Trivia / Doctor Who S30 E3 "Planet of the Ood"

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• Cast the Runner-Up: Tim McInnerny was once a candidate to play the Eighth Doctor.
• Completely Different Title: The French title is "Le Chant des Oods" (Song of the Ood).
• Deleted Scene:
  • An extended sequence set in caves beneath the planet's surface in which the Doctor searches for the giant Ood brain was cut for time.
  • The scene of Halpen, Solana and Dr. Ryder watching the video of Mr. Bartle's death was originally longer, showing Halpen frustrated about having to run Bartle's sales drive. Then he rewinds to watch footage of Bartle calling him an idiot, and decides to terminate the life insurance payouts to Bartle's family as a response to this.
  • There was originally an earlier interaction between the Doctor and Halpen, in which Halpen makes a guest appearance at the Ood demonstration. The Doctor begins asking Halpin a bunch of questions about the death of Delta Fifty. Halpen tries to make up a story about Delta Fifty being killed by pirates who sell Ood on the black market, but the Doctor doesn't buy it, and Halpen suspects the Doctor is a member of Friends of the Ood. After leaving, Halpen orders Solana to do a background check on the Doctor (explaining why exactly the Doctor and Donna's cover gets blown).
  • One scene would have the Doctor pointing out that people could use robots just as well as Ood, with two technicians pointing out how cheap and effective robots had become.
• One-Take Wonder: Adrian Rawlins did the scene himself where Dr. Ryder is thrown over the rail in one take.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Keith Temple's original draft for the story was much darker and more in-step with the storytelling style of the Classic Series, with Temple describing it as a six-part serial compressed into a 45-minute timeslot.
  • Ida Scott from "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" was going to return as a main character in this episode. Now part of a team looking into the conditions on the Ood-Sphere, she would discover he father was involved with Ood Operations. It would later be revealed he was actually acting on behalf of the Ood.
  • Russell T Davies contemplated making this a Two-Part Episode, but ultimately decided that the storyline would work better if it was not overcomplicated.

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