, including a giant claw and some Star Trek worthy room bouncing as they get thrown around inside the TARDIS.
Plus we get to see the appearance of Thunderbird 3 in this episode, or at least a very close approximation of it. Personally I would have been more impressed if they called the episode, "The Ood, The Bad, and The Ugly", but what are you going to do.
You get to see a surprising amount of compassion out of Donna tonight, to a race of creatures she just met. One of the better sequences of the show, although again the musical score nearly over powers it, is the inter-cutting of an Ood escape with a sales pitch about how we treat the Ood as a valued friend. The cutting on this was spot on, and very dramatic, and it's great to know that even in the 42nd Century, "The Simpsons" will still be on the air.
One of the scenes from the previews for the last several weeks involves the giant claw chasing the Doctor down, and it's very well done. Although, it does seem very much like a giant claw machine you would find at the amusement park or arcade, and I suspect several around the UK will be remade in "Doctor Who" image.
The main theme of the episode seems to be about the concept of slavery and freedom, while they don't hit you over the head with it, it is brought up enough to slam the point home. This is not an effects heavy episode, although there are several large ones, the Mill has done an excellent job with most of them. While the writing is a tad off on this one, and it's all wrapped up a little too neatly for my liking, it's good to see there was a very involved back story to the Ood.
In the end, it doesn't take a huge brain to figure out this was an episode done to save money for a more spectacular one later in the series, and using the Ood as both a good guy and bad guy was a very well done. This is one of the few times there are so many characters introduced and so little time to develop them, that many felt very two-dimensional.
While this is not the best episode ever, it's far from the worst, think of it as a pallet cleanser for next week. Speaking of which next week we get to see the return of Martha Jones, and I'm curious to see how Martha and Donna get along, I hope we see some fireworks on par with Rose and Sara Jane.
Just my 2¢,
Kelvington
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Apr 19, 2008 4:23 PM
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