‘Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet’ – Douglas Adams and James Goss (BBC Books)

Page Count: 183 Pages

With the move and associated difficulties to be solved, there hasn’t been an awful lot of reading happening over the last week and a bit; more a case of my finding books, that I really want to read, and piling them up in one of those ‘pile of good intentions’ that, well… We all know how that ends don’t we? 😉 There have been a couple of books that I’ve been able to finish off though and now that I’ve worked out how to turn my phone into a hotspot, I thought it was way past time I got some thoughts down here.

Being all of about three years old at the time, the ‘Key to Time’ series passed me by when it was originally broadcast. I’m sure that one day, I’ll finally get round to watching it (and yep, it’s all on iPlayer now but I’m still refusing to get a TV licence) but for now, it’s the book for me and that’s never a bad thing when you see Douglas Adams’ name on the cover. Let me tell you about it…

The hugely powerful Key to Time has been split into six segments, all of which have been disguised and hidden throughout time and space. Now the even more powerful White Guardian wants the Doctor to find the pieces.

With the first segment successfully retrieved, the Doctor, Romana and K9 trace the second segment of the Key to the planet Calufrax. But when they arrive at exactly the right point in space, they find themselves on exactly the wrong planet - Zanak.

Ruled by the mysterious 'Captain', Zanak is a happy and prosperous planet. Mostly. If the mines run out of valuable minerals and gems then the Captain merely announces a New Golden Age, and they fill up again. It's an economic miracle - so obviously something's very wrong.

I love reading Doctor Who books that have a dash of Adams about them 😊 He seemed to have a real feel for the inherent absurdity of the universe that the Doctor moves through but was also able to tread the fine line between that absurdity and the serious situations that could suddenly arise from it. Kind of like the Doctor himself 😉 All of that can be found in this novelisation of ‘The Pirate Planet’. I’m not sure where the line is drawn in terms of the writing, between Adams and Goss, but the end result remains an engaging piece with a mystery to be solved and a few laughs to be had along the way. At the moment, life is a bit heavy going so finding a book like this was a very welcome surprise.

There is still a feeling that the plot is perhaps a little too linear and straightforward, possibly an inevitable outcome of it reflecting the episodes as shown on TV. I’d say that this is more than balanced out though, not only by the underpinning concept itself (I’m going to have to watch the broadcast story, just to see how they managed some of the larger scale affects) but also by some deft characterisation that hooked me almost without my realising it. I’m talking about the Doctor and Romana in particular and a relationship that is very much in it’s infancy. Both of them are clearly trying to figure each other out and establish a pecking order, it’s a lot closer than you’d think and that’s what keeps things fresh and interesting. ‘The Pirate Planet’ is a very quick read (again, just what I was after) so doesn’t really have much more to say for itself. While you’re in it though, ‘The Pirate Plan’ pulls every trick to keep you engaged, and they all work. Worth a look if you haven’t already read it, I’m off to try and find a copy to watch.