Ood

For acronyms of OOD, see Officer of the Deck, Officer of the day, and Object-oriented design.

For the stringed instrument, see Oud.

Doctor Who alien
Ood
Type	Squid-faced humanoids
Affiliated with	Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire
Home planet	Ood Sphere: Horsehead Nebula
First appearance	"The Impossible Planet"

The Ood are a fictional alien species with telepathic abilities from the long running science fiction series Doctor Who. In the series' narrative, they live in the distant future (circa 42nd century).

Whilst the Ood initially appear as a slave race who become hostile, over the course of the stories they are shown to be a naturally peaceful race, and by The End of Time have progressed to becoming an advanced civilisation which the Doctor thinks is impossible to have happened in the time span that it did (100 years from the end of their enslavement)

Physical characteristics

The Ood are humanoid in appearance with tentacles on the lower portions of their faces. They require a translator device, a small sphere connected to their "mouths" by a tube, to facilitate speech between them and humans, as they do not have vocal cords^[1]. The tube was originally connecting their external brains to their body, but to use the creatures, far future humans would amputate the brain and instead fix the translator sphere where the brain used to be. There appears to be no gender differentiation among the Ood, though the Doctor seems to be able to determine their gender, when Donna refers to a dying Ood as an "it", he replies that the Ood is "a 'he', not an 'it'".^[2] The Ood say they require no names or titles as they are "one", but they do have designations given to them by humans such as "Ood 1 Alpha 1" or "Ood Sigma". The Ood are empaths, sharing among themselves a low-level telepathic communication field. When reaching out with their telepathic fields, it can be heard as singing.

History within Doctor Who

The Ood first appear as a slave race to humanity, performing menial tasks, and one person states in the episode that every human has an Ood servant, although it is not clear whether he is speaking literally or facetiously. In their debut story "The Impossible Planet", it is established that the Ood offer themselves for servitude willingly, having no goals of their own except to be given orders and to serve. It is also claimed that they cannot look after themselves, and if they do not receive orders, they pine away and die. However, mention is made, by a scientist working at an Ood factory, of a group called the "Friends of the Ood", also known as FOTO, who are apparently lobbying for Ood freedom.

According to the Official Doctor Who Annual 2007, the Ood live on a planet in the Horsehead Nebula where they were governed by a Hive Mind but it was destroyed by Human colonists. The monster book Creatures and Demons, published in 2007, elaborates that the Ood came from the "Ood Sphere", close to the "Sense Sphere" planet, home to the Sensorites, who share a similarity with the Ood, both mentally and physically. With no hive mind the Ood offered themselves to the Human colonists and became a slave race.

When encountered by the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler in "The Impossible Planet", a large number of Ood accompanied a human-led expeditionary force on the planet Krop Tor, orbiting a black hole. The empathic nature of the Ood seemed to make them susceptible to psychic possession by the Beast, who formed the Ood on the base into his "Legion". While possessed, the Ood killed two human security guards by throwing their translation spheres at them and using them to electrocute them to death.

The Ood were defeated when Danny Bartok, the expedition member in charge of them, broadcast a telepathic flare which reduced their field to "Basic Zero", creating a "brainstorm" which caused them to collapse. However, the telepathic field began to reassert itself after a time. When Krop Tor was sucked into the black hole, the Doctor was unable to save any of the Ood on the base who had been freed of the Beast's control, and all of them perished. The Ood were listed as having died with honors along with the rest of the base personell killed.

On the return of the Ood in the 2008 episode "Planet of the Ood",^[3] it was revealed that they are not born to serve but are an enslaved race, with the translation spheres actually replacing their hind brain which had contained their individual personalities. The Doctor aids and successfully frees the race by releasing the main Ood brain, which links all Ood with a telepathic link. Before this time, it had been sequestered from the Ood for 200 years by Ood Operations, the corporation that processed the Ood slaves. Over that time the brain adapted, allowing it to influence the Ood's actions. It made some Ood feral and vengeful while directing another to genetically re-engineer the head of the slave trading company into an Ood. Once the Hive brain was freed, the Oods' song could be heard throughout the Human Empire, by Ood and Human alike. After this, all Ood were freed and sent back to the planet of the Ood. As they parted from the Doctor, Ood Sigma prophesied that the Doctor's "song" was soon coming to an end.

Ood Sigma returns as part of the 2009–2010 specials in the episode "The Waters of Mars", where he appears after the Doctor's conversation with Adelaide Brooke. The Doctor then asks him whether this is his death, at which point the Ood disappears.^[4] The Ood, including Ood Sigma appear in the subsequent, two-part story The End of Time. In this story, the Doctor discovers that the Ood's civilization has advanced rapidly, gaining the ability to see, and project themselves, through Time. The Ood reveal that this is a consequence of Time "bleeding," alluding to the events that were to follow in the Doctor's relative future which would threaten to destroy Time. At the end of Part Two, Ood Sigma appears again to the Doctor as he begins to succumb to the effects of radiation poisoning. He comforts the Doctor by telling him that "the Universe will sing you to your sleep" and that "this song is ending, but the story never ends." This helps the Doctor muster enough strength to make it to the TARDIS and set a course before he regenerates into the Eleventh Doctor.

A singular Ood referred to as "Nephew" appeared in the 2011 episode, "The Doctor's Wife", under the influence of an entity called House. It is killed when the Doctor and Idris land a makeshift TARDIS on it, atomizing it. After it dies the Doctor remarks, "Another Ood I failed to save", referencing his previous adventures. Notably, Nephew's eyes glowed green as opposed to red.

A scene cut from A Good Man Goes to War would have seen the Doctor meeting up with Ood Sigma again. Russell T Davies is still credited at the end for the scene despite it being cut.

Appearances

• Series 2 (2006)
  • "The Impossible Planet"
  • "The Satan Pit"

• Series 4 (2008)
  • "Planet of the Ood"

• Specials (2009-10)
  • "The Waters of Mars"
  • "The End of Time"

• Series 6 (2011)
  • "The Doctor's Wife"
  • "Death is the Only Answer"

References

1. ^ TARDIS, Doctor Who Adventure Games – The game says that the Ood have no vocal cords
2. ^ "Planet of the Ood". Doctor Who. 2008-04-19.
3. ^ ""Return Of The Ood"". Doctor Who News. BBC. 25 July 2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2007/07/25/47491.shtml. Retrieved 26 July 2007. 
4. ^ Anders, Charlie Jane (2 March 2009). "The Comeback That Brings The Doctor To His Knees". io9. Gawker Media. http://io9.com/5162583/the-comeback-that-brings-the-doctor-to-his-knees. Retrieved 8 April 2009. 

External links

• Ood on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki