16x2. The Pirate Planet
Writer: Douglas Adams
Director: Pennant Roberts
Script Editor: Anthony Read
Producer: Graham Williams
Synopsis: The search for the
second segment of the Key To Time brings the Doctor and Romana to the
planet Zanak, currently under the control of a maniacal Captain, who
has designed a system to absorb other planets and exploit their
resources, and the dying queen Xanxia, who hopes to use the technology
to regenerate herself. While trying to outmaneuver the Captain and his
security forces and recover the second segment, they discover that
Earth is the Captain's next target and ally with the Mentiads, an
oppressed group of telepaths, to combat the Zanak regime and end its
destruction of other planets.
Review: As Douglas Adams' first contribution to Doctor Who,"The
Pirate Planet" brings with it expectations of considerable
humorous content, and it does certainly deliver that, whether it's the
banter among the TARDIS crew (such as K-9's suggestiong that Romana ask
the questions because she's prettier or the Doctor revealing that he
helped Isaac Newton discover gravity) or the temperament of the
Captain, played by Bruce Purchase with a scenery-chewing gusto that
would make Brian Blessed proud. At the same time, the situation itself
is fundamentally a serious one, and the science fiction concepts
underlying it are among the more imaginative that we've seen in recent
serials (albeit occasionally somewhat confusing as well).
At first, the Captain may seem as if he's just the latest in a line of
mad dictators, albeit a darkly amusing example with one of the most
bizarre weapons in Doctor Who history
(namely a robotic bird that he uses to execute enemies and the
occasional underling). But in fact, the conquest and destruction are
largely a means to a different end both for Xanxia and for him. Xanxia
is hoping to use the energy gathered by the absorption of the planets
to regenerate herself, while the Captain ultimately plans to betray
Xanxia by altering the balance between the remains of the different
planets in a way that will destroy the "time dams." He also seems to
take a sincere intellectual (if utterly amoral) pride in the
gravitational engineering design that has allowed him to keep the
remains of the absorbed planets in storage, and he and the Doctor
memorably square off when the latter expresses his outrage and disgust
at the Captain's suggestion that he ought to appreciate the achievement.
I've often thought one of Tom Baker's strongest suits as the Doctor is
his ability to convey the genuinely alien wisdom and disposition of the
character, and this is especially important in a serial like "The
Pirate Planet," which involves concepts that can be difficult to
understand and that may not have any real scientific basis in the first
place. I can't claim to have any idea whether it would be possible for
a planet to absorb other planets in this way, whether the Captain's
feats of "astro-gravitational engineering" or the "time dams" are
plausible, or whether telepathy could ever really develop and/or
manifest itself in the "gestalt" which the Mentiads constitute. But
what does come across clearly Doctor's impassioned moral anger at the
Captain, his intellectual reaction to what the Captain and Xanxia have
been doing (he recognizes the technical merits of the Captain's
engineering, while insisting to Xanxia, as an expert on regeneration,
that her plan to acquire immortal life will fail), and his moment of
realization about the Mentiads' collective powers. Baker, Purchase, and
Mary Tamm all effectively play their characters as possessing
considerable intellect, and as a result, we, the viewers, are able to
buy into these ideas even when we may not be able to follow all the
technobabble.
The Doctor and Romana continue to make for an occasionally contentious
but nevertheless good-natured partnership: the Doctor is clearly still
a bit uncomfortable with being anything other than the unquestionably
smartest person in the room, while Romana is less than impressed with
his unconventional approach. She's clearly more of a pragmatist than he
is: she's cautious about getting too deeply involved in the conflicts
in Zanak, while he's the one to point out that it can be exciting not
to understand something. At the same time, when he tells her to
initiate a potentially suicidal maneuver with the TARDIS to prevent
Zanak from destroying Earth, she objects at first but still complies,
with the two of them exchanging a "been nice knowing you" right before
she does so. She's also an effective "straight woman" when the script
calls for it, such as when the Doctor pauses to discuss the law of
conservation of momentum with her right before utilizing it to knock
out a pursuing guard.
All things considered, I could have done with a little less of the
jargon, especially towards the end, but "The Pirate Planet" is still
effective at getting across some imaginative ideas in a humorous style
while providing an entertaining showcase for the lead characters, and
it's probably the best installment of the Graham Williams era thus far.
Rating: ***1/2 (out of four)
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