The Pirate Planet (TV story): Difference between revisions

== Worldbuilding ==

* [[Anthony Read]] remarked in the [[DVD]] commentary that he undertook most of the producing duties for this serial as [[Graham Williams]] was recovering from a broken leg suffered during a holiday in Madeira, [[Portugal]].

* The name "Bantraginus V" is likely a reference to "{{iw|hitchhikers|Santraginus V}}", the home for one of the key ingredients in the {{iw|hitchhikers|Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster}} in [[Douglas Adams]]' ''[[doctorwho:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (series)|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''.

* [[Douglas Adams]] toyed with the notion of the segment being [[Atlantic Ocean|the Atlantic Ocean]], or [[The Sun|the Earth's Sun]] or [[The Moon|Moon]]. However, his preference was for the segment to be revealed as the continent of [[Africa]]. To explain how a substitute Africa could be created, Adams developed the ancient intergalactic terraformers called the Forges of Bethsalamin; these ideas would later find their way into ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy]'' instead. Adams also suggested that the segment be a person. This idea would later be used for ''[[The Armageddon Factor (TV story)|The Armageddon Factor]]''.

* [[Douglas Adams]] suggested that the Doctor would find the segment of the Key To Time in the story's opening minutes, disguised as a piece of rubbish. He would conceal this knowledge from Romana, since he could then use the search for the segment as an excuse to investigate a mystery. The bulk of the story then dealt with the Doctor trying to discover the origin of a new set of moons in orbit around the planet Jetral. He would learn that the Time Lords had once come to Jetral to mine a rare time crystal, and erected a giant totem which drained the aggression from its militant population, leaving them absurdly placid. However, the Time Lord Malchios, who had been despatched to deactivate the totem after the conclusion of the mining operation, instead became trapped within the mechanism. Over millennia, all of Jetral's malign emotions were absorbed into Malchios, and he was transformed into a psychopath bent on revenge against his people. Malchios used the mining equipment to hollow out Jetral -- with the slag forming the additional moons -- and used his amassed time crystals to turn the planet into a TARDIS. Malchios planned to materialise it around Gallifrey, allowing him to harness the power of the Time Lords and take over the universe. The Doctor used his own TARDIS to arrive in Gallifreyan airspace at the same time as Jetral, foiling Malchios' plans. Romana destroyed the travel mechanism, while the Doctor severed Malchios' link to the totem, ending his life.

* [[Douglas Adams]] considered making the Captain either the Admiral or the Skipper.

* Originally, the Captain had been exiled by the Time Lords to another universe, and was planning to return to the regular universe by teleporting an entire planet.

* Queen Xanxia was originally named Ixoxaxox.

* The character that became Xania was originally a nurse who served the Captain who would turn out to be [[The Master]]'s daughter. Adams then considered making her a female incarnation of the Master. He also considered the notion that the eponymous planet Zanak would be preying on worlds which had witnessed the Master's worst defeats.

* Pralix's parents were originally Balaton and Kimus, and his friends were Mulov and Torrel. Balaton then became his grandfather and Kimus his brother, while Torrel was dropped. Finally, Mulov and Kimus' names were interchanged. Mulov became Mula due to [[Pennant Roberts]] wanting to include more female characters.

* [[Douglas Adams]] intended to introduce a new TARDIS control room at the end of the story that would take the form of a conservatory looking onto manicured gardens, with the console resembling a sundial.

* Xania's reliance on the time dams to stave off her mortality was devised as an allegory for drug addiction, although its prominence was later diminished.

* The Doctor was originally going to be imprisoned in the Captain's torture chamber where he would have been subjected to horrifying visions, including a [[Dalek]].

* [[Douglas Adams]] got the idea of the Polyphase Avitron from his brother-in-law.

* The Mentiads were originally called the Mourners.

* During production, a dispute arose as to who was responsible for the operation of a caption scanner, and the resulting delays cascaded through the entire block.

* The Polyphase Avitron prop was stolen one night; fortunately, it was discovered hidden in a skip the following morning, averting further impact on the shooting schedule.

* [[Vi Delmar]] agreed to remove her false teeth for her role as the methuselan Xanxia -- but only after negotiating an extra fee.

* The second segment of the Key to Time was originally an ordinary item, like a drinking cup. Then it was a sacred jewel of Calufrax called the Janthras Stone.

* In a memo, [[Graeme MacDonald]] delivered a harshly critical verdict on the script. He disliked the humourous bent and felt that it squandered Romana's potential. He suggested abandoning the serial altogether. [[Anthony Read]] and [[Pennant Roberts]] argued that there was insufficient time to develop replacement scripts, because the interconnectedness of the Key To Time arc made it virtually impossible to rearrange the season's recording order. With just six weeks remaining before production was due to start, MacDonald relented.

* [[Louise Jameson]] visited the set to see [[Pennant Roberts]] and [[Mary Tamm]].

* At the beginning of part 2 when K9 describes the Mentiads' psychokinetic blast as having a peak level of 5347.2 the Doctor repeats the value as 543.72