DW 04-03: Planet of the Ood

A Guide to Classic Who references (and other references) in new Who.

Doctor Who Series 4 episode 3 (Story 35).  The Doctor and Donna visit, well, the planet of the Ood.

May contain spoilers for

"Planet of the Ood"

References:

[OLD] - Things that first appeared in the classic Doctor Who series (or the film.)  Episode List.

For context, the following are also covered:

[1ST] -  The first appearance of things in Doctor Who series.

[NEW] - Things that first appeared previously in the new Doctor Who series.

Ongoing References:

• [OLD] The Doctor - The main character.  Real name: unknown; actual age: unclear.  Status as a Medical Doctor:  Undetermined.  He is a Time Lord from the Planet Gallifrey.

• [OLD]  The TARDIS - The Doctor's time and space travel vechicle.  TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space.  Like a lot of Time Lord technology it is "bigger on the inside."  The Doctor stole his Tardis when fleeing Gallifrey.  It is an older model ("Type 40") and unreliable, often ending up in the wrong location and the chamleon circuit - designed to make the Tardis appear inconspicuous in any surroundings it appears has failed so it always appears as a police telephone box from 1960s England.  It was thought to be art in the Fourth Doctor story "The City of Death" (Season 17).

From this episode:

• [NEW]  Ood - First appearance in the "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" two-parter, where, as the Doctor mentions, he was unable to save them.

• [OLD]  "Set the controls to random" - While the Doctor's travels always seemed a bit random, after his encounter with the Black Guardian (Season 16 - The Key to Time story arc), the Fourth Doctor added a Randomiser to the console of the TARDIS  figuring the Black Guardian couldn't track the Doctor if the Doctor didn't know where he was going.  Some question the randomness or safety of the Randomiser as Skaro was the first place it took him (Season 17's "Destiny of the Daleks").  The Doctor himself questioned the Randomiser's choice of year in the very next serial ("City of Death") and the device was presumable deactivated in that story to allow travel to a specific moment in Earth's pre-history) and is either still deactivated or over-ridden in the next serial when the TARDIS is summoned to a planet by a distress signal ("The Creature From the Pit").  In Season 18's "The Leisure Hive" the Doctor has again deliberately deactivated it, annoyed at not knowing where he'll end up, and ends up using components from it in to sabotage an alien device.  It is not clear whether the Doctor has fixed the Randomiser, introduced a new one or has added a more limited random function to the console.

• [NEW]  "It was the devil" - Well, it was.

• [OLD]  "Close to the planet Sense Sphere." - The Sense Sphere was the home planet of the Sensorites and the Zilgans, which the First Doctor visited in Season 1's "The Sensorites."

• [1ST]  "The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire." - First mention of this Empire, but implied by the existence of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire which appeared in the Ninth Doctor episodes "The Long Game" and "Bad Wolf"/"Parting of the Ways."  It follows the Earth Empire, which appeared a number of times in classic Who and occured somewhere around the late 25th century and ended around the early 31st.

• [OLD]  Gallifreyan telepathy - The Doctor has previously shown limited telepathy before including the ability to pass images between versions of himself ("The Three Doctors" (Season 10) and "The Five Doctors") and via touching humans like this ("The Girl in the Fireplace").  The First Doctor mentioned it to Ian Chesterton in Season 1's "The Sensorites" (in which his granddaughter, Susan, displayed greater than expected abilities):

Ha-ha, telepathy! You know telepathy isn't only a prerequisite of the Sensorites. I know sometimes what you're thinking! Hm-hm! Hm-hm!

~ DUG.

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Using Ood to write this blog wasn;t the best idea.

The Time Crash blog was created to help New Who fans understand Classic Who references - and to know if something isn't a reference but a new idea.  If there's a reference I missed or a subject that you feel needs more explaining, please comment