CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO | The Pirate Planet - Part 4 | REACTION

[@Alfwin]

The key segment was the entire planet Calufrax. That's why, in parts 1 and 2 when Calufrax was still under the surface of Zanak, the tracer's signal seemed to point to _everywhere._ It's also why the device that the Captain made from the shrunken planets to free himself from the Queen's control didn't work: his calculations were based on the assumption that Calufrax was a real planet, with planet-like mass, &c. when in fact, it wasn't.

[@sharkdentures3247]

Exactly! Which was a pretty interesting take on the "A segment of the key to time can take ANY shape" - thing. Well, a PLANET IS a "shape" after after all. Also, it's easy to see how she didn't get it. The "direct explanation" was very brief & only happened once (I believe). When they were in the Captain's collection hall & used the Tracer & it (finally) pointed directly to the Compressed remains of Calufrax.

[@D_Rogers]

By Grabthar's hammer, Mr Fibuli, you shall be... avenged! :)

[@joeltasker6956]

Oh and just in case you're still not clear, the planet Calufrax was the second segment. The plan is that the Doctor and Romana will pick up the remains after everything has settled.

[@seedhillbruisermusic7939]

yeah it''s in the script but it's not hugely obvious that the planet calufrax is the 2nd segment of the key.

[@joeltasker6956]

@@seedhillbruisermusic7939 yeah. Hardly a surprise MC didn’t pick up on it. Took me a second viewing.

[@Jamienomore]

I gave this one a 10. With all my Doctor Who DVDs, I wrote the number I gave it onto a little yellow star and slipped it inside the binder covering. That way I could see all my Favourites at a glance. I'm so glad you liked this story.

[@whobp8]

Hmm. Never thought that Mr Fibuli looks like Leo Sayer before, but now I can't unsee it. 🤔

[@joeltasker6956]

I've read and heard a lot of comments about many Doctor Who stories. "Mr Fibuli reminds me of Leo Sayer." is definitely a new one.

[@1nelsondj]

I was thinking he looks like Phil Spector.

[@CountScarlioni]

I think Pirate Planet is the only time the Doctor saves the day by _literally_ putting a spanner in the works! Never thought of Mr Fibuli looking like Leo Sayer before...but now you've said it, yeah I can see it.

[@owenwildish331]

I like it sometimes when characters such as the Mentiads show up as initially appearing to be baddies at first but when the main characters get to meet them they actually turn out to be good guys and help defeat the villains of like in 'Curse of Peladon' we see what had previously been seen an enemy race turn out to be an ally like the Ice Warrior from that story... I often jokingly wondered what it would be like if a Dalek became a companion. I once had an idea for a story where, while at the time a new/old Dalek faction had emerged, taken over and was pretending to have been reformed as part of a long story arc, the Doctor meets a Dalek Ambassador on a planet (who's genuinely good, due to a mutation) & at first The Doctor is suspicious of it but they end up working together as allies while dealing with some Dalek imposters, another idea I had was the Doctor meeting a group of non-hostel, non-typical off-shoot Cybermen (that's split into to two design types), whom the Doctor misunderstands & suspects are behind a series of deaths & disappearances but they turn out to be actually benevolent and are trying to discreetly aid a colony of humans that had crash-landed of their planet, though the humans are being led by a former Earth dictator who's an 'old enemy' of the Doctor which the Doctor hasn't met yet... The Cybermen join forces with the Doctor against a powerful, near-unstoppable ancient evil known as the 'Chao Lords' & their deadly minions, that's starting to invade the Universe, the only way to stall the invasion, (which eventually happens in full at the end the imaged season's conclusion), is for the planet they're on to be destroyed...

[@mudcrab3420]

Still not sure what I actually think of this one. Stuff I really remember - "Mr FIBULI!!!!!!!!", the nurse/Queen (who I remember having a bit of a adolescent 'thing' for the first time around), flying in the air cars. Remember the Captain pushing the glasses back up Mr Fibuli's nose. It is the weird small things that stick. What didn't stick was the plot. Don't get me wrong, this is good high concept stuff and I really wish there was more of it, but my long term memory of this one basically revolved around the base concept of 'Doctor is Clever. Doctor is more clever than bad guys. Explosions. Goodbye Doctor!!! Thank you for saving us!' Then again I was probably still of the age where I liked watching Part 1 of a story where we got all the interesting story telling, and Part 'Last' where the Doctor fixed everything and basically avoiding everything in between cause they would scare the snot out of me :P I think I 'liked' this one, but can't actually explain why.

[@alexfletcher5192]

The bulk of Douglas Adams' sci-fi conceits stayed on radio or in print, where his linguistic imagination could take flight. Listeners to BBC radio that year could be treated to such events as the ancient conflict between the Vl'hurgs and the G'Gugventts (and its tragi-comedic ending) - and, in later years, references to such outlandish-sounding peoples as the Strenuous Garfighters of Stug. It's a universe both strange and surprisingly philosophical.

[@alexfletcher5192]

The key segment was recovered from the time vortex. So what could possibly be madder than all that?

[@johng5859]

Leo Sayer was a big star when this was first shown, so maybe Mr Fibuli modelled his hairstyle on him? I think 8.5 is a very fair rating for the story, it does become more and more interesting after a slow start, and it was a very clever twist to reveal in the final episode that the Captain was really under the control of the evil Queen's reincarnated body. Unfortunately the last few minutes go off the boil a bit, as the final resolution is very technobabble-heavy and a bit unsatisfactory, but overall a strong effort which I think shows Graham Williams' production era at its fun, imaginative best. Bruce Purchase, the New Zealander who plays the Captain, was a good friend of Tom Baker's, and told a funny story about how Tom once persuaded him to exchange his normal Lottery numbers for some "lucky" numbers of Tom's own choosing. It so happened that was the very week that Bruce's normal numbers came up in the draw, so Tom's choices did not prove very "lucky" after all...

[@geoffmason7215]

Mr Fibuli makes MC feel like dancin

[@markdavidson9100]

I remember Andrew Robertson (mr fibuli) from a bbc2 comedy from the 1980s called Colins Sandwich that starred the late great Mel Smith as a British rail administrator aspiring to be a horror writer.

[@rowietappy187]

Not a particular favourite of mine but certainly an enjoyable story that deserves a repeated viewing once in a blue moon. The Captain was by far the star of the show and his Robot parrot. Keeping the Queen secret till the last episode was a fantastic plot twist I never expected when I first watched this. Still overall probably a 7 for me.....

[@Jaime-dd4sw]

This one gets a ten from me for all kinds of sentimental reasons. I also highly highly recommend James Goss's novelization of this story, which was recently published and is simply my favorite Doctor Who novelization. My love of the novelization has only boosted my love of the serial, really driving that score of ten home. At the end of that novelization, in the appendix, Goss talks a lot about the materials the Douglas Adams archive gave him when he began work on the novelization, from scripts to drafts to endless notes and doodles. Some selections from that appendix with amazing details about the process behind this story are: "The Pirate Planet is immaculately structured (Adams even uses quadrant diagrams to illustrate the impacts of various themes on his characters). Just as the Doctor and the Captain are shadows of each other, there are originally three big uses of the TARDIS. Firstly, Romana makes a simple landing by the book. Then she has to make the TARDIS do the impossible to rescue the Doctor, and finally, the Doctor has to outdo even her in order to save the Earth. Responsibility and Guilt are a key theme to Adams’s development of the story. (They even get one of Adams’s quadrant diagrams showing how guilty each group of characters feels.) It’s not just about a cannibal planet - it’s a fable about a world where refusing to face up to past sins brings down society. The Mourners are an unfocused force of guilt, the hidden conscience of the people of Zanak. Adams is clear that the older generations knew, or suspected, the terrible source of their pointless wealth. With each generation, the young are shown as becoming more questioning, more powerful until, finally, Pralix emerges, someone from an innocent generation who can finally use that power to win back the soul of their planet." - Adams, Douglas; Goss, James. Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet (pp. 388-389). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition. "Structurally, Adams works hard at getting Part Four in the right order through the various drafts. In the scripts, much more is made of Xanxia’s tyranny. Of the Nurse’s true identity, the crew are innocent (as much as a bunch of planet-murdering pirates can be), which begs all sorts of questions that Adams does not, for once, answer. He’s rightly more fascinated by the idea of Queen Xanxia, a typical supervillain, being taken in by a sales brochure. There’s so much to explain that in the first draft Mr Fibuli lives to the end, so that he can explain a bit more. . . . The shooting of Queen Xanxia is quite odd. In the first draft she is symbolically shot by Kimus and Mulov. In the first draft, Mulov was Pralix’s brother. He’s shown as practical where Pralix is spiritual. Kimus was always the vaguely hopeless rebel leader, but it is Mulov who does the heavy lifting of actually organising a rebellion. By the rehearsal script, Mulov has become Pralix’s sister Mula, which avoids Zanak having a reproduction-troubling all-male population. Given Mula / Mulov and Kimus’s journeys through Adams’s script - from wanting to do something to leading a rebellion - they’ve earned their shot at the evil Queen. By the time this reaches the screen, however, you may be a bit baffled as to why Kimus fires a gun at her and she just dies. Why has no one else thought of this? And why just Kimus? Poor Mula stands on the side lines. A possible explanation is a copy of the rehearsal draft of the script lodged in the archives. It includes some curious handwritten alterations, clearly by someone with a tin ear for the humour of Douglas Adams. For example, the Doctor’s final speech goes from ‘This is quite a good part of the universe for Zanak to settle in. Reasonable sun, good neighbours, some quite convenient stars…’ to ‘Reasonable sun, good neighbours in the next star system.’ It’s a painful example of the gradual shaping that The Pirate Planet underwent to take it from a brilliant outpouring of ideas to four episodes of broadcastable Doctor Who." - Adams, Douglas; Goss, James. Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet (pp. 391-392). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition. And finally, apparently there was a phase in the draft process where Queen Xanxia was going to be either the Master's daughter, or the Master: "Right from the start of development of The Pirate Planet, Adams is determined on a female villain: ‘…Cleopatra? No. Who is the archetypal spoilt evil woman? (other than Jackie Onassis) Why the Earth? What’s the reason, other than wanting to collect beautiful planets? Nero? But how and why?… We think it’s Nero. In fact…oh blah blah blah. Stop this rubbish. If she’s the Master’s daughter, she is collecting the planets which witnessed his defeat. Because she loved him…or hated him?' The idea continues to evolve, until: 'If she’s going to do Gallifrey instead of the Earth, then why not just say straight out that she’s the Master - no further problems about motive.'" - Adams, Douglas; Goss, James. Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet (pp. 387-388). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[@jkmac625]

My earliest memories of watching Doctor Who are from this Key to Time season. I think 1978 was also the year I started primary school so I would have been 5 when these were originally shown on TV. I remember The Pirate Planet more than the rest of the season but that might be because the BBC repeated this story the following year in July 1979, so I got the chance to see it twice. The scene I remember the most was when they met the old Queen Xanxia. I remember the Captain but not Mary Tamm's Romana.

[@Problembeing]

Glad you liked 🙂

[@alexfletcher5192]

Not for the last time, an apparently uncomplicated larger-than-life personality in a Douglas Adams story turns out to have a more complex inner life than previously suspected (and characters on the side-lines take on greater importance as events unfold). The Captain may be dead, but Bruce Purchase would turn up as another loud warrior-like character in BBC1's other low-budget space opera, 'Blakes 7'. In fact you could probably spend the rest of the year just picking out actors in that series you recognize from this one, as they shared facilities, Directors, and occasionally writers (notably Robert Holmes and Chris Boucher).

[@mudcrab3420]

Also - the Pirate Captain is wearing a PipBoy!!! Fallout/Doctor Who shared universe CONFIRMED!!!!!

[@philippaine2169]

Great reaction as always I’m glad u enjoyed it I love it 😀

[@toddbeilby6484]

8.5/10 is a great score. I’d give this a solid 8. I love the Queen/nurse. And Leo Sayer- I always thought he looked like that. Romana has settled in now. Wonderful observations. 💕

[@jimcat6795]

It’s May now. I can’t stand how fast it goes either!

[@vashna3799]

Every bloke had a leo sayer perm back than

[@crustychris2]

The fact that Douglass Adams wanted the queen to be the master, just shows how ahead of his time that guy was.

[@oldwebshooter]

I don't know if I agree it should have happened when it did. It should have been the R__i to me, a chance to flesh out the character.

[@Adeodatus100]

Clever, witty script with some nice twists, Tom on great form, Mary Tamm obviously enjoying having more to do than she had in The Ribos Operation - PP is a real favourite of mine. Glad you liked it.

[@CRINOTH]

Hey, I'm almost always the quietest person in the room (unless a mime artist were to turn up) - am I secretly a villain? :D I give this story 8/10... It's a bit of a mixed bag of things which do and do not work but it's never less than entertaining. :)

[@Cruithneach]

Who's this fellow Douglas Adams? Has he written anything interesting?

[@zakjaggs9761]

In a previous video u asked for recommendations, I have a few: the revived Battlestar galactica, blakes 7, babylon 5, firefly or buffy

[@garymcgregor5951]

Blake's 7, B5, and Firefly for sure. Also, Red Dwarf!

[@Joey15811]

Thats 99 stories down! The next one is the 100th :P

[@geoffbrundell4685]

I will give it 9/10

[@heatsinker_5517]

Can you turn up the sound of the episode, its very low, thank you.

[@alansmith1989]

I was a bit too `Captivated` by the gorgeous Rosalind Lloyd ❤💕 to properly follow the story at the time! Incidentally, this is the second time in a 4th Doctor story where the `main Villain` turns out to be female. In "Robot" it was `Miss Winters` as superbly played by Patricia Maynard (Dennis Waterman's first wife) The lovely Rosalind is just as effective here - though its almost impossible for me to be objective! 😍

[@themaestrosfolly]

Anyone else think the doll in the corner by the pillow looks like a Mini-Marie-Claire???

[@MarieClaresWorld]

Obviously i look like Belle from beauty and the beast 😁

[@davidbull7210]

It's the doll from the test card. She's in Life on Mars now...😮

[@joecrammond6221]

Trouble with Douglas Adam's script for Pirate Planet was, the scripts were too long and overly complicated, and as usual, the budget wouldn't allow for much of what was planned

[@chrisbrooker7260]

Great reaction. I’d also give this maybe 8.5/10. It’s a good one and this is a really good season. Pleased you like it, gets even better from here too

[@chrisbrooker7260]

And re. Me Fibuli, he loves you more than he can say....

[@stuartwho]

9/10.

[@joshbostock_2040]

I would rate the pirate planet a 7 out of 10 the next story is one of my favourites but that might be because it's one of the earlier stories I watched and in reminds me very much of the earlier Tom Baker stories

[@mark-s]

6/10

[@blakesliberator3197]

6 out of 10 fo me.

[@joestacey6185]

I'm not a fan of Bruce Purchase's acting. He was in an episode of Blake's 7 and he was the same shouty person there. It's not for me. (Have you considered reacting to Blake's 7? Have I mentioned it in the last five minutes? 🙂 ) I've read that Douglas Adams considered making the villain of The Pirate Planet the Master's daughter, or that she was the Master. How I wish either of these ideas had been used!