5B4 - The Pirate Planet 4

Douglas Adams's great strengths in his writing are both his use of humour and his limitless imagination. Amazingly, the budget on Doctor Who just managed to realize Adams's vast visions without embarrassing the production crew too much, and the humour was more than ably delivered by the likes of Tom Baker and Bruce Purchase.

However, the final five minutes is a remarkable blur of scientific gobbledygook that is frantically explained to Romana (successfully, it would appear) before the bridge is blown up in a very satisfying visual effects explosion. The sheer volume of ideas that Adams crams into the script is almost staggering, as noted by the fact that all four episodes exceed their preferred 24:30 duration by at least a minute each. Those extra minutes are chock full of pure technobabble, but given Adams's background, you almost half believe it...

The Pirate Planet is a jolly romp, but it's also evident that the Key to Time theme was thrust upon it well after the first draft had been written, as the fact that Calufrax is one of the segments of the Key is barely mentioned, and never is it vital to the plot of the story. Still, if anything, The Pirate Planet opened the eyes of the world to one of history's greatest writing talents.