With the Tardis set to pick a random destination, the Doctor and Donna land on a frozen planet, only to come across a dying Ood in the snow. His appearance is preceded by the Doctor hearing singing in his head, which Donna cannot. With their innate ability to sniff out trouble, the pair make their way to a factory complex which we have already seen is dedicated to the ‘production’ of Ood servants for the three galaxies of the latest Great and Bountiful Human Empire. What we also know is that the site is having ‘Ood issues’, relating to those pesky translator balls again – and a severe case of red-eye – and that people are getting killed. Things are bad enough for the company to draft in Mr. Halpern – played with a wonderfully malevolent sneer by Tim McInnery (better known as Darling from Blackadder) – a bad-ass member of the owning family and business trouble-shooter, to sort things out. The underlying themes of the episode are interesting; the building of an Empire, the use of slavery – explicitly and implicitly (“who do you think makes your clothes?”) and the human ability to know about the ills of the world, but turn a blind eye anyway (“They don’t ask, that means they know”) all ring with a healthy tone of a good sci-fi plot. In general it’s strong stuff; yes, it’s frosted with the usual glitter which the current incarnation of the Doctor likes to liberally spray around – the mad eyes, the vocal exhortations and the running around – but it’s pretty classic stuff. Touching, thoughtful, exciting with a nice final twist. It looks like the move further towards tea-time isn’t going to be the disaster we thought – though anyone who’s watched Sarah Jane’s continuing adventures will know that children’s TV is far from synonymous with moronic themes and tame stories. Hey, I’m not declaring the second coming of the Golden Age of Tom Baker here; we’ve still got a way to go, and if one thing remains constant in this ever-shifting universe, it’s my cynicism and confidence in the ability of the show’s current powers-that-be to take a killer concept and tinker with it incessantly, thus screwing it up. Which brings us back to Tate. So far, three strikes out of three for the new series, each episode having been fun in its own different way. The Planet of the Ood serves up as close to a slice of meaningful sci-fi as you’re going to get from today’s ‘Who. For that, I applaud it: as well as for the look and feel which the director and the cast bought to it. If they can pull off another Alien Resurrection with as much aplomb next week, it should be a bit of a cracker.
