Thursday, 6 August 2020

Who Reviews The Pirate Planet by Matt Rabjohns



The second segment of the Key to Time season was the first involvement of the legendary Douglas Adams in the show. And it's a crying shame he didn't go on to have a far larger involvement with the show than he did actually. His grasp of whimsical and imaginative writing really was absolutely incredible. Just look at The Pirate Planet, and you will see what I mean clearly enough.

The story has a grand scale, and the main plot line is an inventive and horrifying one. A script about a manipulated space pirate going through space just to suck planets clean of their energy just to keep a thoroughly evil and wizened old Queen alive is brilliantly contrived, and the tightness of the plotting has to be applauded very much here.

And the story is littered with so many larger than life characters. First and foremost is the wonderful Bruce Purchase as the half machine Captain, who is ever so slightly deranged and mad but held under the thumb of the ruthless Queen Xanxia. He is blustering, arrogant and yet at times restrained and quietly menacing. Bruce manages to make the character more than just the run of the mill cardboard cut-out villain. In fact, he is one of the most memorable and excellent villains of Tom's later years. He is loud, abrasive yet deeply disturbing and this makes him one of the most interesting villains on the show for a long while.

But a part play with even more subtlety, so much so that for most of the story you may even think she is not that important, is the turn that Rosalind Lloyd gives as Queen Xanxia. She is calmly and quietly in the background for most of the story, but when it is revealed that she is indeed the main evil doer and the Captain is merely controlled by her secretly her true colours are seen. She plays the wicked Queen with a restraint that makes her Queen one of the most quietly simmering brews of evil we've had on the show.

The story is also memorable for K9's wonderful battle with the Captain's Polyphase Avatron. The Captain has many layers to his character, he can kill a person for almost nothing at all, but he gets livid and upset almost like a child when his robot parrot is returned to him, having been defeated by K9 in a fierce laser beam fight.

The Mentiads are written well within the story, and their backstory is indeed a thoroughly interesting and well thought out plotline. That whole planets have died to give them their mental abilities is a ghoulish and dark segment of the story telling that is handled very well by the cast and the director, Pennant Roberts.

Indeed, the scale of the space hopping planet is quite a horrific one when you stop to think about it. A planet that is hollow that can jump through space like a spider to suck other planets dry is a deeply troubling prospect indeed. It gives the story an added dose of bite that perhaps makes it the single most ambitious story of the Key to Time season. It is bold and yet written perfectly.

Tom Baker and Mary Tamm already seem to get on like a house on fire as the Doctor and Romana because they both just share such wonderful screen charisma together. They are totally amazing to watch. And the fourth Doctor of these later seasons is more comical, but still not to the story detracting heights of season seventeen, here the comedy is still more restrained and therefore more believable as well.

It is quite easy to see why Douglas Adams would go on to be such a celebrated and gifted writer. His first story for Doctor Who is jam packed with so many brilliant ideas, and the plot comes together seamlessly and makes this story yet another firm success in a season that is highly engaging and highly memorable because every story has a firm backbone and they are all entertaining and diverting in their own special way.

This story also contains one of Tom Baker's most brilliant moments as the Doctor ever. His sheer horror when the Captain explains what Zanak does to other planets is surely one of the most brilliant pieces of acting that Tom ever gave on screen. His total hot anger comes over superbly and makes the scene truly hit home. He does not play this scene for laughs either, which is why it is all the more real and impactful. Tom always knows when to crank up the seriousness in his performance, and he is absolutely pitch perfect for this incredible scene. His righteous outrage at the horrors being perpetrated is openly palpable indeed.

The Pirate Planet was the first of only three stories of which he would be involved with as major writer on the show, the other two being City of Death and the sadly then unfinished Shada. This is such a great shame that we only have two full stories to remember him by in Doctor Who. He had the potential to rise to Robert Holmes levels of brilliance, and yet Doctor Who has to make do with but two incredible contributions to the myth that is Doctor Who. But The Pirate Planet stands as a fitting testament to the brilliant mind that was the wonderful and truly gifted Douglas Adams. He will surely be greatly missed by so many around the world. Long may his legacy continue....

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