There's something refreshingly old school about Keith Temple's script of Planet Of The Ood . The Doctor and his companion land on an alien planet , come across an alien , meet up with humans on a base and get involved in an adventure with humans on a base where mysterious things are happening , mainly humans being killed one by one . Also nice to see Mr Temple's use subtext in his story which is the fundamental basis of science fiction
Unfortunately the subtext on corporate greed and enslavement is rather overstated and heavy handed " Just because an alien is an alien doesn't make it any less human than you or I " is a very common approach used throughout the history of the programme most especially during the Pertwee era . I don't know if I'm getting old , or if I'm more sophisticated than I was in the early 1970s but I sometimes got a headache after the massage " Slavery is wrong " hit me over the head a number of times
Director Harper does well and again it's refreshing to see a future planet that doesn't look futuristic and we see weapons and uniforms that are functional . Harper does let himself down somewhat with the battle scenes alas with a complete lack of long shots which gives the action mis en scenes a rather cheap feel as if to say we couldn't afford to get hundreds of extras so let's pretend most of the carnage is taking place off screen
All in all a very watchable story , but like its immediate predecessor you are left with the distinct impression that it could have been even better if slightly more work went in to it