Ood

The Ood are a fictional alien species with telepathic abilities from the long-running science fiction series Doctor Who. In the series' narrative, they live in the distant future (circa 42nd century).

The Ood are portrayed as a slave race, naturally peaceful but readily susceptible to corrupting external influence. They are later emancipated from their slavery and by The End of Time have progressed into an advanced civilisation, a development which the Doctor thinks to be impossible, given the time span, 100 years, over which it has occurred.

Physical characteristics

The Ood are humanoid in appearance with tentacles on the lower portions of their faces. The Ood are a telepathic race, as such they require a "translation sphere" to communicate with non-telepathic creatures. The sphere is connected to the Ood via a tube that originally connected their external brains to their body. Humans in the future would physically remove their hind brains and fix the translator sphere where the brain used to be. There appears to be no gender differentiation among the Ood, though the Doctor seems to be able to determine their gender. When Donna refers to a dying Ood as an "it", the Doctor replies that the Ood is "a 'he', not an 'it'". The Ood say they require no names or titles as they are connected to a hive mind and function as one unit, but they do have designations given to them by humans such as "Ood 1 Alpha 1" or "Ood Sigma" to differentiate them. The Ood are empaths, sharing among themselves a low-level telepathic communication field. When reaching out with their telepathic fields, it can be heard as singing. This ability has made them susceptible to telepathic control, and in several episodes they are shown to be controlled by a stronger telepathic force.

OOD

OOD or Ood may refer to:

See also