The Pirate Planet is a
serial in the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
science fiction television series
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
, 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 AdamsDouglas Noel Adams was an English writer, dramatist, and musician. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a...
, and featured some of Adams' style of humour.
The DoctorThe Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and also features in a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
and
RomanaRomana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
find that the second segment to the Key to Time is on the planet Calufrax.
The Pirate Planet is a
serial in the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
science fiction television series
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
, 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 AdamsDouglas Noel Adams was an English writer, dramatist, and musician. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a...
, and featured some of Adams' style of humour.
Synopsis
The DoctorThe Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and also features in a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
and
RomanaRomana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
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
hyperspaceHyperspace is a plot device sometimes used in science fiction. It is typically described as an alternate region of space co-existing with our own universe which may be entered using an energy field or other device...
engines, allowing its insane half-robot Captain to materialise it around other smaller planets and plunder their resources.
Plot
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
bridgeThe bridge of a ship is an area or room from which the ship can be commanded. When a ship is underway the bridge is manned by an OOW aided usually by an AB acting as lookout...
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
TARDISThe TARDIS is a time machine and spacecraft in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who....
, 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 powersParapsychology is a controversial discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and life after death using the scientific method...
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.
Cast notes
Vi Delmar, who played Queen Xanxia (uncredited) asked for extra payment to remove her false teeth in her scenes.
Continuity
- This is the second of six linked serials that comprise the whole of Season 16, known collectively as The Key to Time.
- Whilst unconscious on the Bridge, the Doctor mumbles "No more Janus thorns", the admonishment he used several times on former companion Leela
Leela is a fictional character played by Louise Jameson in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Leela was a companion of the Fourth Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1977 to 1978...
, particularly in The Face of EvilThe Face of Evil is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from January 1 to January 22, 1977...
.
- The Pirate Captain appears in the regeneration montage in Logopolis
Logopolis is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from February 28 to March 21, 1981. It was Tom Baker's last story as the Doctor and marks the first appearance of Peter Davison in the role...
.
- The Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the fictional character known as the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who replaced Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor in the 2005 series finale, "The Parting of...
mentions Calufrax Minor as being one of the missing planets in "The Stolen Earth"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by showrunner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first episode of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode...
".
Production
- The original draft for this story was extremely complex: centred around a Time Lord
The Time Lords are a fictional extraterrestrial race and civilization in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' main character, the Doctor, is a member...
trapped in a giant aggression-absorbing machine and several paradoxA paradox is a statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition. The term is also used for an apparent contradiction that actually expresses a non-dual truth...
es, it had to be heavily simplified by the script editor, Anthony ReadAnthony "Tony" Read is a British script editor, television writer and author. He was principally active in British television from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, although he occasionally contributed to televised productions until 1999. Starting in the 1980s, he launched a second career as a print...
.
- 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.
- Romana in this story is wearing pink and white even though in early production it was said she should always wear white as she did in The Ribos Operation and The Armageddon Factor
Outside references
- At one point, the Doctor tells Kimus, "Don't panic," which is the tagline for Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
.
- The Name "Bantraginus V" is likely a reference to "Santraginus V", the home for one of the key ingredients in Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster in Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
.
- Qualactin, mentioned as the only source for Oolion other than Bantraginus V, is also the source for another Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster ingredient.
- Similarly, the Doctor's attempt to strike up a conversation with the guards escorting him and Romana in the second episode is reminiscent of Ford Prefect
Ford Prefect may refer to:* Ford Prefect , a line of British cars produced by the UK section of the Ford Motor Company from 1948 - 1961* Ford Prefect , a character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, named after the car...
's attempt to talk a VogonThe Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are bulkier than humans and have green skin. They are employed as the galactic government's bureaucrats...
guard out of throwing Ford and Arthur DentArthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist and antihero in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams....
out of an airlock in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
.
- The Doctor shouts "I'll never be cruel to an electron in a particle accelerator again." while being pulled along the linear induction corridor into the mountain—reminiscent of Arthur Dent's statement, "I'll never be cruel to a gin and tonic again." the first time he goes into hyperspace in the radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- The Queen of Zanak is revealed to have been frozen in time at the cusp of death.... as is the Emperor of the Galaxy in the novel and second radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (although the references to the Emperor are throwaway lines and not plot-points as they are in The Pirate Planet).
- The Doctor claims to have met Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton FRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is perceived and considered by a substantial number of scholars and the general public as one of the most influential men in history...
, and says he dropped the apple that made him discover gravity. Newton is said to have told the Doctor to get out of his tree, and the Doctor later explains gravity to him.
In print
This is one of five
Doctor Who serials that were never novelised by
Target BooksTarget Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
as they were unable to come to an agreement with
Douglas AdamsDouglas Noel Adams was an English writer, dramatist, and musician. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a...
that would have allowed him or another writer to adapt the script. A fan group in New Zealand published an unofficial novelisation of the story in 1990, later republishing it as an online eBook titled
Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet.
Broadcast, VHS and DVD release
- The serial was repeated on BBC One in July/August 1979 on consecutive Thursdays (12/07/79) to (03/08/79) at 6.55pm.
- This serial was released on VHS
Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, was a video tape recording standard developed during the 1970s. It was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. During the late part of the 1970s and the early 1980s it formed one-half of the VHS vs Betamax war, which it...
in April 1995.
- This serial, along with the rest of season sixteen, was released in North America as part of the Key to Time box set, and as an individually available title, on October 1, 2002,The remastered Key To Time Boxset was released in Region 1 on March 3, 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 September 24, 2007. The same set, though not in Limited Edition guise, was released in Region 4 on November 7, 2007. The serial is not available separately on DVD in Regions 2 or 4.
Fan novelisation