The Pirate Planet - Episode 1

This is quite an interesting story because it’s the first to be written by Douglas Adams. Adams is perhaps the second most famous writer in Doctor Who history. He is perhaps most famous for writing the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. First thing I have to say is that its not one of my favourite Doctor Who stories but maybe things will change over the course of the next four days. The opening scene is quite good. The models are quite impressive if not a little bit crude. We have to wait a while before we see the Captain’s face. He quite an impatient person as he shouts at Mr Fibbiley for being 30 seconds late which is enough to get him a scalding.

The first scene between the Doctor and Romana is intriguing because it does feel like their relationship has mellowed (just a little bit). There is a little bit of action put into to hide the fact that Tom Baker had a dog bit on his lip. It’s quite a clever little addition. There’s a nice bit of mystery when there is difficulty with the Doctor trying to land the TARDIS on Calufrax. Romana tries to land the TARDIS after the Doctor’s failed attempt and the Doctor concludes that Romana has landed on the wrong planet.

The planet that the Doctor and Romana have arrived on is filled with diamonds and jewels which is something that is quite unusual. The scenes in the ‘square’ are quite fun because the Doctor is being ignored by people and Romana is the one that gets the answers. K9 even comes up with a funny line by suggesting that Romana is prettier. If Douglas Adams can get K9 to be funny then there is hope for the rest of the story.

There are mentiads who come across as a sort of hippie group who are suppose to be quite powerful but all they seem to do in this episode is deflect some shots and also overpower the Doctor. The thing about that Mentiads as well is that they look rather silly and its hard to take them seriously and the pale make up used also doesn’t help. This isn’t a terrible opening episode. There is certainly a nice amount of mystery in it and there is something about it that makes me look forward to the rest of the story but I would be lying if I said that my opinion had changed due to watching this episode. I don’t know if things will pick up but I think that the Douglas Adams humour could have started a bit earlier than it seems to have done.