The Pirate Planet by: James Goss

 

The Pirate Planet was written by James Goss, based on the television story of the same name by Douglas Adams.  It was the 167^th story to be novelized by BBC Books.

 

When James Goss adapted City of Death he had the original scripts and television story to base the novelization on, but for The Pirate Planet there was substantially more material.  The Pirate Planet begun life as The Perfect Planet and in the original storyline, several drafts, and notes that Goss had available were also added material on Adams’ thoughts on the Key to Time and the idea of a Time Lord assistant.  This novelization is not really a novelization of the television story, but an amalgamation of as much material as Goss can fit in and while it shouldn’t work, through the sheer charm of Douglas Adams’ style and wit it does.  It also helps that in putting it in a book, there is the opportunity taken to restore some of the elements which had to be cut for simple budgetary reasons.  As The Pirate Planet follows the plot of the television serial with several expansions, the ending in particular gets expanded to include more special effects as well as added torture sequences of the Doctor and Romana early on.  The climax still involves a spanner in the works, but a lot of the explosions after it and the plot with the Captain and Xanxia don’t just fall apart in the end, there is a final confrontation between the Xanxias to actually kill them off, and the Doctor and Romana nearly destroy the TARDIS in the process.  These additions could not have been done on television without going overbudget or just presenting an impossible scenario.

 

There is also a sequence where the Doctor and Romana have to face their fears as a torture, the Doctor having to face a Dalek and Romana having to face the existential concept of failure.  This torture sequence is perhaps the most humorous making it such a shame that it was lost on television, as the Doctor and Romana have the chance to form a bond.  The Doctor and Romana’s bond while established in Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation, is expanded on, partially by Adams, partially as a Goss original, but all of it fits into how Mary Tamm played the role on television.  Romana is young and doesn’t quite know what to make of the Doctor, this being established as their second adventure, and she decides that she should be attempting to do what he would do in a situation.  This makes her slightly more proactive on television and able to predict that the Doctor will get himself to walk the plank, which she uses to pilot the TARDIS (by the book) to save him.

 

There is also an expansion of the Mentiads, here going by the original name and idea of the Mourners.  Making them the Mourners helps bring to the forefront the themes Adams had been writing with The Pirate Planet, it’s all about responsibility, guilt, and their place in society.  Zanak is a planet where those who attempt to address the guilt of the planet killing other planets are made outcasts, forced to mourn the loss of other planets and people they will never know.  Balaton, the elderly man who on television disappears, is expanded here to represent those who put up blinders to the responsibility of their sins while Pralix and the Mourners take on the responsibility of attempting to make things right.  There is also the added element of the problems of society having a tendency to snowball out of control with time as the time dams around Old Queen Xanxia are failing due to increased power as more and more planets are eaten and destroyed.

 

Overall, while the other two Douglas Adams novelizations worked on a level to expand upon their television counterparts, The Pirate Plaent is one which provides an entirely new experience.  There are several added plot points and depths of character to expand the novel into over 400 pages and the subtle themes of the television story are brought to the forefront as the almost anarchist nature of the story bubbles over here.  Goss brings Adams’ style to life and makes it a must read for not only Doctor Who fans, but also fans of Douglas Adams and science fiction in general. 10/10.