Planet of the Ood

"Planet of the Ood" is the third episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 19 April 2008. The episode takes place in the year 4126 on the Ood-Sphere, the titular planet of the episode. The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) investigate Ood Operations, a company that is selling the Ood as a servant race, to discover the reason the Ood are happy to serve. When they find a group of unprocessed Ood, they become horrified at the alterations performed and resolve to free the Ood. The episode was well-received for its central theme of slavery. Plot On the planet Ood-Sphere in 4126, a company called Ood Operations has been harvesting and selling the Ood as slaves for 200 years. Solana, the head of marketing, tells the CEO Mr Halpen that three people have been killed in the last financial quarter, and the method of killing each time is identical: the victims are electrocuted by the Ood's translation spheres. Halpen and Dr Ryder, the head of Ood management, go to a secure warehouse to check on the Ood brain, a giant telepathic centre which connects the Ood in a telepathic song, and has been obstructed by a circle of pylons emitting a barrier for 200 years. The Ood have also had part of their brain, which they carry in their hands, lobotomised and replaced with the translation sphere to make them subservient. Ryder is an activist for Friends of the Ood, who slowly infiltrated the company to gain access to the pylons and lower the barrier to their minimum setting to cause the Ood to start a revolution against humanity. Individual rebellions had broken out over time as the Ood brain adapted, though Ryder believed this had progressed too slowly. Meanwhile, the Tenth Doctor and Donna, posing as company representatives, investigate Ood Operations. They become concerned by the treatment of the Ood. The Doctor and Donna hear the Ood singing their song of captivity and are captured by Ood Operations' security force. The Doctor and Donna escape after convincing the rebelling Ood they are their friends and follow Halpen to the warehouse containing the giant Ood brain. Halpen plans to kill the brain with mines and to cull the Ood servants. Upon learning of Ryder's deception, Halpen kills him by throwing him into the brain.