The Space Pirates

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049 – The Space Pirates
Doctor Who serial

Milo Clancey receives a call
Cast
Doctor Patrick Troughton (Second Doctor)
Companions Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe Heriot)
Production
Writer Robert Holmes
Director Michael Hart
Script editor Derrick Sherwin
Producer Peter Bryant
Executive producer(s) None
Production code YY
Series Season 6
Length 6 episodes, 25 mins each
Episode(s) missing 5 episodes (1, 3-6)
Originally broadcast March 8–April 12, 1969
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
The Seeds of Death The War Games

The Space Pirates is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from March 8 to April 12, 1969.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe encounter pirates pillaging the space lanes for rare ores in a space opera set in the far future.

[edit] Plot

Space beacons on the space lanes are being blown up and plundered for precious argonite by a gang of space pirates led by Caven, and his associate Dervish. The Earth Space Corps cruiser V-41 notices the destruction of the beacon and, with General Hermack and Major Warne in charge, sets out to apprehend the pirates. Another beacon is destroyed despite their best intentions, and the fragments are stolen using rocket propulsion. Hermack deploys troops to all nearby Beacons to prevent another robbery.

The TARDIS crew has arrived on Beacon Alpha Four shortly before the pirates reach it. Caven and his men mop off the security force on the Beacon, and the pirates seal the time travellers in part of the Beacon before blowing it to pieces. Fortunately the beacon falls into discrete, sealed pieces and the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves inside one. The eccentric Milo Clancey, in his aged ship the LIZ-79, rescues them – but they cannot retrieve the TARDIS, which is in a separate segment taken by the pirates.

The nearest inhabited world is Ta, dominated by the Issigri Mining Corporation, whose leader is Madeleine Issigri. The firm was founded by her father and Clancey, and the latter is now suspected of Dom Issigri’s murder, though nothing has been proved. Hermack visits Ta, believing that Clancey, whom he suspects of being the pirate leader, will end up there in due course – and he is right. However, Hermack leaves just as Clancey and the TARDIS crew reach Ta. Zoe has plotted the trajectory of the segments of Beacon and believes they were destined for Ta too, and as per usual the Doctor and his companions soon find the pirate headquarters. They evade capture and make contact once more with Clancey.

Meanwhile Caven forces Dervish to reroute some of the beacon fragments to Lobos, a frontier world where Clancey has his base, so as to throw suspicion on the prospector. It is clear someone has tipped him off about the Corps suspicion of Milo Clancey. Hermack and his crew see through this ruse, but it takes time, and they spend hours orbiting Lobos while the real action is taking place on Ta.

When the Doctor and his party reach Madeleine Issigri’s offices it becomes clear she is in league with Caven, and the Doctor and his friends are once more imprisoned. Their prison is the study of Dom Issigri – alive but frail and scared – and it takes time for him to recover his wits. Madeleine has meanwhile decided to break her alliance with Caven, and does so by radioing Hermack to bring his troops to Ta. Caven reasserts his authority by telling Madeleine her father is alive and threatening to kill him unless she returns to her compliant self. She responds by contacting Hermack again and telling him not to come to Ta.

The Doctor and his friends have meanwhile escaped, taking the weak Dom Issigri with them, and head to the LIZ-79. Caven has thought ahead and forced Dervish to cut the oxygen supply to the ship. As only Milo and Dom board the ship, theirs are the lives in danger, and Caven’s callousness finally convinces Madeleine to support him no longer. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe save their friends and Dom Issigri makes contact with Hermack, persuading him of the truth of the situation.

Caven now gets desperate, threatening to destroy Ta, the Issigri base and the orbiting V-ship by means of a series of strategically placed bombs. The Doctor manages to disengage the triggering device in the nick of time, while Major Warne blows Caven and Dervish’s ship to pieces. As Hermack’s ship lands, Madeleine looks forward to a reunion with her father, but knows she will also be imprisoned for her part in the conspiracy; while the Doctor and his companions prepare to seek out the TARDIS on one of the fragments of the Beacon.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Continuity

  • Every member of the cast pronounces the name Issigri as 'ee-SEE-gree' except Lisa Daniely, who pronounces it 'iss-see-gee'.

[edit] Production

  • This serial was written as a replacement for The Dream Spinner by Paul Wheeler, which for technical reasons was dropped at a late stage in production.
  • Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury were all away on location filming The War Games during the production of episode six and appear only in pre-filmed inserts. Thus, this is the only 1960s episode (except for the 1965 story Mission to the Unknown) to have none of the regulars present for a studio recording.

[edit] Missing episodes

  • All episodes of this story, except Episode 2 — preserved as a 35mm film telerecording — are missing from the BBC archives. Pre-filmed inserts from Episode 1 also exist, as well as the audio soundtrack for all episodes.
  • In 1998, an episode of this story was discovered in the collection of an amateur video enthusiast from the south of England. The episode is the earliest known existing off-air domestic videotape recording of an episode of Doctor Who, but unfortunately was of the already-existing Episode Two. [1]

[edit] In print

The Target novelisation by Terrance Dicks
The Target novelisation by Terrance Dicks

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in March 1990 and was the last Troughton-era story to be published in the traditional Target format. It was also the last novelisation written by Dicks.

[edit] Broadcast, VHS, CD and DVD releases

  • Episode 2 was released on VHS in 1991 on Doctor Who - The Troughton Years.
  • The audio soundtrack was released commercially on CD in February 2003 with linking narration by Frazier Hines.
  • It was later released on DVD in the UK in November of 2004 in the three-disc set Lost in Time. The DVD also included surviving pre-filmed inserts from Episode 1.

[edit] External links

[edit] Reviews

[edit] Target novelisation

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Doctor Who season 6 serials