The Ood is one of those new Doctor Who creatures that have been developed over multiple series and each new appearance has added depth to who or what the creatures are.

The Ood are quite tragic as they are an example of how awful humanity can be. The Ood are a peaceful, generally calm race, with low-level telepathic abilities, and because of that, humans saw them as no smarter than animals and enslaved them. It’s been interesting how the Ood have been developed over time because in their first appearance in “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit” it was just seen as the norm to have Ood as slaves/manual labourers and were just seen as the help. The Doctor and Rose Tyler did question it and Rose especially would ask the Ood how they were and if they got paid for their work.

Seeing how the Ood became this docile race in “Planet of the Ood” is interesting and adds depth to their previous appearances while also being horrifying as the Ood are mutilated in order to communicate with humans.

I liked it when Doctor Who takes the time to criticise human nature and shows how dangerous people, especially people who will do anything to make money, can be. The perils of capitalism is something that is featured in various Doctor Who episodes, in pretty much all of the series’, and it’s always good when Doctor Who has something to say about the state of the world and also to give some hope or guidance on how people can do better. That being said, it’s still a bit disappointing that however many thousands of years in the future, people are still being cruel and making the same horrible decisions that we did hundreds of years ago from today. Time and technology may change, but how far can human nature and corporate profit really change?