[DW] Ep. 4x03 - "Planet of the Ood"
Apr. 20th, 2008 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beandelphikiNotes for the new Doctor Who episode (probably mostly uninteresting to anyone but myself, SPOILERS obviously). I took these while watching, so this can mostly be seen as following my thought process, not a summary of my reactions.
-Was SO not expecting Evil!Ood first thing. And it occurs to me that I'm really freaked out by the at-waist-level-behind-evil camera angle. Not sure why.
-Nice hair, Doc? It looks like it's trying to take off from his skull. I mean, I love Ten's hair, always. But what are the hair people on this show ON? It changes constantly, and poor David Tennant is being upstaged by his own hair.
-Poor Doctor. He keeps trying to impress Donna Noble and failing just as he's trying his hardest. "You've got a box, he's got a Ferrari!" DT's face is just priceless here. I love the little woobie-ish glance back at the poor dissed TARDIS. Like they all don't dash off pie-eyed at the first futuristic hopper they see before they know better.
-Donna frankly sucks at being able to say the right thing in awkward situations, i.e. Ood death. I sort of like her all the better for that, because I'm crap at that sort of thing, too. Those people with an instinct for what to say - they're just not normal.
-I can see, "We're not married!" is going to be a running gag. Please let someone, at some point this series, tell them they ACT like it. I want to see the faces they'll make.
-"That sounds like an alarm." The Doctor sure has a talent for stating the obvious when he wants to.
-"For what is an Ood but a reflection of us." I thought this whole sequence was actually really freaky, because it's perfectly believable we'd sell a subservient alien species as chattel with PR so eerie in its lack of self-awareness.
-Actually, the more the Ood get treated like amusing pets, the more creeped out I get. Maybe that's not the point [later: ah, it is], but it's definitely raising the hairs on my neck the way the Ood blink every time someone dismisses them or laughs at them.
-Human Empire [the 2nd]: Still not bountiful, I'm guessing.
-The bees get a second mention! Wow, wasn't expecting that.
-"Are we like explorers or more like a virus?" Unfortunately, this line is going to be attributed to Donna having "changed" (i.e. written into a totally different character) since Runaway Bride, like she didn't always have the capacity to ask a question like that.
-"Don't the Ood get a say in this?" Not to harp on the point or anything, but thank you, Donna. Finally. (This has been bothering me since series 2!) Although asking if any Ood run free "like wildebeest" made me cringe. (Because thinking beings totally = wild animals, uh?) Thoughtful, compassionate, unintentionally patronising. Donna Noble = Hermione Granger?
-Freaky twitch from the Ood when she says, "But you can't have started like this." Which is what I've been thinking, because really, if they're the only intelligent species from their planet (as seems to be implied), that's basically sort of impossible.
-Honestly, if I DID live on a planet where we kept a servile alien species as, uh, servants, and they started to go violently nuts... I don't think I'd keep one around handing me manufactured mojo. Just saying.
-Sci-fi convention someone in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
doctorwho mentioned a few weeks back: the longer to the reveal, the freakier it is. This is taking TOO LONG. [Insert my last post here.]
-The Doctor ducking when Donna whistles! There's going to be anicons of that, you can bet.
-"Who do you think made your clothes?" It sort of amazes me that the Doctor takes his human companions to see Ancient Rome and New New Earth, but he doesn't bother to show them this. Well, okay, it doesn't really when you remember it's a TV show, and yet. The Doctor has an opportunity here to show his companions what could be changed on Earth, and he rarely does it.
-The Doctor running from the skyclaw is one of the BEST sequences in NuWho, hands down. I don't think we generally get to see the Doctor in a situation that physically threatening.
-"Does that mean we're locked in?" Huh, never thought of that myself.
-The Doctor's expression when Donna says she wants to go home is something else. My, but he gets attached quickly (and is desperate for companionship), because he looks pretty lost and stricken here at the idea.
-"These are really good handcuffs." "Well, at least we've got quality!" and the random Ood with the flying-leap-tentacle-attack were lolworthy, very. And hey, why HASN'T the Doctor met Houdini?
-David Tennant really has this tendency to sort of...flail when he's running, I've just noticed. It's amusing. And hopelessly adorable.
-Dude becoming an Ood was just...um. Um. Fitting, I suppose. But. Um.
-The Doctor nearly forgetting the detonator. HA.
-RIGHT, so now all everyone is going to talk about is "your song must end soon."
Additional note here: Fandom somehow always manages to surprise me, and here again, I'm surprised by the reactions. People seem to have LOCKED ON to the fact that people still support slavery in the 42nd century. The criticism is that this is still rooted in 21st century ideas.
Well, NO SHIT. The stories we tell each other - regardless of when they are set - are relevant to OUR TIME for obvious reasons. We don't have any idea what our cultural narratives will sound like in the 42nd century, and I really don't think we should be straining to try to sound like we know. What would be the point of telling a story that isn't meaningful to anyone?
And secondly, I disagree entirely with the idea that humans will not be okay with slavery in the 42nd century. As the Doctor pointed out, we're pretty okay with it now, and we've had quite a few centuries to make up our minds about it.
Liked the episode for the Doctor and Donna's bits, Ood creepiness aside. And I'm glad they fixed what always bothered me about the Ood, i.e. that a naturally subservient alien cannot exist.
Got my grandfather's 70th birthday to go to today, so I got the day off work. I haven't slept yet, so just imagine what exciting things I'll be doing when we come home.
-Was SO not expecting Evil!Ood first thing. And it occurs to me that I'm really freaked out by the at-waist-level-behind-evil camera angle. Not sure why.
-Nice hair, Doc? It looks like it's trying to take off from his skull. I mean, I love Ten's hair, always. But what are the hair people on this show ON? It changes constantly, and poor David Tennant is being upstaged by his own hair.
-Poor Doctor. He keeps trying to impress Donna Noble and failing just as he's trying his hardest. "You've got a box, he's got a Ferrari!" DT's face is just priceless here. I love the little woobie-ish glance back at the poor dissed TARDIS. Like they all don't dash off pie-eyed at the first futuristic hopper they see before they know better.
-Donna frankly sucks at being able to say the right thing in awkward situations, i.e. Ood death. I sort of like her all the better for that, because I'm crap at that sort of thing, too. Those people with an instinct for what to say - they're just not normal.
-I can see, "We're not married!" is going to be a running gag. Please let someone, at some point this series, tell them they ACT like it. I want to see the faces they'll make.
-"That sounds like an alarm." The Doctor sure has a talent for stating the obvious when he wants to.
-"For what is an Ood but a reflection of us." I thought this whole sequence was actually really freaky, because it's perfectly believable we'd sell a subservient alien species as chattel with PR so eerie in its lack of self-awareness.
-Actually, the more the Ood get treated like amusing pets, the more creeped out I get. Maybe that's not the point [later: ah, it is], but it's definitely raising the hairs on my neck the way the Ood blink every time someone dismisses them or laughs at them.
-Human Empire [the 2nd]: Still not bountiful, I'm guessing.
-The bees get a second mention! Wow, wasn't expecting that.
-"Are we like explorers or more like a virus?" Unfortunately, this line is going to be attributed to Donna having "changed" (i.e. written into a totally different character) since Runaway Bride, like she didn't always have the capacity to ask a question like that.
-"Don't the Ood get a say in this?" Not to harp on the point or anything, but thank you, Donna. Finally. (This has been bothering me since series 2!) Although asking if any Ood run free "like wildebeest" made me cringe. (Because thinking beings totally = wild animals, uh?) Thoughtful, compassionate, unintentionally patronising. Donna Noble = Hermione Granger?
-Freaky twitch from the Ood when she says, "But you can't have started like this." Which is what I've been thinking, because really, if they're the only intelligent species from their planet (as seems to be implied), that's basically sort of impossible.
-Honestly, if I DID live on a planet where we kept a servile alien species as, uh, servants, and they started to go violently nuts... I don't think I'd keep one around handing me manufactured mojo. Just saying.
-Sci-fi convention someone in
doctorwho mentioned a few weeks back: the longer to the reveal, the freakier it is. This is taking TOO LONG. [Insert my last post here.]-The Doctor ducking when Donna whistles! There's going to be anicons of that, you can bet.
-"Who do you think made your clothes?" It sort of amazes me that the Doctor takes his human companions to see Ancient Rome and New New Earth, but he doesn't bother to show them this. Well, okay, it doesn't really when you remember it's a TV show, and yet. The Doctor has an opportunity here to show his companions what could be changed on Earth, and he rarely does it.
-The Doctor running from the skyclaw is one of the BEST sequences in NuWho, hands down. I don't think we generally get to see the Doctor in a situation that physically threatening.
-"Does that mean we're locked in?" Huh, never thought of that myself.
-The Doctor's expression when Donna says she wants to go home is something else. My, but he gets attached quickly (and is desperate for companionship), because he looks pretty lost and stricken here at the idea.
-"These are really good handcuffs." "Well, at least we've got quality!" and the random Ood with the flying-leap-tentacle-attack were lolworthy, very. And hey, why HASN'T the Doctor met Houdini?
-David Tennant really has this tendency to sort of...flail when he's running, I've just noticed. It's amusing. And hopelessly adorable.
-Dude becoming an Ood was just...um. Um. Fitting, I suppose. But. Um.
-The Doctor nearly forgetting the detonator. HA.
-RIGHT, so now all everyone is going to talk about is "your song must end soon."
Additional note here: Fandom somehow always manages to surprise me, and here again, I'm surprised by the reactions. People seem to have LOCKED ON to the fact that people still support slavery in the 42nd century. The criticism is that this is still rooted in 21st century ideas.
Well, NO SHIT. The stories we tell each other - regardless of when they are set - are relevant to OUR TIME for obvious reasons. We don't have any idea what our cultural narratives will sound like in the 42nd century, and I really don't think we should be straining to try to sound like we know. What would be the point of telling a story that isn't meaningful to anyone?
And secondly, I disagree entirely with the idea that humans will not be okay with slavery in the 42nd century. As the Doctor pointed out, we're pretty okay with it now, and we've had quite a few centuries to make up our minds about it.
Liked the episode for the Doctor and Donna's bits, Ood creepiness aside. And I'm glad they fixed what always bothered me about the Ood, i.e. that a naturally subservient alien cannot exist.
Got my grandfather's 70th birthday to go to today, so I got the day off work. I haven't slept yet, so just imagine what exciting things I'll be doing when we come home.
