The Pirate Planet

"The whole ground seems to be littered with jewels."

Writer: James Goss
Format: Novel
Released: January 2017
Series: BBC Novelisations 03

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana I, K9

Synopsis

Aboard the TARDIS: The Doctor, Romana, and K-9 scour the galaxy in search of six seemingly lost pieces of the incredibly powerful Key to Time.

They soon locate a fragment in the outer reaches of the universe on the happy and prosperous planet of Zanak. Once outside, however, they quickly realise they're in the wrong place at exactly the right time.

The planet is entering yet another New Golden Age with enough gems and minerals for every resident. So, obviously, something is very, very wrong.

Verdict

The Pirate Planet was a wonderful novelisation of the televised story of the same name. Now, this was not your normal novelisation and was certainly some way off from being a Target and that's down to its page count alone. At 379 pages, it was a long read but a really great one. Now, I'll admit I don't remember much at all from my only viewing of the TV story six years ago so all of this felt very new but I could tell that there were considerable deviations. The writing style of James Goss was superb and really captured the era of the Fourth Doctor fantastically. Romana, in her first incarnation, is not a companion I have much experience of at all but I thought she was written very well here. She was looking up to the Doctor and wanting to impress him even though she knew she was academically superior. The comments about her wanting to do everything by the book were fantastic. The banter and relationship between her and the Doctor really was excellent throughout. I liked how this book dealt with the task of locating a segment of the Key to Time and with this story focusing on the second segment, the references to The Ribos Operation were neatly placed. It worked very well and I liked the little passage towards the book's conclusion looking at the thoughts of the Guardian. The Doctor's thoughts on the Key to Time itself were good and I liked how he found something so powerful so boring. The characterisation of Tom Baker's fourth incarnation was outstanding and I also thought the writing of K9 was brilliant. The robot dog played a crucial role in the story and it was great to read some of his emotionless thoughts. The passage where he was stuck after exiting the air-car was a joy to read. The Captain made a tremendous villain and his continuous references to seemingly all kinds of gods when exclaiming something and promising something were great. I thought his story was quite a shock though as it turned out he wasn't the bad after all, even if he was a pirate. He was being controlled, quite horrifically, by Queen Xanxia. Her true form being suspended between the Time Dams was intriguing and her attempt at making her projection become corporeal was quite unique. She was burning through planets to power her new body and the Doctor would have none of that. The cliffhanger at the end of part three, which the book was still nicely split into, was sublime and it really did make me want to read the next part straight away. The thoughts of the Doctor as he was falling and the fact that he got bored on his way to the centre of the planet was terrific. Romana now had her time to shine and she did excellently, not that the Doctor would tell her though. Mula and Kimus were lovely characters and I thought the early passages with Pralix and Balaton were quite emotional with them having very different reactions to the proclamation of a New Golden Age of Prosperity. That whole concept really was quite preposterous and the way the Mourners helped reveal that the planet's inhabitants got rich by devouring worlds was very good indeed. Realising that must have brought an incredible amount of guilt. The TARDIS being used to defeat Zanak and send the planet into the Vortex was superb and the tension on the pages when it seemed like the shield-less TARDIS may explode was excellent writing. I also loved how the Fault Locator showed that the Fault Locator was broken for Romana. That was a wonderful moment. Mr Fibuli was a tremendous character and I was quite gutted he didn't survive to the end of the book after so many near escapes. The Polyphase Avatron was an interesting robot and the battle with K9 was good. I thought the conclusion was very good and excellently paced and after a considerable build, there was a rewarding result. Xanxia perished and the Doctor and Romana also managed to save Zanak by filling its core with the surviving remnants of the other planets. There would be no more Golden Age of Prosperity. The whole planet of Calufrax turning out to be the segment of the Key to Time made sense and wasn't too much of a surprise but I liked how the Doctor couldn't quite work it out. I thought the Epilogue with the Doctor and Romana visiting Calufrax before Zanak arrived was a touching way to end what was quite an eventful novelisation! Overall, a stunning read.

Rating: 9/10