Review of Planet of the Ood / The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky

As I continue my re-watch of Series Four, I’ve reached our first two-parter. First, though, we revisit what at the time was still a quite new alien species, seen only once before (in Series Two) and glossed over as a “slave race” (so much side-eye): the Ood. At least it only took the production team two years to think better of that characterization and revisit the background of the species.

Somehow, despite my overall poor recollections of Series Four, I seem to have retained Planet of the Ood pretty well; my pre-viewing notes seem to hit all the major points. Among the farthest-reaching of those details was “the Doctor Donna,” which, as we’ll see, comes back at the end of the series.

Although there are certainly parts of this episode that are difficult to watch, not only from a creepiness (or poorly-aged CGI) point of view, but from a humanitarian one, the fact that our heroes start off from the very beginning siding with the clearly mistreated Ood makes it bearable. And as someone who holds a lot of societal privilege myself, I have always really identified with Donna as she listens to the Ood song. It’s haunting and horrifying and she wants to do right by the Ood by listening, but she doesn’t have the fortitude to continue.

Donna (like me, like many of us) has the option to step away from the pain instead of to live it every moment like the Ood do. She can stop listening to the song, but to her credit, she doesn’t ignore what the Ood are going through. Maybe she’s not doing everything right, or taking every step she possibly can, but as she and the Doctor uncover new atrocities, she makes a concerted effort to help.

In the end, it is really the Ood who liberate themselves, though the Doctor does take one major action to help the process along. That is enough for the Ood to declare “the Doctor Donna” as saviors of the Ood who will be forever remembered (again with the side-eye). But the speech of thanks also gives Ood Σ the chance to show off his precognition by telling the Doctor that “your song must end soon.” We all knew at the time the episode aired that Tennant was on his way out, but it still felt creepy. Feels much less so now.

Now that Donna had met up with the Doctor again, and had both an adventure in time and one in space, it was time for them to head home to her family. (It’s amazing how formulaic these RTD seasons were, when you think about it.) Rather surprisingly, this time the impetus comes from former Companion Martha Jones calling the phone she left with the Doctor.

Companions meeting each other, especially when it’s former and current, doesn’t happen very often (and certainly not much before this point in the show). When it does (e.g., in School Reunion), it often doesn’t go well for the Doctor.

In a delightful subversion of the trope, though, Donna and Martha get on famously. Donna’s the one to notice that Martha is wearing an engagement ring, and pulls her easily into conversation.

But soon the current TARDIS crew realizes that Martha’s presence at UNIT shows how militarized her thinking has become. (The Doctor calls her on this later. Martha replies that she’s working to change UNIT from within. Who knows; maybe it helped, considering how different it was by the time Kate Stewart was in charge…)

While Martha does her part to help UNIT keep Earth safe (at least before she’s replaced by a clone), Donna employs her “super temp” skills and figures out that there’s something fishy with the work force at this ATMOS (ATMospheric Omission System) plant. The investigation moves forward from there, and soon it becomes apparent that the Sontarans are behind it all.

A brilliant child prodigy, head of his own academy for the country’s best and brightest (“It’s been a long time since anyone said ‘no’ to you, isn’t it.”), has joined forces with the Sontarans to put ATMOS in nearly half a billion cars across the planet. That’s not the Sontarans’ usual modus operandi, so the Doctor is temporarily stumped.

Meanwhile, both meeting someone who has traveled with the Doctor before and getting a chance to return home for a visit gives Donna a lot to think on. Even so, she never considers leaving the Doctor (despite his misunderstanding, the “great big outer space dunce”), and never wavers in her confidence that he can solve whatever problem comes their way.

Soon that problem hits home, as her granddad Wilf (one of my favorite recurring characters) falls prey to the beginning of final stage of the Sontarans’ stratagem. Stuck inside a car spewing poisonous gases, Wilf tries futilely to escape, and no one can get him free.

At least until Sylvia (Donna’s mum and Wilf’s daughter) takes matters into her own hands.

I think that’s one of the things I love most about Donna’s era. Although she and her mother clash a lot, it’s clear that Donna gets a lot of her moxie from Sylvia. The two approach the world very differently, but at the core, they have some important similarities.

And even though her mother doesn’t give Donna much credit, she actually has a lot going for her. Her temping skills actually serve her incredibly well in the TARDIS, and with some encouragement from the Doctor, she is able to overcome her fears and come through in the clutch.  She frees the TARDIS from Sontaran control just in time for the Doctor to transmat her out of harm’s way and recall the TARDIS to where he left it, preparing the way for the rest of their work.

In the end, of course, the Doctor saves the planet with the help of his former and current Companions—and one big brat who saw the light too late. We won’t talk about the questionable science or other such plot holes, since this time around it’s all about the feelz.

And those feelz are thick on the ground. Donna is learning more about what it means to travel with the Doctor: what she’ll face, what she’s giving up to stay with him, what she’d be giving up not to stay with him. Martha is learning more about what it means to have stepped away from the Doctor: how much healthier it is for her not to be hung up on him, how she can make a difference on Earth without him, and how she can make a difference on Earth with him.

What is the Doctor learning? Although I think he’s learning that he really can’t live without his friends—sometimes literally—I don’t think he’s quite learned how profound his impact on them is. Or that they might make different choices about how to live their lives without him. Some day Donna will pay the price.