Prisoner of the Ood

"I've been dead before. I got over it."

Writer: John Dorney

Format: Audio

Released: June 2018

Series: Jenny: The Doctor's Daughter 1.02

Featuring: Jenny

Synopsis

Moving into Leafield Crescent, Angie Glazebrook is surprised by an unexpected caller. But not half as surprised as Jenny, suddenly transported to a suburban close on twenty-first century Earth.

And that's nothing tot he surprise of the neighbours when alien visitors start appearing. Visitors with tentacled mouths, carrying death-dealing orbs. The Ood have come for their prisoner...

Verdict

Prisoner of the Ood was another very good audio adventure to continue along the first series of Jenny: The Doctor's Daughter! This was another very fun tale and one that was surprisingly completely different to Stolen Goods. I thought the continuation was decent but not quite as immediate as it perhaps should have been with Noah's introduction, but with limited time to play with across just four stories I can understand why the writing team are jumping ahead in the timeline. There does need to be signs of character development but achieving that for Noah was a little difficult here with how little he featured compared to Jenny and the rest of the residents blocked by the invisible barrier. Jenny's arrival into the story was magnificent and I loved how she took the time being 8.05am as her being in the ninth century. I'm sure her ancient history knowledge was actually quite good so I hope she doesn't go amending the history books after this encounter! The frazzling of her brain was interesting and it's always fun to play around with some memory hesitation and have the knowledge return slowly as the story unfolds. I was very excited for the Ood to be returning alongside another familiar character and I thought they were written very well. The concept of an Ood hierarchy with a Leader and a Beta was very intriguing and something I would love to be explored further in more detail. Could there perhaps one day be dissent amongst the ranks? Their role as wardens for Valderon was unexpected and the twist at the end concerning the monster being the one the Ood were after rather than Jenny was something I didn't see coming until Vanessa's death and Angie's lack of reaction and compassion there. It became a little obvious from there what was coming but it was still a very enjoyable conclusion. The distain towards the council was evident throughout this story which I found quite numerous and something I can agree with after moving house recently and having to pay council tax! Luckily, it looks like the local library services have some real gems so paying for those is something at least. The close-knit feel of the setting worked well with everyone seeming to know each other and share such annoyance towards the council. It was a very British story. Emily was a nice character and her being the one to survive at the end was good, even if the police were imminent! John as the writer was a funny character and I liked how Dorney got to get in how his job was perceived as not being a real job because he worked from home. I thought that was a great moment. The hunt for the vortex manipulator was good, but I didn't quite agree with Angie revealing its location if that was what it was after having managed to break through the Ood defensive barrier of the prison, albeit slightly. I guess Valderon may not have known what it looked like, but that didn't seem quite right for me. That didn't impact my enjoyment of the audio though, and the depressing realisation at the end was very emotional. The amount of death that had occurred was quite awful and extreme for the Ood. Their turning people into Ood in similar fashion to what we saw in Planet of the Ood at a much smaller pace was very good, and I also loved how Jenny had past knowledge of the species. Overall, a great little audio!

Rating: 8/10