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Doctor Who and the Pirates or The Lass That Lost A Sailor | |
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Big Finish Productions audio drama | |
Series | Doctor Who |
Release no. | 43 |
Featuring | Sixth Doctor Evelyn Smythe |
Written by | Jacqueline Rayner |
Directed by | Barnaby Edwards |
Produced by | Gary Russell Jason Haigh-Ellery |
Executive producer(s) | Jacqueline Rayner |
Production code | 7CH |
Length | 1 hr 40 mins |
Release date | April 2003 |
Preceded by | Jubilee |
Followed by | Real Time |
Doctor Who and the Pirates, or The Lass That Lost a Sailor, is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who . It is the first musical story in the series' history.
Evelyn begins telling a story to one of her students, Sally, about an 19th century sea adventure she has taken with the Doctor. Pirates boarded their ship in the Caribbean Sea. The Doctor arrives and helps Evelyn tell the story, punctuating the narrative with frequent songs set to the tunes of Gilbert and Sullivan songs. In the story they travel to the Ruby Islands (where precious gems are buried) together with their crew and the pirates. Evelyn is profoundly upset when she is unable to stop the murderous pirate captain, Red Jasper, from beating a cabin boy to death. The crew and their incompetent skipper, Captain Swan, with the help of the Doctor, capture the pirate ship, stranding the pirates with a fake treasure map.
The Doctor and Evelyn return to the TARDIS, and, still shaken, she returns home, loathe to witness further terrifying occurrences. There, however, she finds a suicide note from Sally, who is grieving someone dear to her who has been killed in a car accident; Sally blames herself, because she was driving the vehicle. To help her student Evelyn and the Doctor to travel back in time to dissuade Sally from killing herself, showing her that she is loved.
The songs use substituted lyrics to tunes from various Gilbert and Sullivan operas. [2] [3] The Doctor sings: "I am the very model of a Gallifreyan buccaneer" a pastiche of the "Major-General's Song". [2] Other Gilbert and Sullivan song pastiches include "An assassin's lot is not a happy one", based on the "A Policeman's Lot Is Not a happy one", from The Pirates of Penzance , and "I'm Jasper's man", to the tune of "I am so proud" from The Mikado . Music from more of the Savoy operas is used elsewhere in it, such as one of the pirates humming "Rising Early in the Morning" from The Gondoliers .
A reviewer for Metro wrote that Baker "has a marvellous singing voice." [3] A reviewer for Doctor Who TV selected the episode as the of the best audio dramas in its season. [4] In a 50th Anniversary review, Tor.com selected the episode for its list of "excellent ones". [2]
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known.
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. Its official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where it was well received by both audiences and critics. Its London debut was on 3 April 1880, at the Opera Comique, where it ran for 363 performances.
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan. It was first performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in London on 22 January 1887.
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece up to that time. H.M.S. Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan's fourth operatic collaboration and their first international sensation.
Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, she is a companion to the Fourth Doctor.
"I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" is a patter song from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. It has been called the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan patter song. Sung by Major-General Stanley at his first entrance, towards the end of Act I, the character introduces himself by presenting his résumé and admitting to a few shortcomings. The song satirises the idea of the "modern" educated British Army officer of the latter 19th century.
Bernice Surprise Summerfield is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were authorised novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.
The Marian Conspiracy is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
The Apocalypse Element is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It forms the second serial in the Dalek Empire arc, following on from events in The Genocide Machine. The arc continues in The Mutant Phase and concludes in The Time of the Daleks.
The Sixth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Colin Baker. Although his televisual time on the series was comparatively brief and turbulent, Baker has continued as the Sixth Doctor in Big Finish's range of original Doctor Who audio adventures.
Jacqueline Rayner is a British author, best known for her work with the licensed fiction based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
Pineapple Poll is a Gilbert and Sullivan-inspired comic ballet, created by choreographer John Cranko with arranger Sir Charles Mackerras. Pineapple Poll is based on "The Bumboat Woman's Story", one of W. S. Gilbert's Bab Ballads, written in 1870. The Gilbert and Sullivan opera H.M.S. Pinafore was also based, in part, on this story. For the ballet, Cranko expanded the story of the Bab Ballad and added a happy ending. All the music is arranged from Sullivan's music.
The Wormery is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
Thicker Than Water is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is a sequel to the earlier audio play Arrangements for War.
Pier Pressure is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
100 is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It consists of four one-part stories by different authors, rather than the usual multi-part serial, all involving the number 100 in some way. All episodes feature the Sixth Doctor as played by Colin Baker and Evelyn Smythe played by Maggie Stables.
For nearly 150 years, Gilbert and Sullivan have pervasively influenced popular culture in the English-speaking world. Lines and quotations from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas have become part of the English language, such as "short, sharp shock", "What never? Well, hardly ever!", "let the punishment fit the crime", and "A policeman's lot is not a happy one".
In 2012, Big Finish Productions began producing audio dramas featuring Doctor Who's fourth Doctor, as portrayed by Tom Baker. Baker had previously declined to feature in any Big Finish releases, but after recording a trilogy of full cast audio boxsets for BBC Audiobooks, he decided to participate. This was also part of a spin off series of the Monthly range.