The Pirate Planet

Last updated

099 –The Pirate Planet
Doctor Who serial
Cast
Others
Production
Directed by Pennant Roberts
Written by Douglas Adams
Script editor Anthony Read
Produced by Graham Williams
Executive producer(s)None
Music by Dudley Simpson
Production code5B
Series Season 16
Running time4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast30 September 1978 (1978-09-30)
Last broadcast21 October 1978 (1978-10-21)
Chronology
← Preceded by
The Ribos Operation 		Followed by →
The Stones of Blood
List of episodes (1963–1989)

The Pirate Planet is the second serial of the 16th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 30 September to 21 October 1978. It forms the second serial of the Key to Time story arc. It was written by Douglas Adams and features some of his humour.

Contents

The tyrant Queen Xanxia (a dual role played by Vi Delmar and Rosalind Lloyd) and the Captain (Bruce Purchase) use the hollow planet Zanak as a spaceship that surrounds smaller planets, including Calufrax, the second segment of the powerful Key to Time in disguise, to plunder the planets' resources that help keep Xanxia alive.

Plot

The Key to Time tracer points the Fourth Doctor and Romana to the cold and boring planet of Calufrax, but when they arrive they find an unusual civilisation living in perpetual prosperity. Although a strange band of people with mysterious powers known as the Mentiads are feared by the society, the Doctor discovers that they are good people but with an unknown purpose. He instead fears the Captain, the planet's leader and benefactor. After meeting the Captain on the bridge he learns that they are actually on a hollowed-out planet named Zanak, which has been materialising around other planets to plunder their resources.

After repairing Zanak's engines, which were damaged when the planet materialised in the same place as the TARDIS, the Captain plans to take Zanak to Earth. The Doctor finds the true menace controlling the Captain is the ancient tyrant Queen Xanxia, disguised as the Captain's nurse, who uses the resources mined from planets in an attempt to gain immortality. Her physical body sits between Time Dams, devices that hold back the ravages of time, as she is old and near death, and a younger version of her is projected via a solid 3D device. Despite the Captain's apparent insanity, he is a calculating person who plans to destroy Xanxia. The Mentiads learn that their psychic powers are strengthened by the destruction of entire worlds beneath their feet: As the people on the planets die, their combined psychic force boosts the Mentiad's power.

Throughout Zanak, the Key to Time locator has been giving odd signals that seem to indicate that the segment is everywhere. Once the Doctor and Romana see the Captain's trophy room of planets, they conclude that Calufrax itself is the segment that they are looking for. The Captain's intends to use the gravitational power of all the crushed worlds to essentially drill a hole through the time dams, bypass its fail-safe mechanism, and let time move forward so the queen dies. They use the TARDIS to once again disrupt Zanak's materialisation around Earth while the Mentiads sabotage the engines. Xanxia kills the Captain when he finally turns against her and his plan fails. As Calufrax is not a real world, its mass is different and Zanak is unable to consume it. The Doctor, Romana, and the Mentiads destroy the bridge and Xanxia, ending the devastation caused by Zanak's travels. The Doctor rigs the system to drop the crushed worlds into the centre of Zanak where they'll expand and fill it, except for Calufrax which he sends it off into the time/space continuum where they pick it up later.

Production

The original draft for this story was extremely complex, centred on a Time Lord trapped in a giant aggression-absorbing machine and several paradoxes, it had to be heavily simplified by the script editor, Anthony Read.

According to the DVD commentary, the Doctor's accident with the console early in the story was staged to explain Baker's real-life cut lip, which was due to a dog bite. The scenes in the engine room were filmed at the Berkeley nuclear power station, which made many of the cast and crew rather nervous.

The 16mm location work for this story is still held in the BBC archive. [1]

Cast notes

Vi Delmar, who played the old Queen Xanxia (uncredited), asked for extra payment to remove her false teeth in her scenes. David Warwick later played the police commissioner in "Army of Ghosts" (2006) and David Garnier in the audio play The Harvest .

Broadcast and reception

EpisodeTitleRun timeOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions)  [2]
1"Part One"25:0530 September 1978 (1978-09-30)9.1
2"Part Two"25:307 October 1978 (1978-10-07)7.4
3"Part Three"25:4714 October 1978 (1978-10-14)8.2
4"Part Four"25:1621 October 1978 (1978-10-21)8.4

It was repeated on BBC1 on four consecutive Thursdays from 12 July – 2 August 1979, achieving viewing figures of 2.8, 4.0, 3.3 and 2.9 million respectively. [3]

Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote of the serial in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), "An inventive story, The Pirate Planet has matured into a satisfying mixture of the clever and the absurd." [4] In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker described it as "enjoyable", especially due to Baker and Tamm's performances as well as the Captain and Mr Fibuli. However, they wrote that the other supporting characters were "simply awful". [5] In 2011, Mark Braxton of Radio Times noted a few plot holes and that the budget could not convey the scope of ideas, but he praised the performances and the story's playful tone. [6] DVD Talk's Justin Felix gave The Pirate Planet three and a half out of four stars, describing the story as "quite clever" and "fun", but felt that it was let down by over-the-top acting. [7] In 2010, Charlie Jane Anders of io9 listed the cliffhanger of the third episode as one of the best cliffhangers in Doctor Who history. [8]

Commercial releases

In print

Doctor Who – The Pirate Planet
AuthorJames Goss
Series Doctor Who novelisations
Publisher BBC Books
Publication date
5 January 2017
Pages416
ISBN 978-1-849-90677-7

This is one of five Doctor Who serials that were never novelised by Target Books (the others being City of Death , Shada , Resurrection of the Daleks , and Revelation of the Daleks ), in this case because they were unable to come to an agreement with Douglas Adams that would have allowed him or another writer to adapt the script. BBC Books published a novelised version of the serial, written by James Goss, on 5 January 2017. [9] [10] [11] An abridged Target Books edition titled Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet was published in paperback 11 March 2021. [12] [13]

Home media

It was released on VHS on 3 April 1995. Along with the rest of season sixteen, it was released in North America as part of the Key to Time box set, and as an individually available title, on 1 October 2002; the remastered Key To Time Boxset was released in Region 1 on 3 March 2009. A Limited Edition of the Key to Time box set (with additional clean-up and extras over the North American release) containing this serial, was released in Region 2 on 24 September 2007. [14] The same set, though not in Limited Edition guise was released in Region 4 on 7 November 2007. The serial is not available separately on DVD in Regions 2 or 4. This serial was also released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files in Issue 112 on 17 April 2013.

Related Research Articles

<i>Shada</i> (<i>Doctor Who</i>) Unaired 1979 TV serial, later reworked

Shada is a story from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by the series' script editor Douglas Adams, it was intended as the final serial of the 1979–80 season but was never originally completed, owing to strike action at the BBC during studio recording. Entering production as a six-part story in 1979, plans were later revised for the story to be broadcast as a four-part story in 1980. Ultimately however, the story was never completed in either format.

City of Death is the second serial of the seventeenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor. It was produced by the BBC and first broadcast in four weekly parts between 29 September 1979 and 20 October 1979 on BBC1. The serial was written by "David Agnew" – a pseudonym for the combined work of David Fisher, Douglas Adams, and Graham Williams – and directed by Michael Hayes.

Romana (<i>Doctor Who</i>) Fictional character in the TV series Doctor Who

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>The Daleks</i> 1963 Doctor Who serial

The Daleks is the second serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC TV in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Christopher Barry and Richard Martin, this story marks the first appearance of the show's most popular villains, the Daleks, and the recurring Skaro people, the Thals.

Planet of the Daleks is the fourth serial of the tenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 7 April to 12 May 1973. It was the first Dalek story to be written by their creator Terry Nation since 1965’s The Daleks' Master Plan.

Genesis of the Daleks is the fourth serial of the twelfth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by Terry Nation and directed by David Maloney, and originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975 on BBC1.

The War Games is the seventh and final serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969.

Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

The Deadly Assassin is the third serial of the 14th season of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 30 October to 20 November 1976. It is the first serial in which the Doctor is featured without a companion, and the only such story for the classic era.

<i>The Dalek Invasion of Earth</i> 1964 Doctor Who serial

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is the second serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Richard Martin, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in six weekly parts from 21 November to 26 December 1964. In the serial, the First Doctor, his granddaughter Susan Foreman, and teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright discover that the Earth in the 22nd century has been occupied by Daleks. They work with a human resistance group to stop the Daleks from mining out the Earth's core as part of their plan to pilot the planet through space.

<i>Doctor Who</i> season 16 Season of television series

The sixteenth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, known collectively as The Key to Time, began on 2 September 1978 with The Ribos Operation, and ended with The Armageddon Factor. The arc was originally conceived by producer Graham Williams, who had proposed it as part of his application for the producer's job in 1976. The name refers to the powerful artefact, the segments of which are what the Fourth Doctor and his companions, Romana and K9, search for during the season. Anthony Read continued in his role as script editor, from the previous season. Douglas Adams also became script editor alongside Read.

Frontier in Space is the third serial of the tenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The serial was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 24 February to 31 March 1973. It was the last serial to feature Roger Delgado as the Master.

<i>The Space Museum</i> 1965 Doctor Who serial

The Space Museum is the seventh serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Glyn Jones and directed by Mervyn Pinfield, it was broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 24 April to 15 May 1965. In the serial, the First Doctor and his travelling companions Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, and Vicki arrive in a Space Museum on the planet Xeros, where they seek to change their fate after seeing themselves turned into museum exhibits in the future. They also become entangled in a conflict between the militaristic Moroks who run the museum, and the servile indigenous Xerons who work for them.

<i>The Chase</i> (<i>Doctor Who</i>) 1965 Doctor Who serial

The Chase is the eighth serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Richard Martin, the serial was broadcast on BBC in six weekly parts from 22 May to 26 June 1965. Set in multiple time periods on several different planets, including Aridius, Earth, and Mechanus, the serial features the Dalek race travelling through time while pursuing the TARDIS and its occupants—the First Doctor and his companions Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, and Vicki —to kill them and seize the TARDIS for themselves. The Doctor and companions encounter several characters, including monsters Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, human astronaut Steven Taylor, and an android replica of the Doctor.

<i>The Ark</i> (<i>Doctor Who</i>) 1966 Doctor Who serial

The Ark is the sixth serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 to 26 March 1966.

The Power of the Daleks is the completely missing third serial of the fourth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is the first full story to feature Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor.

Destiny of the Daleks is the first serial of the 17th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 1 September to 22 September 1979. The story introduces Lalla Ward as the newly regenerated Romana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourth Doctor</span> Fictional character from Doctor Who

The Fourth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Tom Baker.

Frontios is the third serial of the 21st season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 26 January to 3 February 1984.

<i>Doctor Who</i> season 4 Season of British TV sci-fi series (1966–1967)

The fourth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 10 September 1966 with the First Doctor story The Smugglers and, after a change of lead actor part-way through the series, ended on 1 July 1967 with The Evil of the Daleks. For the first time, the entire main cast changed over the course of a single season.

References

  1. ↑ Richard Molesworth's Wiped! Doctor Who's Missing Episodes
  2. ↑ "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Archived from the original on 11 September 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  3. ↑ doctorwhonews.net. "Doctor Who Guide: broadcasting for The Pirate Planet".
  4. ↑ Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1995). "The Pirate Planet". The Discontinuity Guide . London: Virgin Books. ISBN   0-426-20442-5.
  5. ↑ Howe, David J; Walker, Stephen James (1998). Doctor Who: The Television Companion (1st ed.). London: BBC Books. ISBN   978-0-563-40588-7. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  6. ↑ Braxton, Mark (7 January 2011). "Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet". Radio Times . Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  7. ↑ Felix, Justin (22 March 2009). "Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  8. ↑ Anders, Charlie Jane (31 August 2010). "Greatest Doctor Who cliffhangers of all time!". io9. Archived from the original on 14 May 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  9. ↑ Adams, Douglas; Goss, James (5 January 2017). "Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet". BBC Digital. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2016– via Amazon.
  10. ↑ "Gallifrey Guardian". Doctor Who Magazine (486). Tunbridge Wells: Panini UK Ltd: 7. April 2015.
  11. ↑ Golder, Dave (30 April 2015). "Doctor Who Pirate Planet Novelisation Announced". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  12. ↑ "New Target novel collection in July 2020". Doctor Who.tv. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  13. ↑ Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet (Target Collection): Amazon.co.uk: Douglas Adams, James Goss: 9781785945304: Books. ASIN   1785945300.
  14. ↑ "DVD News". BBC. 18 May 2007. Archived from the original on 24 May 2007. Retrieved 20 March 2013.

Fan novelisation

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.