Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet (1978)
This review of the 2002 US DVD release of Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet was originally posted to the Doctor Who Ratings Guide in October 2002.
The Pirate Planet must count as one of the Doctor Who stories with the highest number of total deaths. Untold trillions of people are killed, countless civilizations are completely wiped out, and genocide occurs multiple times — and this is even before the opening credits have run. Strangely enough, with all of this death, destruction and mayhem in the background, the story that follows is a goofy and silly Douglas Adams script that bounces between slapstick gags, silly one-liners, and hilarious dialog. There’s a serious undertone to the story (horrific, if one really pays attention), but somehow it never really overshadows the humor.
Bruce Purchase has the thankless task of playing a villain who actually has a legitimate reason for being a seemingly over-the-top, screaming, raving lunatic. His Pirate Captain plays very well off of Andrew Robertson’s Mr. Fibuli, and the two of them make for hilarious viewing no matter what else happens to be going on in the scene. The Captain’s dialog is particularly wonderful, and Purchase obviously relishes the task of stomping through the BBC sets screaming such energetic nonsense. “By the left frontal lobe of the Sky Demon”, indeed. “Obliterable!”
The balance between drama and comedy becomes a little strained at times, with the story not quite knowing which direction to go. The example that leaps to mind is the Doctor’s passionate confrontation with the Pirate Captain as he expresses the absolute horror at the destruction that has been unleashed. And the moment his speech is over, Tom Baker goes straight back into ham mode. It’s been said that surrounding the sudden seriousness with humor (as this sequence did) helps to emphasize the horror that the Doctor feels, but I just don’t see it. It’s a stunning moment that’s striking in spite of the surrounding humor, not because of it. Individually, a lot of the pieces are quite good, but not all of them gel together.
There are several aspects of the plot that don’t really make much sense under scrutiny. The ending is a bit of a problem with the conclusion boiling down to a few twists of the TARDIS controls solving all the problems. The dramatic battle between the two ships attempting materialization in episode four would have been a more satisfying conclusion, but unfortunately there are too many loose ends left dangling, so the plot must continue on for quite a while afterwards. It’s a pity that there isn’t a little more drama, though overall it doesn’t make the adventure that much less enjoyable. One can see that Douglas Adams hadn’t quite yet got the hang of writing for Doctor Who’s format; of the three cliffhangers, only the conclusion to episode three carries any sort of dramatic weight. The other two seemingly appear out of nowhere, with hardly any build up at all.
Still, the main question is whether the story was entertaining or not. And that is the main thing that The Pirate Planet does well. Whether it’s watching the Doctor claim credit for the discoveries of Isaac Newton, or boggling at the sheer scale of Douglas Adams’ imagination, this adventure does a lot of things right. The dialog is nice and snappy, with Tom Baker’s antics containing more positives than negatives. Even the pieces that don’t make a lot of sense are amusing to watch. The story marches ahead confidently, defying logic or reason. Maybe it’s a matter of style over substance, but Douglas Adams had quite a lot of style. It may be madness, but it’s madness that is hugely entertaining to behold.
The DVD commentary from actor Bruce Purchase and director Bernard Roberts is more restrained than that of Tom Baker and Mary Tamm in the previous serial (The Ribos Operation), but what it lacks in pure entertainment it makes up for in its informative nature. Purchase is particularly amusing — after one of the Pirate Captain’s more explosive outbursts, he quietly asks Roberts if he managed to hear that all right.
The production notes feature on this disc is particularly noteworthy, giving us details about what the original Douglas Adams script was like and how it evolved as it reached the production stage. That initial script certainly seemed to be more Hitchhiker’s Guide based, with little tidbits in it such as Queen Xanxia being sold the time dams by a corrupt and collapsing mega-corporation, and Mr. Fibuli wryly noting near the end that the newest “Golden Age of Prosperity” was occurring mere days after the previous one.
Once again, the Doctor Who DVDs give us picture and sound quality that is far greater than other comparable television discs on the market. Another tradition being kept is the strange desire to feature extremely boring film clip extras. I’m not sure who would be interested in seeing the zombie Mentiads marching and attacking the Captain’s Guards without the aid of special effects, but I suppose someone must be. Of course, these extras (along with the Who’s Who and Photo Gallery) are just that — extras. And they certainly can’t detract from what is a great disc.
