This is a weekly feature (Wednesdays) where Christa of Hooked on Books and myself will be watching and discussing all of the reboot of Doctor Who. Posts will contain spoilers for that episode and ones before it, so you may want to watch the episode before reading. I hope you’ll join us in enjoying this fantastic show, and don’t forget to check out Christa’s post (with past posts over here) as well! Allons-y!
Planet of the Ood by Keith Temples
The Doctor takes Donna on a kind of time travel lottery, and they find themselves on Ood central from which Oods are transported to the far reaches of the galaxy to serve humans. But the Oods are acting odd, and now it’s up to the Doctor and Donna to figure out why before the Doctor fails the Oods once again.
As I adore The Impossible Planet and Satan’s Pit, it was nice to have a return to the Ood, knowing that somewhere the Doctor was thinking of his time spent with Rose, nearly trapped forever together. I wonder if he wishes that had happened instead of the alternative?
This episode is, however, a hard one to watch. The theme of slavery and its ongoing presence in humankind’s development is a difficult but necessary lesson. There are some fairly obvious references to the slavery of Africans in North America, like the part songs play in their culture and songs as a type of rebellion.
We also get to see more of Donna’s soft side, which is often overwhelmed by her loud side. One thing I’m really noticing this time around is how distant the Doctor is to Donna. I really feel as if he’s keeping her at a kind of distance. He’s been burned twice in this regeneration, and I think he’s more wary to let anyone close… at least in this episode. This is strange because I always saw the Doctor and Donna as really close, but maybe that was just my extreme love of Donna clouding my vision.
new irrational fear: shot glasses & hair tonic
coffeeandwizards 
Definitely a hard episode to watch. My heart went out to the Ood