The Pirate Planet

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The Pirate Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from September 30 to October 21, 1978. It forms the second serial of The Key to Time. It was written by Douglas Adams, and featured some of Adams' style of humour.

[edit] Synopsis

The Doctor and Romana find that the second segment to the Key to Time is on the planet Calufrax. Yet they arrive on a planet called Zanak, which has been hollowed out and fitted with hyperspace engines, allowing its insane half-robot Captain to materialise it around other smaller planets and plunder their resources.

[edit] Plot

Romana, while examining the damaged field integrator, talks about the Doctor to the Captain.

The Key to Time tracer points the Doctor and Romana to the cold and boring planet of Calufrax, but when they arrive they find an unusual civilisation that lives in perpetual prosperity. A strange band of people with mysterious powers known as the Mentiads are feared by the society, but 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. 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.

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 is the segment that they are looking for. 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. The Doctor, Romana, and the Mentiads destroy Zanak's bridge and Queen Xanxia, ending the devastation caused by Zanak's travels.

[edit] Cast

• Doctor Who — Tom Baker
• Romana — Mary Tamm
• Voice of K-9 — John Leeson
• The Pirate Captain — Bruce Purchase
• Mr Fibuli — Andrew Robertson
• The Nurse — Rosalind Lloyd
• Kimus — David Warwick
• Pralix — David Sibley
• Balaton — Ralph Michael
• Mula — Primi Townsend
• Citizen — Clive Bennett
• Mentiad — Bernard Finch
• Guard — Adam Kurakin

[edit] Trivia

• The original draft for this story was extremely complex: centred around 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.
• Vi Delmar, who played Queen Xanxia (uncredited) asked for extra payment to remove her false teeth in her scenes.
• This is one of five Doctor Who serials that were never novelised by Target Books as they were unable to come to an agreement with Douglas Adams that would have allowed him or another writer to adapt the script. A fan group in New Zealand did publish an unofficial novelisation of the story [1].
• 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 attack.

[edit] External links

• The Pirate Planet episode guide on the BBC website
• The Pirate Planet at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• The Pirate Planet at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

[edit] Reviews

• The Pirate Planet reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• The Pirate Planet reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

[edit] Fan novelisation

• Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet