CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: THE ODD HISTORY OF THE OOD

After a few months of BOOK OF LISTs and REVIEW OVERVIEWs, it's time to do something a little less opinion-based for a bit. A good CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES essay or two always makes me feel like I've done some genuine research to put the essay together rather than just make some blowhard comments that anyone with a minimal level of internet access can post!   

So, for the month of February, I am going to look at a few alien races that have now made a handful of appearances in the Revived Series. In some cases, they were featured quite heavily in a few episodes. On other occasions, they made but a mere cameo. But, overall, they have a genuine presence in New Who.

We're going to start with those lovable spaghetti-faces: the Ood.    

GENERAL BACKGROUND

Unlike some alien races whose histories I've tried to chronicle (Zygons, Weeping Angels, Sontarans), the Ood is a race whose planet we have seen. Which affords us a much better look into their background and gives us a stronger understanding of their whole culture. 

The story of the Ood, as we know them, doesn't really begin until Humanity arrives to exploit them sometime around the 40th Century. But we will try to give them a bit of a backstory. 

It would seem that the Ood inhabit a part of the Universe where telepathy, somehow, seems to occur naturally within a certain range of planets. The Sense-Sphere, after all, is not too far away from them (they both appear to be in the same solar system, in fact). The Sensorites have similar abilities to the Ood and have even evolved along somewhat similar lines. My guess would be that there are some sort of cosmic rays in that part of space that bombard the various worlds, there. Those rays somehow cause sentient life forms on affected planets to develop telepathy. They might also cause the inhabitants of those worlds to be quite docile in nature.  

One of the biggest differences between the Sensorites and the Ood is how their actual telepathy works. The Sensorites are far more individualistic. Their telepathy is employed as a form of communication technology. Most of the time, their thoughts are private. But they can take "calls" from each other and speak purely through mental contact if they so desire. Whereas the Ood appear to be more of a Hive-Mind. They all seem to be linked to each other and experience their thoughts and feelings as one great network. This causes them to "sing" together. Essentially, they experience group emotions that appear to have a musical quality to them. 

It's uncertain if the Ood are living on a planet that is like Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back. Anytime we have seen it, it is cold and snowy. This could just be a polar region of the planet. Or we could always be witnessing this part of the planet during the winter. My guess would be, however, that the Ood-Sphere is reasonably far away from its sun and is, therefore, always frigid. The Ood seem like an unusually delicate species to be living in such a harsh environment. But anything is possible in this crazy random Universe of ours! 

THE TIME OF ENSLAVEMENT: THE BEGINNING 

For most of their history, the Ood lived in peace amongst each other. When all are connected in one Great Song, it's difficult for them to be cruel to each other or lust for any conquest. They worked together in unison, building magnificent cities and flourishing despite the difficult conditions of their climate. They did have a governing body known as the Council of Elders. There was an actual Supreme Elder who was the ultimate form of authority over the people. He even evolved differently from the rest. His head is more dome-like to compensate for what is a legitimately larger brain. While the Elders did rule over the rest of their kin, they were wise and compassionate. Ood society, in general, bordered on utopia. 

And then the Halpen family came along. 

Members of the family first arrived in an expeditionary force sometime in the early 40th Century. Even back then, they were very business-minded. Always on the look-out for opportunities.  They were intrigued by the curious brain structure of the native lifeforms. They had a Full Brain in their skull and then a Hind Brain that hung from a sort of cranial umbilical chord. Realising the Hind Brain contained any sense of individuality that an Ood might have, the Halpen family took full advantage of their vulnerability. 

Being such a peaceful race, they were easy to oppress. The Halpens rounded up the natives and began to "process" them. Removal of the Hind Brain stripped them of their identity and made them into mindless slaves. Severing the umbilical chord, they replaced it with a translation device and created a perfect servant class. The Ood consumed a meagre diet - which made them infinitely cheaper to maintain than the cost of keeping an android or a robot powered up. Through clever marketing, Humanity was convinced that the Ood were a species that lived to serve. So enslaving them was just a fulfillment of their purpose. 

There was one more problem the Halpen family needed to solve before their financial empire was properly built. Being part of a Hive Mind made it possible for the Ood to resist their re-conditioning. Ood who had not been processed could still link minds with the ones that were and try to help them to break free. The Halpen Family recognized that there must be some way to break the connection the Ood shared with each other. 

They discovered the solution to their problems beneath a huge glacier. There they found a sort of brainiac that linked all the minds of the Ood together. They could not destroy it - that would cause the livestock to die. But they could restrain it. They encircled the Central Mind of the Ood with a special forcefield that neutralised its overall effect. With that accomplished, the Ood could now be fully controlled and distributed among the Second Great Empire of Humanity. 

The Halpen Family had secured their financial future

FIRST OOD APPEARANCE

For about two centuries, humanity relied upon the Ood to minister to their most basic of needs. Any job a human didn't want, an Ood was dispatched to take care of it. It was the most convenient of arrangements for them as they expanded their Empire. No one questioned too hard why the Ood were so openly subservient. Most believed the propaganda spread by the Halpen Family and were happy to contribute to the slave trade. 

There were, of course, some who did not buy their story. They were certain that something was being done to the Ood to make them so obedient. They became known as the Friends of the Ood. They were a sort of activist group with one simple mission: discover the means by which the Ood were being oppressed and eliminate it. They did also try to spread awareness about the rights of the Ood but they were largely ignored. Too many people were happy with the current arrangement. The Halpen Family took full advantage of this. 

Sometime well into those two centuries of Ood Enslavement, a team was assembled from the Torchwood Archive to investigate a strange phenomenon that was occurring around a Black Hole. A planet had formed a strange gravity pool that prevented it from being swallowed by the awesome deadly force of the Hole. Humanity was curious about what sort of power could do that and wanted to harness if for their own advantage. They established a sanctuary base on the planet and began drilling to its core to find the power source. They were given a complement of fifty Ood to help accomplish the task. 

Eventually, the expedition team are joined by the Doctor and Rose. The events of The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit take place. 

OODS ACROSS TIME

It would seem that sometime during the Period of Enslavement a strange temporal anomaly happened on the Ood Sphere. Some of its population was caught up in a Time Storm and spread across the Universe in different time periods. The anomaly might have happened all on its own.  Perhaps it was even a side-effect of those cosmic rays that granted telepathic powers to those that were bombarded by them. I'm more inclined to believe that the Halpen Family, at some point, decided to fund some time travel experiments. They knew that exploration of the Fourth Dimension could be hazardous, so they established a lab on the Ood Sphere. If something bad happened there, they weren't too concerned about it. After all, it was only Ood that were getting hurt. 

The experiments did end up going wrong. They created a nasty Time Storm that swept up some of the local population, scattering them randomly across time and space. The whole project was abandoned shortly thereafter. The Halpen Family might not care too much about their livestock, but they also didn't want to totally lose their primary source of revenue, either. 

The Doctor has encountered a few Ood in his travels who were victims of the Time Storm. He briefly saw one during Face the Raven that had been brought to Earth in the 21st Century and was living on a trap street. It was in the middle of repairing a Cyberman that was also a resident of the secret alien refugee camp. 

One Ood was thrown so far by the Time Storm that it ended up in the pocket universe inhabited by House. The Doctor met him during The Doctor's Wife and ended up accidentally killing him. 

Many times, the Ood were flung into the reaches of Time and Space all by themselves. Separated from their people, they can really start doing uncharacteristic things. We see an Ood at the Maldovarium (under new management because the previous owner was decapitated and placed in a box!) sometime after the 52nd Century during The Magician's Apprentice. He appears to be carousing a bit. Not something you would normally expect to see an Ood doing. 

One Ood becomes so changed by his sense of isolation caused by what the Time Storm did to him that he appears to have taken on a life of crime. He partners with a Sycorax and they are both eventually captured and imprisoned on the same space station that the Doctor is stuck on during Revolution of the Daleks. 

All of these cameos of Oods in strange places are the result of the time experiments the Halpen Family conduct on the Ood Sphere during the Time of Enslavement. We can't pin down a definite date for when the Time Storm occurred, but it took place sometime between the 40th and 42nd Century. 

WHY THE TIME STORM, ROB? 

Some of you may be asking: "Geez Rob, why are you going to all this trouble of creating the concept of a Time Storm on the Ood Sphere? It seems like an over-elaborate way of dealing with some of those Ood cameos!"  

If you are thinking that, you're a bit right in your opinion. I did come up with something a little complicated, here. There is a method to my madness, however. Even if I am reaching quite far to get a continuity issue to work. 

The Ood we see ever-so-briefly in Face the Raven is very difficult to explain. A timeline is clearly established in Planet of the Ood. The Period of Enslavement takes place between the 40th and 42nd Century. It's entirely possible that the Ood might have been capable of interstellar travel for a while  and, perhaps, lost the technology by the time Humanity discovered them. So there might have been an Ood astronaut way back in the 21st Century that ended up on Earth and took refuge on the trap street. 

There is one problem, however. It is clear that the Ood we see fixing the Cyberman has a translation device stitched onto him. If he truly hails from the 21st Century, he should be holding his Hind Brain.  It would be another 2 000 years before Oods would start having translation devices attached to them. So, for an Ood to show up in a story in that period with that sort of technology, we need to come up with some sort of time travel theory to get it to make sense. An accidental time storm created by the Halpen Family just seemed to work best (and makes the family seem all-the-more evil). 

From there, I just decided that all the Ood cameos should be the result of the Time Storm. Admittedly, they don't really need to be. Nephew in The Doctor's Wife, for instance, could have just "fallen down the plughole" like other characters in the story did. He didn't need to be transported there by a Time Storm.

In the same sense, the Ood at the Maldovarium doesn't require my Time Storm Explanation, either. Yes, he does have a translation device. But other Oods living after they have been liberated have their devices too. Ood also seem to have pretty long lifespans. Ood Sigma is alive and well a hundred years after the events of Planet of the Ood. Magician's Apprentice would take place over a thousand years after the Ood are liberated. Dates are established in certain stories for when Maldovar was running the place. Clearly someone else has now taken over when Colony Sarff pays a visit. At the very earliest, this cameo takes place sometime in the late 52nd Century. It's entirely possible that an Ood could live for a thousand years. So he doesn't, necessarily, need to be transported to the Maldovarium, either. This could just be an Ood from that time period. 

Finally, we can't see if the Ood in Revolution of the Daleks actually has a translation device. Nor do we know the exact point in time the Doctor is in as she serves her prison sentence. So he also doesn't need a  time storm to explain his presence in the story. He could just be an Ood gone rogue from any period of their history. 

I just figured if I was going to go to all those lengths to get one Ood cameo to work, I should use it to make a few other appearances happen more simply. Basically, I've decided that if we see an Ood in a strange place where we wouldn't expect to see him, that nasty Halpen Time Storm was responsible for it. 

THE PERIOD OF ENSLAVEMENT: THE END 

And now, at last, we reach the Fateful Year of 4126. The Halpen Family have been successfully enslaving the Ood for about two centuries. Klineman Halpen is the latest family member to be running the business. He seems to be running things into the ground, however. He is clearly not enjoying his position of power and is deeply affected by the stress it is creating in his life. So much so, that he's sure it's causing him to lose his hair! 

In some ways, he is fortunate that the family business is about to end. The Central Brain that connects all the Ood together has been struggling against the forcefield that has been restraining it. It is beginning to affect certain Ood with a condition known as Red Eye. It's getting them to attack various humans working at the Ood Distribution Factory as an act of revenge. Slowly but surely, the Central Brain is trying to create a revolution. 

It gets some extra help in achieving this as the Doctor and Donna arrive in the TARDIS. The events of Planet of the Ood take place. By the end of the tale, the Ood have been liberated. The Halpen Family's Reign of Terror is over. The Doctor and Donna are now a part of the Great Song. To be remembered forever for the help they provided. 

REBUILDING

Once liberated, the Ood begin to quickly re-build their civilisation to the way it had been before. A new Council of Elders is established. Once more, it is being run by a Supreme Elder to help steer things along. Ood cities, with their magnificent spires, are also re-constructed. All is returning to normal. 

The Council of Elders seem to have developed new powers. They are now capable of seeing into the past and can even send projections to communicate with people in different time zones. More than likely, this is an after-effect of some sort from the time travel experiments the Halpen Family once conducted there (Look at that! I got the Time Storm theory to work even better!). They manage to see an event that will take place in the 21st Century that will cause the end of the Universe as they know it. They need to, somehow, intervene and prevent the catastrophe. They manage to contact the Doctor in the Year 2059, asking him to return the Ood Sphere so they can better explain the problem to him. They send a projection of Ood Sigma to him at the end of Waters of Mars. He is someone the Doctor is familiar with so that might better persuade the Time Lord to obey the summons. 

At the beginning of The End of Time - Part One, the Doctor finally decides to pay the Ood Sphere a visit. He's taken an extensive detour but he's there, at last. Ood Sigma greets him as the Time Lord arrives. It is established that it's been about a 100 years since the events of Planet of the Ood. The Doctor is actually a bit alarmed by how swiftly they are progressing. 

He sits with the Council of Elders and is shown the danger that is developing in 2009 (more than likely, this is where the bulk of End of Time takes place). He immediately rushes off to investigate. 

The Ood have the slightest of presence in the second part of The End of Time. As Ten is nearing the end of his time, they sing him off to sleep. We can assume that this is also the Council of Elders from sometime around 4226 projecting their song into the past for the Doctor to hear. 

THAT'S ALL, FOLKS

And with that, all the Ood appearances have been placed in a sort of chronological order. Again, we could claim that some of those cameos are more linear. But I prefer to think that the Ood at the Maldovarium and other incidents like that are the result of a time experiment gone wrong sometime between the 40th and 42nd Century. It makes for a tidier history.

Interestingly enough, aside from the cameos, most Ood stories are already in the proper order. Impossible Planet/Satan Pit happens first. Then Planet of the Ood. Then all the stuff involving the Tenth Doctor's regeneration. In many ways, my job was made easy with this one. The only real challenge was getting that damned Ood in Face the Raven to make sense!    

And so concludes our little lesson in Ood History. Hope it didn't seem too Odd! Sorry. Had to do the pun one more time!   

There will be another CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES essay coming along shortly. It will deal with another alien we've been seeing exclusively in New Who. Can you guess which one?