Planet of the Ood by: Keith Temple

 

Planet of the Ood was written by Keith Temple, based on his story of the same name.  It was the 184^th story to be novelized by BBC Books.

 

Is it possible for a novel to suffer from 45 minute syndrome? Perhaps, Planet of the Ood is a very weird novelization from the latest batch of Doctor Who novelizations, filling in a slot with Keith Temple returning to the world of Doctor Who for the first time since 2009 to adapt his only television episode into a novel.  The episode on television was fairly simple, it had roots with The Robots of Death (something the novelization lampshades), with some very well done anti-capitalist portrayals and some toned down horror for the general audience.  Planet of the Ood is adapted into a novel that doesn’t actually take much of its opportunity to flesh out the ideas outside of an added prologue from the perspective of the Ood which provides some very nice surrealist alien horror to open the book.  It’s about the only thing that’s been added by Temple, with a lot of the dialogue from the original episode making up the bulk of the novel’s dialogue.  Temple does have a fine enough grasp on prose, the performances from television are translated quite well to keep the general text about the evils of capitalism and corporations intact, but there’s actually very little added in addition to some references to The Robots of Death for lampshading purposes.  There are certainly details in “Planet of the Ood” which could have been fleshed out: Dr. Ryder and the Friends of the Ood subplot which is only mentioned briefly looks as if it is going to get a subplot with a brief section early on being told from Ryder’s perspective as an Ood sees into his mind, but it doesn’t get much of an explanation as to what their plans are.  There are also still obviously the issues with the fact that the Doctor and Donna still have no impact on the plot, with some of their character interactions in the novel being almost dialed back in places which means certain scenes just lose a little bit of the impact they initially had going for them.  Luckily it’s never enough to diminish the dynamic that made the characters work through Tennant and Tate’s performances, and Temple didn’t have to do a hasty rewrite for Donna as he did in the original episode, but it’s still just there.

 

Overall, Planet of the Ood is a fairly good translation of the television episode, however it does not take the time to perhaps adjust and reflect on some of the weaknesses of the television episode.  It just presents the events squarely as they happen with the characters given the same level of depth and the world explored essentially the same way which means you finish reading and don’t quite have a reason to fall in love with it, wanting a deeper exploration a novel could have provided.  It’s a good time, but being read so close to rewatching the episode just brings it down a little for me.  7/10.