Having given an overall "meh" rating to Doctor Who this week, I then went onto the wonderful Doctor Who Forum and proceeded to get involved in a debate about morals (how great is it when a television programme can force you to think outside the box?). The reason for the debate?
At the end of the episode the Ood stroll out of it with a smile and handshake from the Doctor after having just spent forty minutes murdering every human in sight, be they armed (as in the Security Commander) or not (as in the poor Publicity Officer). The Doctor's acceptance of this seems to condone what they have done. Now, I don't have a problem with this aspect of the episode, because, let's face it, if the situation was reversed - if Ood were slaving humans and the humans revolted and spent forty minutes murdering their oppressors, we wouldn't mind so much when the Doctor gives them a nod and a shake.
It's worth noting though that the Doctor is not so happy about the almost exact same situation in Warriors' Gate - be it the humans or the Tharils. Don't become a monster in order to fight the monsters, is the moral that the Doctor tries to teach, and he gives Harriet Jones a fair bit of flack for completely wiping out the Sycorax after they have surrendered. The Ood became monsters in order to overthrow their oppressors - and the Doctor condones it.
But that's nothing compared to Ood Sigma turning Halpen in to an Ood against his will.
Now it's been pointed out to me that Halpen murdered someone and was behind all the Ood mutilations. It's also been pointed out that being turned into an friendly, decent alien species is not necessarily a bad thing. These are both good points, except for one small thing...
Halpen wasn't turned into an Ood as punishment; he was turned into an Ood because of the care he had shown Ood Sigma. Essentially, rather than kill him for his crimes, Ood Sigma turned him into an Ood to reward him for his compassion. And from the sound of the groan that Halpen utters after his transformation, he ain't so happy about it.
My thought is this - Ood Sigma turned Halpen into an ood because it was a better life. So how, in any way, is this different to what the Cybermen do? They take someone and turn them into Cybermen because it's better to be a Cyberman. And in both cases it was against the will of the person who is being transformed.
Halpen wasn't offered the opportunity to choose between facing up to his actions or escaping as an Ood - he was forced into taking an option that he didn't want to take. I am astonished, then, that the Doctor and Donna of all people, condone what happened. This is a radical departure for the series which has always viewed the loss of "self" as being the worst thing that can happen to someone; be it converted into a Cyberman, or having their brain altered by the Keller Machine in "The Mind Of Evil".
The Doctor is outraged in "The Mind Of Evil" when Barnam has his mind attacked by the Keller Machine, and this is before he knows it is an alien parasite. He is disgusted by Lytton's conversion in "Attack Of The Cybermen" regardless of the crimes he has committed. The Doctor joins the Tharils against the humans even though the humans were enslaved by the Tharils, because what the humans are doing now is wrong. It's that simple.
Moral ambiguity has never been an issue in Doctor Who. Donna claims she doesn't know what is right or wrong now she is travelling with the Doctor and he says it is sometimes better that way. This is the first time he has ever expressed that opinion.
There is a right way and a wrong way of doing things, and there should always be justice. The Doctor has argued this from the moment he felt the need to start intervening. He couldn't stop the Aztecs human sacrifice because it was history, but he didn't disagree that what they were doing was wrong. It didn't matter how the marshmen were attacking the humans, the humans' exploratory surgery on the marshchild was wrong. And there was a peaceful solution to the attacks - get them out of the ship, not kill them. When the Doctor becomes morally ambiguous there is an issue. No one was impressed at the Doctor's glib comment to the acid death of two men that attacked him, regardless of the fact that they had attacked the Doctor.
I'm not changing the rating of this episode, but the more I think about it, the more it leaves a nasty after taste.
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