Directed by Michael Hart
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Zoe - Wendy Padbury
Main Guest Cast-
Caven - Dudley Foster
Dervish - Brian Peck
General Hermack - Jack May
Madeleine Issigri - Lisa Daniely
Dom Issigri - Esmond Knight
Milo Clancey - Gordon Gostelow
Synopsis-
The Tardis lands on Alpha Four, a space beacon used to help space ships with navigation. The space beacons are being systematically destroyed by space pirates led by the vicious and ruthless Caven and his assistant Dervish. Caven and Dervish then take the remnants of the space beacons and pluder them for their argonite, a precious metal in this age.
The Doctor and his companions are caught in the blast that tears the space beacon apart, which separates them from the Tardis, which is in a separate section. Running out of air, The Doctor makes a desperate attempt to save them by using magnetism to hopefully draw the separate parts together again. This attempt fail and only causes them to drift away from the other part, floating helplessly in space.
The pirates are being pursued by the Earth Space Corps and their ship. The Corps are led by General Hermack. The Corps' ship runs into Milo Clancey's ship as they pursue the pirates. Milo Clancey is an old space hand, and is also in pursuit of the pirates. After questioning Clancey, Hermack lets him go, but decides to have him followed.
Clancey finds the Doctor and his companions and they all proceed to the planet Ta, which is run by Madeleine Issigri and features a argonite mine.
It turns out that Madeleine is being forced to work with Caven, as Caven is holding her father, Dom Issigri, hostage. Caven and his cohorts capture The Doctor, Clancey, Jamie and Zoe and lock them up with Madeleine's father.
The Doctor and his fellow prisoners make good their escape and plan to return to Clancey's ship to escape. Clancey and Dom get on board, but the rocket takes off via remote control before The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are able to join them. Clancey's rocket has been sabotaged by Caven and the oxygen supply is cut off. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe meet up again with Madeleine, and are able to help Clancey to get the oxygen working again.
Caven, his plans falling apart, intends to destroy Ta with a series of bombs. The Doctor defuses the bomb detonator while the Space Corps destroy Caven's ship as it's fleeing the planet. Clancey offers to give The Doctor and his companions a ride to Lobos, where the fragments of the space beacon where sent in an attempt to frame Clancey.
Review-
The Space Pirates marks the end of a dark period in Doctor Who history, as it's the last of the missing stories. Only episode two still exists, the others are still missing.
I really wanted to like the Space Pirates but I really had trouble engaging with the story. It wasn't until the arrival of Gordon Gostelow's Milo Clancey that the story really begins to take off. Once Clancey arrives on the scene, the story begins to pick up and it becomes a much more enjoyable experience. That isn't to say that there still isn't a lot of padding to the story, just that it's much more watchable with Clancey's old timer complaining about everything.
Caven, played by Dudley Foster, is vicious, ruthless and also rather efficient as the leader of the space pirates. He's forced both Madeleine and Dervish to work for him. Dervish fears for his life, and will not hear of starting any sort of resistance to Caven's control of Ta. Madeleine, meanwhile, is a much more reluctant helper and once her father is free from Caven's control, she stops helping the space pirates.
In the end, while I enjoyed the Space Pirates, and particularly the two performances mentioned above, this is simply average Doctor Who and I don't think one would miss too much by completely skipping this story and jumping ahead directly to the War Games, which is what we shall be taking a look at next time.
