Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire Sensorites
The Ood are an alien species from the long-running science fiction series Doctor Who. In the series' narrative, they are a peaceful race who have been enslaved by humans in the far future. The Ood are a telepathic species, and the humans, particularly the company Ood Operations, inhibited their telepathic communications, essentially lobotomising the Ood. During the course of the series, series protagonist the Doctor ends up encountering the Ood and later aids in freeing the species from slavery.
Created by Russell T Davies, the Ood were originally created to fulfill a role as a servant race in the 2006 episodes "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" after plans to use the Slitheen in that role fell through. Davies and the production team felt there was more room to explore the Ood's history in the show's universe, and due to both that and public popularity, the Ood were brought back for the 2008 episode "Planet of the Ood".
The Ood have been the subject of analysis by various sources. Their relationship with real world slavery and the concept of the philosophical "Other" in particular have received significant discussion.
Appearances
Characteristics
Doctor Who is a long-running British science-fiction television series that began in 1963. It stars its protagonist, The Doctor, an alien who travels through time and space in a ship known as the TARDIS, as well as their travelling companions.[1] When the Doctor dies, they can undergo a process known as "regeneration", completely changing the Doctor's appearance and personality.[2] Throughout their travels, the Doctor often comes into conflict with various alien species and antagonists.[3][4]
In the show's universe, the Ood are a peaceful race that hail from a planet known as the Ood-Sphere. They have three brains: one in their head, a hindbrain they hold in their hands, and one large brain-like entity that connects the Ood psychically like a hivemind. The Ood exert a telepathic field. The Ood have a song they sing to each other telepathically, though the dampening field prevents it from being heard.[5] The Ood were enslaved as a slave race, by the company Ood Operations, with propaganda created by the company telling those who purchased Ood that the Ood enjoyed their work, and that their status as slaves was how their species functioned.[6] The Ood's hindbrains were cut off and replaced by an orb that translates what they say. The collective brain was sealed within a dampening field, which, combined with the hindbrain's disconnection, effectively lobotomised the Ood. The Ood are mistreated by those who own them, with scanners in one story considering Ood akin to "livestock" and not considering them proper lifeforms.[5] Though most accept the Ood's slavery as a fact of life, a group known as "Friends of the Ood" seeks to free the Ood from slavery, though they are not considered very influential as an organisation.[6]
Television
The Elder Ood, who appeared in "The End of Time", as shown at the Doctor Who Experience.
The Ood debut in the 2006 episodes "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit". The Ood are used as slaves by a group of humans on the planet Krop Tor, which is near a black hole. Though the Tenth Doctor's companion Rose Tyler questions the Ood's slavery, the Doctor accepts their enslavement and quickly is distracted by other matters. The Ood, due to their psychic link, are possessed by a creature known as the Beast, who attempts to use them to free it from its prison beneath Krop Tor's surface. Rose and the crew are able to render the Ood unconscious, and after the Beast's demise, the Ood, alongside Krop Tor, were sucked into the black hole.
The Ood re-appear in the 2008 episode "Planet of the Ood". The Doctor visits the Ood-Sphere where they encounter the base of Ood Operations, which manages the distribution of Ood throughout the human empire of the far-future. The Ood's third brain, trapped within the dampening sphere, has begun to break free and contact other Ood, allowing for a revolt to occur. Ood Operations' leader, Klineman Halpen, attempts to kill the brain, which will kill all the Ood, but Halpen's servant, Ood Sigma, tricks Halpen into drinking, under the guise of hair tonic, a liquid that turns Halpen into an Ood. The Doctor, learning the truth of the Ood, strives to help them, and aids in breaking the dampening sphere, allowing the Ood to freed from slavery. The Ood from across the empire are subsequently brought back to the Ood-Sphere. Ood Sigma returns in the 2009 episode "The Waters of Mars", where he attempts to contact the Doctor.[7] The Doctor subsequently visits the Ood-Sphere in the following story, "The End of Time" (2009-2010). Due to damage done to time, the Ood have advanced rapidly, allowing them to see and project themselves through time. The Ood Elder reveals a dream involving the Doctor's enemy the Master, leading to the Doctor returning to Earth to stop him. Following the Master's defeat, Ood Sigma gives the Doctor encouragement as he regenerates.
A single Ood referred to as Nephew appears in the 2011 episode "The Doctor's Wife". Nephew is under the influence of an alien entity called House, who controls Nephew and uses him to attack the Doctor's companions Amy and Rory. Nephew is later killed inadvertently by the Eleventh Doctor. In the mini episode "Death is the Only Answer", the scientist Albert Einstein is transformed into a red-eyed Ood after ingesting a mysterious liquid. The Doctor is able to revert Einstein back to normal. In the Pond Life mini-series, a single Ood accidentally wanders into Amy and Rory's house and becomes their butler for a few days.
An Ood appears in the 2021 episode "Survivors of the Flux", serving as the Time LordTecteun's assistant who is powering an antimatter wave known as the Flux to destroy the remaining universe. After Tecteun is killed by Swarm and Azure, he assists the Doctor in trying to alter the course of the Flux wave.
In spin-offs
Ood appear in the short stories The Heist (2018) and Disappearing Act (2008), and the comic story Time of the Ood. (2017) The audio drama series The War Master: Master of Callous depicts an incarnation of antagonist the Master seizing control of a group of Ood.[8] They later appear in the Torchwood audio drama series, where they appear in a trilogy of 2023 releases dubbed Odyssey, Oodunit, and Oracle. The Ood additionally appear in the audio drama Prisoner of the Ood (2018). An Ood named Brian appears as an assassin in the Time Lord Victorious cross-over story, which depicts the character across several forms of media in a recurring role.[9][10]
Development
The Ood first appear in the 2006 two-part story "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit", which were co-written by writers Matt Jones and Russell T Davies. Of the two, Davies created the Ood and owns their copyright, being credited for further re-appearances of the creatures in the series.[5] Originally, the Ood's role as servants was planned to be taken on by the Slitheen, a crime family attempting to redeem themselves for past offenses, but this was scrapped,[5] with Davies electing to make a new alien species, which creating physically would cost the same as refurbishing the pre-existing Slitheen costumes. They were named "Ood" in order to give them a simple name, being given a tentacle-like mouth to avoid needing a mouth on the design. The physical design was made Neil Gorton of the company Millennium FX.[11] Performers for the Ood were briefed that the Ood should originally appear sympathetic and later be made scary. Actors were unable to see inside of the masks used for the Ood costumes, which had lights inside to allow their eyes to glow red when possessed by the Beast. Actor Paul Kasey's Ood mask had the ability to blink and have its forehead wrinkle via radio control.[11]
The Ood proved to be both popular with the public and the production team. Davies in particular felt that the Ood were ripe for further exploration, additionally wanting to bring back a monster that had first been made for the show's revival. Despite some plans to bring the Ood back for the 2007 episode "42", which would have seen a group of Ood stored away in a ship's cargo hold for black market sale, the Ood did not re-appear until the 2008 episode "Planet of the Ood".[12] The Ood would be a much larger focus in the story than they had been in their prior appearance, and Davies wanted to make the audience sympathise with the Ood. To do this, he gave them external brains that were lobotomized by the company Ood Operations. The episode was based heavily around the Doctor and his companion Donna's responses to the Ood, in particular via the Doctor recognising truths about the Ood's way of life he had not previously considered. The character of Ood Sigma was also introduced, with the character being diversified from the rest of his species by a differently colored suit with a sigma symbol on it.[12] Davies wanted an episode with an ice planet, resulting in the Ood-Sphere being made a cold climate. Initially planned as a two-part episode, Davies felt the story would be stronger the simpler it was, and elected to keep the Ood's re-appearance down to one episode.[12]
Sensorites as they appear in The Sensorites (1964). The Sensorites' appearance and abilities were relevant to the Ood's creation, and resulted in an in-universe relationship between the two races being established.
According to The Complete History, while writing the Ood's first appearance, Davies's image of a group of bald, suited, identical aliens were inspired by the alien species the Sensorites that first appeared in the 1964 serial The Sensorites. Davies believed they would have hailed from a planet near the Sense-Sphere, the Sensorites' home planet,[11] with subsequent Ood story "Planet of the Ood" revealing that the Ood's home planet, the Ood-Sphere, was in close proximity of the Sense-Sphere. The Ood physically resemble and have similar abilites to the Sensorites, though according to the book Who Is the Doctor: The Unofficial Guide to Doctor Who: The New Series, the similarities between the Ood and Sensorites were originally unintentional, with Davies only realising the connection during development, which resulted in the furthering of connections between the two species being made within the episodes.[5]
The Ood's role in "The End of Time" was planned in the original outlines of the story, with Davies wanting to depict time having passed since their last appearance, with the Ood having evolved as a species since the Doctor last saw them. Among his plans for the story included giving the Doctor an Ood "spirit guide" as a companion, though this was scrapped in favor of Wilfred Mott aiding the Doctor in the story instead. The Ood-Sphere, in this story, had the Ood establish their own civilisation, which the script stated would resemble physically the sixth century Jordanian city of Petra. The Elder Ood's location was characterised as being akin to a "Holy Man's retreat", separate from the rest of city. The Wookey Hole caves in Somerset were used for filming scenes set on the Ood-Sphere in the story, while the Ood city was created via computer-generated imagery[13]
The Ood Elder is voiced by actor Brian Cox, whilst all other Ood are voiced by Silas Carson. The Ood's songs, Song for Freedom and Vale Decem, were sung by singer Mark Chambers.[13]
Analysis
Erica Foss, writing in the book Doctor Who and Race, drew comparisons between the Ood's depiction within the series and real-world slavery, particularly in the form of European expansionism and the mass enslavement that came with it. Foss discussed how the Ood were often considered "Others" in the series, often being referred to with animal-like terms that Foss states makes the Ood seem "lesser" in the eyes of humans, and thus easier to enslave without moral qualms by many characters in the show's universe, including even the Doctor when he first meets them; Foss stated that the Ood's treatment, as well as the Doctor's willingness to accept he had been wrong about them and change to help them, symbolised to audiences that "humans must never cease to strive for progress, tolerance and understanding."[6] The book The Humanism of Doctor Who: A Critical Study in Science Fiction and Philosophy stated that "Planet of the Ood" used references to slavery to instill a sense of sympathy for the Ood and disdain for the Ood Operations company, enabling a critique of capitalist companies by showing how they engage in the exploitation of sentient creatures.[14]
The book The Language of Doctor Who: From Shakespeare to Alien Tongues states that the Ood are able to be characterised in a unique manner compared to humans via their lack of a grasp on "freedom" as humans understand it; their concept of "freedom" instead stems from their desire to reconnect with the rest of their kind, instead of being "freed" as inidividuals in a manner humans understand.[15] The book Cultural Legal Studies of Science Fiction similarly stated that the Ood are differentiated by humans from the fact they often treated as a "collective", and additionally treat themselves as one hivemind. It also stated that the Ood's usage of silence, primarily in how it results in both viewers and the characters in the series assuming their enslavement is the "natural" way of things, showed the power of language in understanding different perspectives, as it resulted in an assumption that humans, who could talk more than the Ood, were "superior". The book examined how these differences, in conjunction with the threat the Ood were often made to express within the series, resulted in fears of the "Other" kicking in and characterising the Ood as "monsters" despite the Ood being a friendly race. The book states that the Ood are an example of being able to understand alien species and consider them "people" outside of the context of a human perspective, allowing humans to accept the Ood for what they are without one race being fundamentally "superior" to the other.[16] The book Doctor Who: A British Alien? suggested that the Ood's eventual evolution as a species, which eschewed scientific principles, capitalism, and individualism, was an example of the series showing that the Western lifestyle, often touted within both the series and British culture as "superior", was not fundamentally a better way of life than others.[17]
The book Doctor Who and History: Critical Essays on Imagining the Past similarly compared the Ood to real-world slavery, particularly the slavery of African people; however, it criticised the show for making various white characters be those who defend the Ood in their episodes, as it believed that this constructed a white savior narrative that disregarded past crimes committed via British imperialism. Additionally, it stated that the Doctor and Donna being almost "worshipped" by the Ood despite doing considerably less than the Ood in freeing themselves from slavery perpetuated ideas akin to The White Man's Burden and reinforces the idea of slaves as being a people who are "unable to save [themselves]".[18]
References
↑ Nicol, Danny (1 May 2020). "Doctor Who, Family and National Identity". Entertainment & Sports Law Journal. 18 (4): 1–11 – via EBSCO.
1 2 3 Foss, Erica (2013). "The Ood as a slave race: Colonial continuity in the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire". Doctor Who and Race. Intellect Ltd. ISBN978-1783200368.
1 2 3 Ainsworth, John (30 November 2016). Doctor Who: The Complete History: The Impossible Planet - The Satan Pit - Love & Monsters - Fear Her - Army of Ghosts - Doomsday. Hachette Partworks, Panini Publishing.
1 2 3 Ainsworth, John (24 January 2018). Doctor Who: The Complete History: Planet of the Ood - The Sontaran Stratagem - The Poison Sky - The Doctor's Daughter - The Unicorn and the Wasp. Hachette Partworks, Panini Publishing.
1 2 Ainsworth, John (17 May 2017). Doctor Who: The Complete History: The End of Time. Hachette Partworks, Panini Publishing.
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