Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Space Pirates (BBC TV Soundtrack)

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Story #49 is an average story from the late great Robert Holmes who would become aregular writer for the show as well as a script editor. This is the nest to last story with Patrick Troughton (The Doctor), Frazer Hines (Jamie) and Wendy Padbury (Zoe). The regulars were already busy filming their last story Doctor Who: The War Games (Story 50) and as a result, their appearence in this story is rather light at times. Episode 2 still survives along with inserts for episode 1 in the BBC video vault Doctor Who - Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes - The William Hartnell Years and the Patrick Troughton Years while the rest of this six part story is missing.

The story itself revovles around space pirates blowing up space beacons for "argonite", a space mining company and space cops. I've heard this referred to as "A Space Opera" and that's what it comes of as. The story has interesting ideas but here they really don't seem all that interesting. I know Patrick Troughton had claimed that this was a favourite and maybe it loses something now being audio only. I know Mrs. Holmes has also said that it was one of Bob's favourites. Unfortunately, it doesn't come across as such even though Frazer Hines does his best with narraration.

...although it's not without some flaws. Only Episode 2 of this 1969 "Doctor Who" serial still exists (available on BBC/2Entertain's wonderful "Lost In Time" boxed set), and, granted, it's a bit of snoozer. The pity is that, allegedly, most of the entertainment value with this story stemmed from the visuals and model work, which were apparently among the best of the show's black-and-white era. Sadly, all we're left with here is the dialogue, and that dialogue's a bit hit-or-miss -- and, unfortunately, so's the sound quality of the recordings themselves. Still, it's of some historical interest as the second-ever contribution by longtime "Who" writer Robert Holmes, and the first of his scripts to feature two Holmesian trademarks: humor and some quirky-but-lovable scoundrels (Milo Clancey in this case, although his accent doesn't sound like anything from North America, or, hell, even Earth). A light-hearted cowboy movie told in a space-opera context, "The Space Pirates" suffers from padding and the then-1969 view that realistic space travel meant slow, ponderous journeys in real time. But if you're a fan of Holmes or the Troughton Era, it's absolutely worth a listen. It's not the brightest gem of classic "Who," but it ain't the absolute turkey that many have made it out to be, either.