Harry -
Moons of madness, Sarah! This is the second story in a row in which a spectacularly shouty character steals the show!
Sarah -
I'M SORRY, HARRY DEAR, CAN YOU REPEAT THAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU FOR ALL THE SHOUTING!
Oh wait, the Captain seems to have piped down, perhaps calmed by his nurse...
Harry -
Season 16 continues its strong opening with the "The Pirate Planet", written by none other than Douglas Adams. He would of course go on to greater fame than any other Doctor Who writer. When one describes something as "Douglas Adamsy," you can point to this story for examples. There are loads of wit and cracking dialogue, characters who are larger than life or grotesque parodies, moments of humour and interesting sciency bits too.
Sarah -
It's all so Adamsy. It's a short leap from demolishing the Earth to build an Interplanetary bypass to materializing a hallowed-out planet around another planet to pirate its resources. There's so much concept going on in this story and it's a tribute to Adams' talent that it's so enjoyable!
Harry -
His concepts have always been wonderful. A planet that materializes around smaller ones and mines them for minerals; compressing the remains of these plundered planets into little spheres and suspending them inside a pressurized container; a queen who seeks immortality by rematerializing into a younger body, and so on, and so on. Adams is bursting with ideas as always.
Sarah -
Apparently, he wrote the script for "The Pirate Planet" at the same time as the radio play for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the scripts share the same domestication of the fantastic.
Harry -
And there's his storytelling too. You mentioned the nurse above. Look at how slyly he introduced her, and how Rosalynd Lloyd underplayed the role in the first half of the story. By the end, she seizes control of the story and leads to the demise of everyone on the bridge, including poor Mr. Fibuli -- another classic toady character. There's a lot of the harried civil servant in Mr. Fibuli, haha!
Sarah -
Oh, Mr. Fibuli -- another fabulous Adams' character. He is forced to be a toady, but clearly believes the Captain is a megalomanic nincompoop! In the end, the Captain is heartbroken by Fibuli's death and swears to avenge him. It was a surprisingly tender moment.
Amusingly, the first time I saw the story (and keep in mind, this was 1983), I got it in my head that Mr. Fibuli resembled Trevor Horn and I haven't been able to shake that image -- even when Mr. Smith insists they bear no resemblance whatsoever.
Harry -
This is another case where I would have loved to see the actors who played the three baddies in more Who. Unfortunately, this was the sole appearance for Lloyd, Bruce Purchase and Andrew Robertson.
Sarah -
The bait and switch on the Queen is a nice touch.
Harry -
Adams had so much fun coming up with his slate of baddies, that he almost neglects the citizens of Zanak. Mula, Kimus and Pralix are undistinguished characters, but the cringing coward Balaton was memorable.
Sarah -
It's not the most interesting planet, is it? Seems to be a lot of sitting around waiting for the next golden age.
Harry -
Was it me or was K-9 all over this one? He seemed to be everywhere, his banter with the Doctor and Romana was fun, he literally ran his batteries down from all the tasks he performed, and of course he fought the famous battle with the pirate Captain's robot parrot of death. Very very very good dog!
Sarah -
A VERY good dog. If there's one thing Douglas Adams knows how to do, it's writing robot dialogue!
Harry -
I wonder if Douglas Adams was still around, would he have found a place in the new series? He could have had fun writing for any of the newest Doctors.
Sarah -
I can only think it would have been inevitable.
Harry -
Gosh, we've barely mentioned the Doctor and Romana yet. Did they get the shaft in this story? The Doctor seems to get spun in every direction, stumbling across a projection device that saves his hide before the explosive finale. Romana seemed to have even less to do. They did enjoy some flights in those aircars.
Sarah -
They were definitely sidelined once the story got going. I like their opening scene -- Romana reading the TARDIS manual while the Doctor takes umbrage, and, of course, she's right.
Harry -
By the time we get to part four, my notes reflected a slowing down of the story. The Mentiads took forever to get up that mountain. There was a lot of shouting on the bridge before the Queen tried to do away with everyone, and the Doctor delivered one corker of a technobabble resolution to it all. At least the Mentiads and the other citizens got their planet back. (It's always amusing when these things are presented in such a grand scope -- "We've got our planet back, hoorah!" -- even though we've only seen about a dozen of the planets' people in a very small area.)
Sarah -
There's an opening for some fan fiction: the inhabitants of the other side of the planet who are wondering what the what keeps happening!
Harry -
The next segment of the Key to Time isn't even in our friends' hands by the end -- they still have to go scoop it up after he credits have rolled. Ah well, never mind the details, it was a fun ride, no?
Sarah -
T'was. Who needs minor details like wrapping up on the story? Onward to the next piece!
Harry -
Best Line:
Captain: "YOU DARE TO LEAVE THE ROTTING FRUITS OF YOUR OWN INCOMPETENCE AT MY DOOR?"
Favourite Moment: The Captain's roaring outbursts.
Lasting Image: The Captain and Mr. Fibuli.
8/10
Sarah -
Best Line:
Kimus: "But I don't understand."
Doctor: "Exciting, isn't it?"
Favorite Moment: The Captain roaring "Mr. Fibuli!"
Lasting Image: The Doctor in the aircar.
7/10
Our marathon continues with Story #100 - The Stones of Blood...
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