The Space Pirates (TV story)

The Space Pirates was the sixth story in the sixth season of Doctor Who. It was the last story made under the reign of producer Peter Bryant, and the first to employ John Nathan-Turner, albeit in a minor and uncredited capacity.

Not to be confused with other similarly-titled things.

Synopsis

The TARDIS materialises in Earth's future on a space beacon just before it is attacked by pirates. The travellers find themselves trapped in a sealed section of the beacon as it is blown apart and flown to where the pirates will plunder it of the precious mineral argonite. They then witness a conflict between the pirates and the Interstellar Space Corps, led by General Hermack and Major Warne.

The ISC are convinced that the pirates' mastermind is an innocent yet eccentric space mining pioneer named Milo Clancey, while their true leader is a man named Caven. Caven has a secret base on the planet Ta and is assisted by Madeleine Issigri, daughter of his ex-partner Dom, who - unknown to her - is now his captive.

When Madeleine discovers Caven's full treachery she helps to bring him to justice. The time travellers are given a lift back to the TARDIS by Clancey in his rickety old ship, the LIZ 79.

Plot

Episode One

File:TSP 0-01.jpg

Dervish (l) and Caven

Space beacons on the space lanes are being blown up and plundered for precious argonite by a gang of space pirates led by Caven and his associate Dervish. The Earth Space Corps cruiser V-41 notices the destruction of the beacon and, with General Hermack and Major Warne in charge, sets out to apprehend the pirates. Another beacon is destroyed despite their best intentions, and the fragments are stolen using rocket propulsion. Hermack deploys troops to all nearby beacons to prevent another robbery.

The TARDIS crew has arrived on Beacon Alpha Four shortly before the pirates reach it. Caven and his men mop up the security force on the beacon, and the pirates seal the time travellers in part of the beacon before blowing it to pieces.

Episode Two

The Doctor considers the dangerous position he, Jamie and Zoe are in onboard a segment of Beacon Alpha Four

Fortunately the beacon falls into discrete, sealed pieces and the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves inside one. The Doctor attempts to use the compartment's magnetics to attract the next segment, but sends their segment hurtling off into space instead.

The eccentric Milo Clancey, in his aged ship the LIZ-79, is discovered in the vicinity by the V-41 crew. Clancey is brought onboard by General Hermack, questioned, and released (although Major Warne disapproves). Hermack explains that he suspects Clancey and places his spacecraft under observation.

The nearest inhabited world is Ta, dominated by the Issigri Mining Corporation, whose leader is Madeleine Issigri. The firm was founded by her father and Clancey, and the latter is now suspected of Dom Issigri’s murder although nothing has been proved. Hermack visits Ta, believing that Clancey, whom he suspects of being the pirate leader, will end up there in due course.

Meanwhile, Clancey has found the segment with the TARDIS crew and upon entering, shoots Jamie!

Episode Three

Clancey has just stunned Jamie; he rescues them from the station segment, deploying copper needles which immobilise Major Warne's ship. Zoe works out where the space pirates went: the planet Ta, where Clancey wishes to hide under the nose of Madeleine Issigri. Pirate leader Caven orders his subordinate Dervish to route the space station segments to Lobos, where Clancey's headquarters is located, to throw suspicion on him. Once on Ta the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe leave the ship but are chased by pirate guards and end up falling down a chasm.

Episode Four

The Tardis crew find the injured Lt Sorba, seized from station Alpha 4. General Hermack retrieves Major Warne and they pursue a Beta Dart used by the pirates. The Doctor opens the audio lock on the door of the cell they fell into. They find Clancey and escape to Madeleine Issigri's office, telling her of the pirates on Ta, but when Caven enters killing Sorba they realise she's in league with them.

Episode Five

The Doctor, his friends, and Clancey are flung into an old fashioned study by Caven. Inside they find Dom Issigri, Madeleine's father, who Caven has been holding prisoner. Caven sabotages Clancey's ship and fits it with a remote control device. Madeleine Issigri, finding that Caven intends to kill the prisoners, calls General Hermack for help in dealing with the pirates, but Caven coerces her into keeping quiet when he reveals he has her father. The Doctor, Clancey, Dom Issigri, Jamie, and Zoe escape, but the Doctor is separated from his friends and is caught in the blast as Clancey takes off.

Episode Six

Jamie and Zoe escape their guards and find the Doctor. Milo Clancey and Dom Issigri are trapped on Clancey's ship which is out of their control with a diminishing oxygen supply. Caven has Dervish booby trap the Issigri base by setting demolition charges in the atomic fuel store before they leave. The Doctor reactivates the oxygen supply on Clancey's ship and instructs Clancey in how to disconnect the remote control. Reaching a safe distance the pirates send the signal to detonate the explosives, but the Doctor has successfully removed the detonator, preventing an explosion. Major Warne in a Minnow tracks the pirates' Beta Dart and destroys it. Madeleine is taken to Earth to stand trial in her part in proceedings while Milo Clancey offers to take the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe to Lobos to retrieve the orbiting space station fragment containing the Tardis.

Cast

Crew

Assistant Floor Manager - Liam Foster
Costumes - Nicholas Bullen
Designer - Ian Watson
Film Cameraman - Peter Hall
Film Editor - Martyn Day
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Sylvia James, Sallie Evans
Producer - Peter Bryant
Production Assistant - Snowy Lidiard-White
Script Editor - Derrick Sherwin
Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
Studio Lighting - Peter Winn
Studio Sound - David Hughes
Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
Title Music - Ron Grainer
Visual Effects - John Wood

Uncredited, Mary Thomas provided the vocals that accompanied Dudley Simpson's music in this serial.

References

Argonite, a metal, is the most valuable mineral known to man, and is only found on certain planets of the fourth sector of Earth's galaxy, including Ta in the Pliny system.
Argonite is practically indestructible, and a black market exists for it on Ruta Magnum.
The Second Doctor carries drawing-pins around with him.

Story notes

Only Episode 2 of this story survives intact in the BBC archives, though one film clip exists from Episode 1. This is the most recent story from which episodes are still missing (although some Jon Pertwee-era episodes only exist in black and white, none are technically lost).
Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury appear only in pre-filmed inserts in Episode Six as they all were away on location for The War Games. This thus became the only sixties episode apart from Mission to the Unknown to have none of the regulars present for a studio recording.
More than a decade before becoming the producer of Doctor Who, John Nathan-Turner had his first exposure to the series working as a floor assistant during production at Lime Grove Studios.
The story title, episode number, and writer's caption credits for each episode are shown in black against a white background following (except in Episode 1's case) the reprise from the previous episode.

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Ratings

Episode 1 - 5.8 million viewers
Episode 2 - 6.8 million viewers
Episode 3 - 6.4 million viewers
Episode 4 - 5.8 million viewers
Episode 5 - 5.5 million viewers
Episode 6 - 5.3 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

Lime Grove Studios, Studio D, Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith and Fulham
BBC Television Centre, Studio 4, Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith and Fulham
Ealing Studios, Stage 2, Ealing Green, Ealing

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

In the cliffhanger to episode three the screams of the Doctor and the others can be heard for ages: in the next episode they've only fallen a few feet.

Continuity

Zoe does not know how candles work. However, in DW: The Mind Robber she recognised them without hesitation. This may be due to the events of that story occurring in such a way that the TARDIS crew were left with minimal or unclear memories of them.

Timeline

This story occurs after CC: The Memory Cheats
This story occurs before MA: The Menagerie

Home video and audio releases

The surviving episode (episode 2) was released on the Troughton Years video.
Episode 2 was reissued on the Lost in Time DVD, together with film footage from Episode 1.
- Editing of the surviving episodes DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.
  
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