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jackOod! What did you think?
Ood! This episode was also pretty good, playing to all the strengths of the modern doctor who. I'm not sure it'll have staying power, but it had humour, drama, beautiful visuals and raised interesting questions.
Wait, what?
Ood! This episode was also pretty good, playing to all the strengths of the modern doctor who. I'm not sure it'll have staying power, but it had humour, drama, beautiful visuals and raised interesting questions.
I mean, this is a cartesian review. Where are the nitpicks about science? What about those external brains? You must be able to metaphorically rip those to shreds!
Well, actually...
Sigh. You're going to try to justify it, aren't you.
Well, they look they're a hive species. Things that would be maladaptive for a breeding individual can work better for a drone -- look at bees that have their insides ripped out by their stinger when they try to withdraw after stinging something[1].
But... having the most vital part of your body sort of dangling loosely attached outside?
Look who's talking, bub.
Seriously, who is talking? No, never mind. Really, Ood brains?
OK, no, it seems too far fetched. But Donna's theory could hold a grain of truth, if Ood are sufficiently intelligent enough, but still a hive species, having children that have to work together might work out better than having ones that can fight for resources. Maybe.
OK, ok. What about philosophy nitpicks?
OK. I was disappointed they went the whole hog and made the exploiting company simply evil. Certainly, "evil people enslave people and good people look the other way" is a story worth retelling. But if the Ood really had needed masters (say, they had been hive servants of a big Ood brain that had died out), that would have presented a conflict that was actually inherently interesting.
For that matter, I think it's a slight cop-out because the history of the Ood wasn't specified in the story where they're introduced: in that episode it's presented as slightly weird, but we are asked to accept as a plot point that the Ood are what they are, and then in this episode the rug is pulled away and we're asked to imagine that they were evilly enslaved all along. It hangs together _pretty_ well, but the first asks us to accept the Ood the way we accept the TARDIS, and magic translation, and so on, and then the second comes along and says "Haha! No, we tricked you! Feel guilty for not caring more about the Ood in the first place!"
Which is effective in giving the second episode an emotional impact -- very well done, in fact. But it very much changes the meaning of the first episode: if you watch them in order, and don't know that they changed the history retroactively, then the first episode ends with the doctor abandoning a hundred lobotomised but curable slaves to die in a black hole of satan in order to save three or four slavers. Imagine if the humans were the slaves rather than the slavers, it doesn't really feel like the doctor, does it?
And some more stupid things, that you don't care about yourself, but you don't want people to think you missed
*sigh* OK. All the Ood are recalled to home at once? Isn't that a bit pat? And red-eye is a psychic disease? Why does it turn eyes red then? And johnny-free-ood just turned the power down, rather than off? And all the Ood turn angry apart from one? Who isn't shot? And a giant brain lives entirely off falling scientists? And one "good" Ood? And if the Ood are lobotomised, why does turning on the big brain make them ok again?
And things you liked?
I loved that they did explore the back-history of the ood. I liked the Arctic landscape. (I was scared Donna was going to hole up in the Tardis completely as a complete wimp, but getting a parker is actually pretty sensible.) I liked Donna -- she complained a little, but by and large was sensitive, had good ideas and gumption, and kept the doctor in his place, yay Donna!
Getting locked in a container with red Ood was scary. The chase with the giant clamp was fun. I don't suppose I'll ever be scared by this sort of thing again, but it was well done. So many similar examples happen because the villain and/or security system is dumb, but here it completely makes sense: the guard is reckless and gives it a go, and it's supposed to be difficult to catch a humanoid with it, that's why the doctor can narrowly escape.
All the Ood chanting in circles were very cool. As was the music -- that's really hard to portray well, but they really brought it off well.
Future thoughts
Sontarans. Hm, well they're kind of stupid, but I'll be glad to see it. I'd love to see UNIT again, I really want to see what they're like now and how new who portrays them. Though I thought they were wiped out when the top brass were killed by the Unpronounceable Skin-suit Aliens. I'll reserve judgement on Martha; I'm curious to see how she is in doctor who proper again.
But we've seen a lot of the history of Torchwood, but not much between WWII and now: what were they doing when UNIT was running round with the doctor? How come this quasi-military ghost-hunting organisations never stepped on each other's toes, or even coexisted?
[1] And if you think that's a raw deal, remind me not to tell you what a drone's insides are ripped out by after they try to withdraw after having sex.
Ood! This episode was also pretty good, playing to all the strengths of the modern doctor who. I'm not sure it'll have staying power, but it had humour, drama, beautiful visuals and raised interesting questions.
Wait, what?
Ood! This episode was also pretty good, playing to all the strengths of the modern doctor who. I'm not sure it'll have staying power, but it had humour, drama, beautiful visuals and raised interesting questions.
I mean, this is a cartesian review. Where are the nitpicks about science? What about those external brains? You must be able to metaphorically rip those to shreds!
Well, actually...
Sigh. You're going to try to justify it, aren't you.
Well, they look they're a hive species. Things that would be maladaptive for a breeding individual can work better for a drone -- look at bees that have their insides ripped out by their stinger when they try to withdraw after stinging something[1].
But... having the most vital part of your body sort of dangling loosely attached outside?
Look who's talking, bub.
Seriously, who is talking? No, never mind. Really, Ood brains?
OK, no, it seems too far fetched. But Donna's theory could hold a grain of truth, if Ood are sufficiently intelligent enough, but still a hive species, having children that have to work together might work out better than having ones that can fight for resources. Maybe.
OK, ok. What about philosophy nitpicks?
OK. I was disappointed they went the whole hog and made the exploiting company simply evil. Certainly, "evil people enslave people and good people look the other way" is a story worth retelling. But if the Ood really had needed masters (say, they had been hive servants of a big Ood brain that had died out), that would have presented a conflict that was actually inherently interesting.
For that matter, I think it's a slight cop-out because the history of the Ood wasn't specified in the story where they're introduced: in that episode it's presented as slightly weird, but we are asked to accept as a plot point that the Ood are what they are, and then in this episode the rug is pulled away and we're asked to imagine that they were evilly enslaved all along. It hangs together _pretty_ well, but the first asks us to accept the Ood the way we accept the TARDIS, and magic translation, and so on, and then the second comes along and says "Haha! No, we tricked you! Feel guilty for not caring more about the Ood in the first place!"
Which is effective in giving the second episode an emotional impact -- very well done, in fact. But it very much changes the meaning of the first episode: if you watch them in order, and don't know that they changed the history retroactively, then the first episode ends with the doctor abandoning a hundred lobotomised but curable slaves to die in a black hole of satan in order to save three or four slavers. Imagine if the humans were the slaves rather than the slavers, it doesn't really feel like the doctor, does it?
And some more stupid things, that you don't care about yourself, but you don't want people to think you missed
*sigh* OK. All the Ood are recalled to home at once? Isn't that a bit pat? And red-eye is a psychic disease? Why does it turn eyes red then? And johnny-free-ood just turned the power down, rather than off? And all the Ood turn angry apart from one? Who isn't shot? And a giant brain lives entirely off falling scientists? And one "good" Ood? And if the Ood are lobotomised, why does turning on the big brain make them ok again?
And things you liked?
I loved that they did explore the back-history of the ood. I liked the Arctic landscape. (I was scared Donna was going to hole up in the Tardis completely as a complete wimp, but getting a parker is actually pretty sensible.) I liked Donna -- she complained a little, but by and large was sensitive, had good ideas and gumption, and kept the doctor in his place, yay Donna!
Getting locked in a container with red Ood was scary. The chase with the giant clamp was fun. I don't suppose I'll ever be scared by this sort of thing again, but it was well done. So many similar examples happen because the villain and/or security system is dumb, but here it completely makes sense: the guard is reckless and gives it a go, and it's supposed to be difficult to catch a humanoid with it, that's why the doctor can narrowly escape.
All the Ood chanting in circles were very cool. As was the music -- that's really hard to portray well, but they really brought it off well.
Future thoughts
Sontarans. Hm, well they're kind of stupid, but I'll be glad to see it. I'd love to see UNIT again, I really want to see what they're like now and how new who portrays them. Though I thought they were wiped out when the top brass were killed by the Unpronounceable Skin-suit Aliens. I'll reserve judgement on Martha; I'm curious to see how she is in doctor who proper again.
But we've seen a lot of the history of Torchwood, but not much between WWII and now: what were they doing when UNIT was running round with the doctor? How come this quasi-military ghost-hunting organisations never stepped on each other's toes, or even coexisted?
[1] And if you think that's a raw deal, remind me not to tell you what a drone's insides are ripped out by after they try to withdraw after having sex.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-24 12:17 pm (UTC)Yay!
How come it's FAQ style?
It just seemed to fit. I've sometimes used a conversation style for humorous effect, and as a way of organising a post, and a way of reminding myself what information I might want to include. Livredor has questions in reviews more seriously, like "why did you read this book" and so on, and I was thinking of copying it.
By the way, I was ethically worried about the Ood right from the start,
Fair enough. I guess I sort of know that. I sort of was, in that I *spotted* it, but to me it seemed clear it was supposed to *look* unpalatable but not actually be so. (Although maybe that's just me.)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-24 05:26 pm (UTC)[1] By which I mean books you can touch :)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-24 05:49 pm (UTC)[1] By which I mean books you can touch :)
*hugs* You can touch me -- my hair is just getting optimally stroky, as my beard is. But I'll admit I may not be literature :)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-26 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-29 02:39 pm (UTC)