Three Ood stories
Dec. 24th, 2023 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethYesterday I listened to Torchwood 76, 77 & 78, Odyssey, Oodunnit and Oracle, three future setting Torchwood stories featuring the characters who survived the thing with the Ood and the big 'devil'.
Ood feature centrally in each story, and the way the Torchwood archivists react differently to Ood than the people around them is the wind up spring in the stories.
Odyssey has a lot of horror elements but all the emotional heft is the horror of losing a patient to something that affects their mind and ability to communicate. The presence of the more speculative elements just kind of enhances the problem, where what he says might be driven by outside forces, ie his illness or the horror story stuff. A building in the center of a permanent storm is an apt setting for the family stuff, where a daughter rages at her father, trying to extract the personal reaction she always wanted.
The Ood in the story is trapped and being used for communication, the telepathic sensitivity that made them vulnerable also making them a unique support worker for people suffering aphasia. But again the science fiction just amplifies the family emotinal problems. The disconnect in communication isnt something simple assistive technology is going to get around, but the fact that the Ood all speak with her father's voice makes room for an ending that to me is both poignant and creepy. Using AI to get your father to say the praises you always wanted to hear has ethical issue; putting in the middle of that process a being whose only voice is the assistive technology she wants to hear just... is a new twist on treating them as invisible and useable.
Solid story, emotionally and thematically.
But I didnt like the sound, it made a lot of noisy noise.
And the horror elements are really *really* dark.
Like I've skipped over the actual plot because yikes, nasty.
So consider the 'adult and disturbing material' warning well earned on this one.
Oodunnit was about slavery, prejudice, and labor relations, featuring big business 'Lady Muck', a human union boss, and Ood forced into an impossible situation. Again their limited communication is used against them. But the presence of Zachary Cross Flane and a synthetic partner adds more layers, since Ood arent the only ones being treated as not-people. Like the other stories it uses the very real Ood incident to increase the tension and the stakes, but it is characters using it deliberately. The story sets out its historical comparison clearly in the middle, using an example of racism being used to divide and conquer in pursuit of money. But it has a lot going on. Good characters, interesting politics, a lot of Earth Empire stuff being sketched in very fast, and at the end arguably a win for Torchwood, which is always nice. But a win on such narrow terms you see the system grinding the Ood up.
Oracle is about a ship hologram that presents itself to visitors as an Ood because they'll be comfortable with that.
Already a smart listener doesnt trust this.
But the story builds on the way characters in Oodunnit ignore synthetics and Ood and only look for personal motivations among humans, so the ship becomes invisible by putting on an Ood face.
The ship has arrived from the local future and everyone on the 'rescue' mission has different ideas on how to use that to advantage. Future tech, future knowledge... future risks, if they thought about it. Danny, the Torchwood ethicist, is theoretically there to advise, but the stakes are so high there's not a lot of listening to him. So it ends up being a creeping horror where everyone's concern for their future and how they'll be remembered, vindicated, condemned, forgotten, gets used to position them all.
It reminds me most of the Bilis Manger stories. Everything that happens, they kind of do it to themselves. Just steered by the ship's words.
Again, tells you a lot about the Earth Empire and the conflicts in it, here focused to a handful of people. Torchwood is powerful enough, in all three stories, to get themselves into the thick of things, but not necessarily respected enough to get out again. Good tense stuff.
Good story.
I liked all three of these. Oracle the most.
Not holiday season listening, but strong ideas.
Ood feature centrally in each story, and the way the Torchwood archivists react differently to Ood than the people around them is the wind up spring in the stories.
Odyssey has a lot of horror elements but all the emotional heft is the horror of losing a patient to something that affects their mind and ability to communicate. The presence of the more speculative elements just kind of enhances the problem, where what he says might be driven by outside forces, ie his illness or the horror story stuff. A building in the center of a permanent storm is an apt setting for the family stuff, where a daughter rages at her father, trying to extract the personal reaction she always wanted.
The Ood in the story is trapped and being used for communication, the telepathic sensitivity that made them vulnerable also making them a unique support worker for people suffering aphasia. But again the science fiction just amplifies the family emotinal problems. The disconnect in communication isnt something simple assistive technology is going to get around, but the fact that the Ood all speak with her father's voice makes room for an ending that to me is both poignant and creepy. Using AI to get your father to say the praises you always wanted to hear has ethical issue; putting in the middle of that process a being whose only voice is the assistive technology she wants to hear just... is a new twist on treating them as invisible and useable.
Solid story, emotionally and thematically.
But I didnt like the sound, it made a lot of noisy noise.
And the horror elements are really *really* dark.
Like I've skipped over the actual plot because yikes, nasty.
So consider the 'adult and disturbing material' warning well earned on this one.
Oodunnit was about slavery, prejudice, and labor relations, featuring big business 'Lady Muck', a human union boss, and Ood forced into an impossible situation. Again their limited communication is used against them. But the presence of Zachary Cross Flane and a synthetic partner adds more layers, since Ood arent the only ones being treated as not-people. Like the other stories it uses the very real Ood incident to increase the tension and the stakes, but it is characters using it deliberately. The story sets out its historical comparison clearly in the middle, using an example of racism being used to divide and conquer in pursuit of money. But it has a lot going on. Good characters, interesting politics, a lot of Earth Empire stuff being sketched in very fast, and at the end arguably a win for Torchwood, which is always nice. But a win on such narrow terms you see the system grinding the Ood up.
Oracle is about a ship hologram that presents itself to visitors as an Ood because they'll be comfortable with that.
Already a smart listener doesnt trust this.
But the story builds on the way characters in Oodunnit ignore synthetics and Ood and only look for personal motivations among humans, so the ship becomes invisible by putting on an Ood face.
The ship has arrived from the local future and everyone on the 'rescue' mission has different ideas on how to use that to advantage. Future tech, future knowledge... future risks, if they thought about it. Danny, the Torchwood ethicist, is theoretically there to advise, but the stakes are so high there's not a lot of listening to him. So it ends up being a creeping horror where everyone's concern for their future and how they'll be remembered, vindicated, condemned, forgotten, gets used to position them all.
It reminds me most of the Bilis Manger stories. Everything that happens, they kind of do it to themselves. Just steered by the ship's words.
Again, tells you a lot about the Earth Empire and the conflicts in it, here focused to a handful of people. Torchwood is powerful enough, in all three stories, to get themselves into the thick of things, but not necessarily respected enough to get out again. Good tense stuff.
Good story.
I liked all three of these. Oracle the most.
Not holiday season listening, but strong ideas.