User Reviews

Having spun an audacious yarn up to and including a hollow planet that literally swallows other planets across the first three parts of "The Pirate Planet," Douglas Adams might not have fallen off a cliff in Part Four but, having written himself into a corner with his cheeky cleverness, he must resort to a great deal of hand-waving before finally tossing a spanner into the works in this less-than-scintillating close to a gleefully outsized, wryly outrageous shaggy dog.

Our story so far: In their search for the second segment to the Key to Time, the Time Lords the Doctor and Romana journey to the planet Calufrax, only to find it somehow subsumed by the planet Xanak, ruled by the tyrannical Captain (Bruce Purchase), a blustering, half-man, half-cyborg pirate caricature plundering other worlds for more than their material wealth. The Doctor uncovers that purpose when he discovers the wizened Queen Xanxia (Vi Delmar), suspended in her last moments of life, whose incipient new incarnation, the fetching young nurse (Rosalind Lloyd) tending to the Captain, needs ever-more energy from those plundered worlds to complete her transition--with Earth next to be devoured.

Subtle hints that the transitional Xanxia had been controlling the Captain all along become explicit as the Doctor and Kimus (David Warwick), sent to infiltrate the Bridge, the Captain's mountain redoubt, escape his death sentence with the help of K-9, the Doctor's robot dog, as Romana, Mula (Primi Townsend), and the Mentiads now led by Pralix (David Sibley) storm the Bridge to help stop the Captain and Xanxia from their next jump.

What should be a battle royale, or at least a nail-biting race against time, instead fizzles as the Mentiads, stymied by the Captain's psychic blocking device, stand motionless like the "zombies" the nurse derides them as while K-9 runs out of juice. So does Adams's script, which resorts to hammer-headed--make that spanner-headed--nonsense at its resolution (despite a sly swipe at alleged psychic Uri Geller, at the time famous for supposedly being able to bend a spoon using just his mind), although that pales in comparison to the timey-wimey bafflegab, delivered by Tom Baker with literal hand-waving, the Doctor spews forth to explain how he'll set the worlds to rights.

Location filming at various hillscapes throughout the serial helps to offset the pervasive sound stages and model-work special effects, typical "Doctor Who" fare, while Mary Tamm, so impressive in Part One, recedes into Baker's shadow by the conclusion, although the ever-delightful interjections by John Leeson, voicing K-9, are welcome compensation.

Despite his florid, deliberate overacting, Purchase imbues the cartoonish Captain with dimension split between wistful pathos and veiled passive-aggressiveness toward Xanxia as Andrew Robertson, playing his subordinate foil, the harried Mr. Fibuli, quietly commands every scene he's in with his arch, self-aware toadying. However, Lloyd, Sibley, Townsend, and Warwick collectively project only colorlessness with the appetizing consistency of cold, lumpy oatmeal, which isn't true of this flawed but fascinating seriocomical farce.

Overall rating for "The Pirate Planet," all four parts: 8/10.

All the booty is soon swept away, four sheets to the wind and no longer in play, the villains got scurvy, it was a bit topsy-turvy, Davy Jones' Locker is now where they'll all stay (or whatever the space equivalent is).

Two down, four to go, the pieces of puzzle have started to grow.

Review of all 4 episodes:

This was the first Doctor Who story to be written by Douglas Adams. The famous writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and future Script Editor of Doctor Who is well known for creating quite bonkers but hugely entertaining stories and this is a prime example. There is a crazy, camp, surrealism in this adventure but also some characteristically intelligent dialogue and big science fiction concepts. It makes for a dynamic production.

This is the second part of the 'Key to Time' arc and involves The Doctor, Romana and K-9 searching for the second segment of the Key to Time and encountering a 'pirate planet' Zanak which exploits and destroys other civilisations in order to plunder mineral wealth from other planets.

The explanation for how this is done and for what the backstory is for the different people involved is really fascinating and impressive. The plot is great science fiction but is delivered with Adams' characteristic quirky humour and eccentric style. Tom Baker's equally eccentric personality is perfectly suited and he is a wildly exciting presence throughout. Mary Tamm's Romana also is perfectly suited with her dry humour complimenting the relationship and the witty dialogue.

The Captain is a totally over the top villain but in the comedic style of the story he works as a fun antagonist along with his bullied sidekick Mr. Fibuli and the serious, sinister Nurse. The Mentiads are an interesting addition too.

The effects are acceptable for the day but unpolished and not at all impressive. The locations and sets are decent though and the ideas themselves are extremely strong.

The humour works really well in combination with the intriguing, big scientific aspects and makes for a joyous serial which zips along providing huge enjoyment.

My ratings: Part 1 - 9/10, Parts 2, 3 & 4 - 9.5/10. Overall - 9.38/10.

We get to learn the whole evil plot, and what exactly the segment of the key to time is being used for.

Rosalind Lloyd comes through well in this episode as Xanxia, I feel she deserved a bit more of an exit, as did the Captain.

The explosions in the Nuclear plant look incredibly good, it's a miracle they were allowed to do it, very effective.

It was a fair conclusion, I enjoyed the effect on the Captain of Mr Fibuli's death, it was well played out, otherwise it was a little bit of a pedestrian episode. Part 3 was the high point. It's a very patchy story.

As for Part 4, 6/10

Overall a pretty fun story with some gloriously over the top villains in true doctor who fashion! It does have some flaws, it does seem to drag a little in the middle but thankfully picks up at the end. There are jelly babies handed out left and right so I would say a great story!

The hunt for the segments of the Key to Time leads the Doctor and Romana to a planet which turns out not to be what they expected. Exploring the place they have ended up, they find some sort of mining planet where the people are kept controlled but wealthy, a mysterious group called the Mentiads threaten the norms, and the whole shebang is overseen by the flamboyantly evil Pirate Captain.

It feels like ages since I watched the previous serial in this season, and I wondered if there was a reason for that other than being busy. Anyway, coming into The Pirate Planet doesn't do a great deal to inspire me to race into the next serial. It is not 'bad' per se, but rather it seems to be a very broad affair which has lots of ideas but no will to turn them into something cohesive. The family- family element sees a tyrannical villain transformed into a pantomime actor; this is actually quite fun in some ways, but it sits oddly with his actions, and clashes with the very colorless supporting characters. The plot is pretty interesting as it sees planets stripped of their mineral value at no consideration to those living there. It doesn't do a great deal with this, and the opposing characters (the Mentiads and the normal people) are very bland and uninteresting – robbing the drama somewhat.

There is some good humor throughout, which sits well with the colorful elements, but doesn't in itself make for a great serial. The performances are good from the lead two (or three if you include K9) but otherwise they range from the excessively colorful, down to the drably invisible. It all still moves along with some degree of interest, action, and humor, but it isn't really particularly engaging or entertaining.