The Pirate Planet (TV story)

The Pirate Planet was the second story in season 16 of Doctor Who. It was the second story in the Key to Time arc. The Pirate Planet was the only transmitted story for which Douglas Adams received sole on-screen credit. As of July 2012^[update], it was one of the very few serials of the "classic" era not to be novelised.

Synopsis

The Doctor and Romana learn the second segment of 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 smaller planets and plunder their resources.

Plot

Part 1

On a mountain base, the nervous Mr. Fibuli informs the impatient Captain that a new source has been found for vasilium. Immediate orders to mine it follow. The Captain speaks to the people of the planet, declaring a new golden age. As the people celebrate, a different group, dressed in yellow robes, mentally watch Pralix, who doesn't appear as thrilled with the Captain's announcement as everybody else.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor is securing the first segment of the Key to Time by tucking it in a boot and sticking it in the fridge. The tracer points Romana and him to the cold and boring planet of Calufrax. The TARDIS is unable to materialise (damaging Zanak's engines as well) until Romana pilots it into a landing. The pair soon discover that they are not on Calufrax at all.

File:Pirate planet part1.JPG

The power of thought grants the Mentiads invulnerability

Meanwhile, Pralix is now delirious, watched over by his grandfather Balaton, sister Mula and friend Kimus. Balaton is concerned that his rantings will be overheard.

The area the Doctor and his entourage have landed in is deserted until they meet a local who tells them that the people of his planet are going to be rich because of the Captain and his latest "golden age of prosperity". He gives Romana some diamonds and rubies, saying they can be found everywhere. He warns the Doctor and her about the Mentiads, then leaves before he can elaborate. The Doctor finds precious stones all around, including the extremely rare oolion.

Balaton is terrified that Pralix will be taken by the Mentiads. Kimus is sceptical and Mula remembers her father's death at the hands of the Captain's guards, ostensibly to save him from the Mentiads. Meanwhile, the Mentiads declare their "harvest" of Pralix is imminent. As they march across the fields of Zanak, the Doctor hears Pralix and sets off to investigate. Romana waits behind, surveying the Captain's fortress with a telescope, only to be arrested for that forbidden item and her forbidden question: "Why?"

The Captain sends more of his soldiers to stop the Mentiads, but weapons are useless against their psychic powers. Instead, the Captain sends troops to find the telepath and eliminate him. They burst in on the Doctor in Pralix's home, but K9 quickly stuns them. The Mentiads enter soon after and strike down the Doctor with a blast of mental energy...

Part 2

File:Pirate planet part2.JPG

Not quite a linear induction corridor moves the Doctor along at a steady pace

When the Doctor wakes, Pralix and the Mentiads are gone. K9 tells him of Romana's arrest, giving him an incentive to try to get to the bridge atop the mountain, where she has been taken by the guard. Kimus accompanies him, hoping to rescue Pralix from the Mentiads. They get up to the mountain in an air car. Meanwhile, Mula and K9 track the Mentiads in an attempt to find Pralix.

On the bridge, Fibuli breaks the news to the Captain that the macromat field integrator has burnt out and they cannot replace it themselves. He suggests one more jump to find mineral PJX 1-8, which would do the same job as the integrator. Romana is brought to the bridge and the Doctor also finds his way up. The Captain isn't taking any chances. He has guns trained on them as he encourages them to lend technical assistance. Romana is confused that the tracer gives out a continuous signal wherever they go. The Doctor realises what's going on. After they escape with Kimus and make their way underground, they find the ground beneath them is frozen. The Doctor explains the planet they are on, Zanak, has been hollowed out and fitted with engines so it can transmat through space and materialise around others - such as Calufrax - to plunder their mineral wealth.

They have no time to pause as the Captain's guards give chase from behind. As they run, they face a group of Mentiads.

Part 3

File:Pirate planet part3.JPG

The Doctor and Kimus find the (almost) dead Queen Xanxia

There is no danger. The Mentiads are friendly. They have come to save the Doctor and his friends from the guards. The Mentiads, now including Pralix, create a force field with their psychic powers. This power of the Mentiads will not last much longer. Zanak has come to Calufrax for its crystals. When refined they can be used to block their psychic abilities. The Doctor doesn't know it yet, but the Captain is planning to materialise Zanak around Earth after mining on Calufrax is finished, because mineral PJX 1-8 (quartz) has been located there.

The Mentiads tell the Doctor that Zanak was a prosperous planet until the reign of Queen Xanxia, who supposedly had mysterious powers. Galactic wars she waged were the ruin of Zanak and its people.

The Doctor and Kimus fail to steal an air car and are taken to the bridge. The Captain shows the Doctor his trophy room of crushed remains of planets. The Doctor's secret plan is to break into the engine room, but while looking for it, Kimus and he find a room with an old body connected to a time dam, used to slow down the flow of time, using the energy Zanak acquires to keep Queen Xanxia barely alive. The Doctor returns to the bridge and exposes the Captain's nurse as a hologram controlled by Queen Xanxia. The Queen believes that she has made her hologram nearly real. The Doctor tries to convince her that the escalating energy needs of the Time Dam she is using will eventually cause her real body to die. He is thrown overboard for his troubles.

Part 4

The Doctor survives because it was only a projection of him that walked the plank. He has figured out the final piece of Queen Xanxia's puzzle, the device he found in the room with the body. Xanxia has been using the device to create an image for herself, disguised as the Captain's nurse. Xanxia is almost immortal because of the power of Zanak, which she uses to give permanent form to her image.

The Mentiads approach the bridge. They expect the Doctor to have taken control of the engine room by now, but because of the psychic interference transmitter they are disadvantaged. The Captain seals the bridge as Zanak prepares to make the jump to Earth. Since Zanak's engines were damaged when the planet materialised in the same place as the TARDIS, the Doctor escapes and tries to employ the trick again to prevent Zanak from materialising, while the Mentiads do their best to sabotage Zanak's engines. Xanxia kills the Captain, who is saddened when Mr. Fibuli dies, 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. In the aftermath, the Doctor and Romana collect the second segment of the Key to Time, the remains of Calufrax. They set off back to the TARDIS to search for the next segment.

Cast

Production Crew

Writer - Douglas Adams
Assistant Floor Manager - Ruth Mayorcas
Costumes - L. Rowland Warne
Designer - Jon Pusey
Film Cameraman - Elmer Cossey
Film Editor - John Dunstan
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Janis Gould
Production Assistant - Michael Owen Morris
Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Anthony Read
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Lighting - Mike Jefferies
Studio Sound - Mike Jones
Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
Title Music - Ron Grainer
Visual Effects - Colin Mapson
Producer - Graham Williams
Director - Pennant Roberts

References

The Doctor

The unconscious Doctor mumbled, "No more janis thorns" (a reference to Leela).
The Doctor had been operating his TARDIS for five hundred twenty-three years.
The Doctor claimed that he is responsible for teaching Isaac Newton the theory of gravity, after dropping an apple on his head failed to do the trick.

Gallifreyan creatures

Romana studied the life cycle of the Gallifreyan flutterwing.

Minerals

Oolion can only be found on Bandranginus V and Qualactin.
Earth was rich in PJX1-8, or quartz.
Calufrax was rich in voolium and madranite one-five.

Technology

The synchronic feedback circuit or the multi-loop stabiliser are both essential for a smooth rematerialisation of the TARDIS, according to Romana. The Doctor uses neither.

Pets and mascots

The Captain has a robot parrot called Polyphase Avatron. It is destroyed by K9.

Planets

Zanak is the 'pirate planet'.
Planets that the Captain has in his collection include Bandraginus V, Calufrax, Collactin, Granados, and Qualactin. It also included Aterica, Bibicorpus, Lowiteliom, Temesis, and Tridentio III. (INFO: The Pirate Planet)

Unique items

Calufrax (the planet) was the second piece of the Key to Time.

Vehicles

Romana was given an air car for her seventieth birthday.
Veteran and Vintage Vehicles was an elective that covered the Type 40 TARDIS. Romana did not study it.

Story notes

This story had a working title of The Pirates.
This is Douglas Adams' first contribution to Doctor Who. According to the documentary A Matter of Time, included in the 2009 special edition DVD of The Key to Time, it was while working on The Pirate Planet that Adams sold his radio play, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to the BBC. He worked on both projects at the same time.
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 was greatly simplified by the script editor, Anthony Read.
Vi Delmar, who played the aged Queen Xanxia, demanded an extra fee before she would remove her false teeth for filming.
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. This was due to a dog bite from a Jack Russell terrier owned by Paul Seed which had occurred during filming of the preceding story The Ribos Operation (where Seed played the Graff Vynda-K.)
At one point, the Doctor tells Kimus, "Don't panic," which is the tagline for Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The name "Bantraginus V" is likely a reference to "Santraginus V", the home for one of the key ingredients in the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster in Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
This is the second of six linked serials that comprise the whole of Season 16, known collectively as The Key to Time.
Romana shoots an enemy soldier dead. Although her predecessor, Leela, often used deadly force, this was one of the only on-screen occasions in which Romana did so. Romana's reaction to doing so leaves it unclear as to whether this is the first time she's killed someone.
Part one appears to begin the day after the conclusion of The Ribos Operation. The Doctor is about to put away the newly acquired first segment and talking to K9 about the success of the mission. He says "Good morning" to Romana, suggesting at least an evening has passed, but not much more.
In part one, the Doctor actually directly refers to Romana as having "good looks", one of the few times in the original series that the Doctor made such a remark regarding one of his companions. Ironically, Douglas Adams's later story, City of Death, included the line, "You're a good looking woman, probably", which has been used in some aspects of fandom to suggest that the Doctor doesn't (or shouldn't) consider the physical appearance of his companions.
The Doctor's line — "Standing around all day looking tough must be very wearing on the nerves" — was later used in one of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio serials, directed by the character Ford Prefect at a Vogon.

Ratings

Part one - 9.1 million viewers
Part two - 7.4 million viewers
Part three - 8.2 million viewers
Part four - 8.4 million viewers

Filming locations

Dan-yr-Ogof caves in Powys, Wales
Berkeley Power Station, Berkeley, Gloucestershire
Coity Mountain, Gwent
Gellifelen Railway Tunnels, Daren-felen, Gwent
Monmouthshire Golf Course, Llanfoist, Gwent
Big Pit, Blaenavon, Gwent
Bwlch y Garn, Ebbw Vale, Gwent
National Showcaves Centre for Wales, Dan-yr-Ogof, Swansea
Shepperton Studios, Littleton, Middlesex
BBC Television Centre (TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

The Doctor once again tells Romana not to trust "gimmicky gadgets". (TV: The Ribos Operation)
Unconscious, the Doctor believes he's talking to Leela, mumbling "no more janis thorns. (TV: The Face of Evil, The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
Inside the TARDIS, Romana and the Doctor look at the TARDIS Instruction Manual. The Doctor tears a page out. The Eleventh Doctor would later claim to have thrown the Manual into a supernova because he "disagreed with it". (TV: Amy's Choice)
Romana states the Doctor has been travelling in the TARDIS for five hundred twenty-three years. If this is correct and his age is seven hundred fifty-nine, (TV: The Ribos Operation) then this would have made the Doctor about two hundred thirty-six when he first "borrowed" the TARDIS and left Gallifrey.
A planet known as Calufrax Minor is among the stolen planets mentioned in TV: The Stolen Earth.
Romana pilots the TARDIS at the start of this story (and later on in this series) by the book, and the TARDIS makes the usual materialisation noise every time she pilots it. However, when River Song pilots the TARDIS while following the Byzantium, the TARDIS does not make the noise. She says that it is due to the Doctor leaving the brakes on. Other TARDISes (i.e.the Master's or the Rani's), piloted by experienced and trained pilots, also make this noise, contradicting what River said. Given the nature of their relationship, it is possible, even likely, that River Song was just teasing the Doctor. (TV: The Time of Angels)
The close-up of the Doctor at the end of episode 2 is used in the Atraxi's holographic montage of all the previous Doctors in TV: The Eleventh Hour.

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

This story was released along with The Ribos Operation, The Stones of Blood, The Androids of Tara, The Power of Kroll and The Armageddon Factor as Doctor Who: The Key to Time. This October 2002 release was only in Region 1. Extras include commentary by Bruce Purchase and Pennant Roberts, a photo gallery and production information subtitles.

It was also released with same stories as Doctor Who: The Key to Time, an extras-laden box set limited to 15,000 in its initial UK release on 24 September 2007, later followed by wide release in Region 1 on 3 March 2009 as The Key to Time - Special Edition.

Contents (2007/2009 version):

Commentary by Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and Anthony Read
Commentary by Bruce Purchase and Pennant Roberts (carried over from the 2002 set)
Parrot Fashion - A 30-minute documentary featuring an archive interview with writer Douglas Adams, plus cast and crew including Mary Tamm, John Leeson, Bruce Purchase and Rosalind Lloyd.
Film Inserts, Deleted Scenes & Outtakes - Raw footage and alternate takes from the filming of the serial, plus a couple of bloopers.
Weird Science - A spoof of late-1970s-style school programmes, poking fun at some of the science seen during Season 16.
Continuities - Off-air continuity links from the story's original transmissions.
Radio Times Billings - Listings from Radio Times (DVD-ROM PC/Mac).
Coming Soon Trailer - Planet of Evil. (2007 UK version only)
Photo Gallery
Production Subtitles

Notes:

Editing for the DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

The Key to Time boxed set covers

Video releases

Novelisation and its audiobook

Douglas Adams reserved the novelisation rights to his television stories for himself, saying that he would like to novelise The Pirate Planet and City of Death when he had "run out of things to do", and didn't want another author writing them. However, he never got around to writing them before his death in 2001.
Because of this, The Pirate Planet is one of only five serials not to have been novelised by Target Books, along with City of Death, Shada (as far as Adams was concerned Shada would never see print as he felt it was "just not up to much", but it was officially novelised despite this in 2012), and two others written by Eric Saward: Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks.
In 1990 an unofficial novelization, written by David Bishop, was published by the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club.
On 1 October 2012, AudioGO released an audiobook of The Pirate Planet, as a "4th Doctor TV soundtrack", read by Tom Baker and Mary Tamm, and narrated by John Leeson (the voice of K9).

External links

Tardis