The Space Pirates Episode Three

The one where the Doctor's party teams up with Milo Clancey...

Not very much happens in this episode. Basically, the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie hitch a ride with Milo Clancey in an effort to track down the TARDIS, and that's about it. Other people have scenes and things to say, but as far as advancing the plot goes (what plot there is), it's severely lacking in incident.

I find Season 6 so frustrating. It's probably the weakest Troughton run, but it's also the one that we can see most of (seven of the 44 episodes are missing, compared to Season 5's 18 of 40 and Season 4's 33 of 43), which makes it disproportionately representative of the era. Season 5 is far more typical of what the Troughton era was like, and by this last run of stories, it feels like it's running on empty. There's an air of desperation about certain stories (The Dominators, The Krotons), and while there are pockets of inspiration (The Mind Robber), on the whole, the season just feels a bit of a mess. The quality definitely dropped, and Patrick Troughton in particular seems less engaged and happier to breeze through things just to get to the end of the episode. Season 6 is not definitive or typical Troughton, and The Space Pirates is probably the nadir.

How can you have 25 minutes of space adventure with nothing actually happening? It's pretty unforgivable really, although I do recognise the pressure the production team was under to just get anything on screen at the time!

Anyway, what can I say about the episode? Well, I'm a bit nonplussed by General Hermack's almost obsessive pursuit of Milo Clancey. For some reason Hermack is convinced Clancey is responsible for the piracy of argonite that's been going on, but he has next to no evidence, so when he finally does catch up with him and arrests him, the trial on his home planet might be pretty short and sweet (I'm assuming Clancey is innocent, you see!). Hermack also wants to destroy the LIZ-79. He's loopy!

I do love Milo Clancey, it's such a charming performance from Gordon Gostelow. I like the little hiccup-laugh he has, a lovely little characterisation. He has a great way with words too (Robert Holmes sharpening his pencil for better characters in the future), describing our heroes as "a boy, a girl and a nutcase", and when Zoe says there's only one thing she doesn't understand, he replies: "Well, you're very lucky, girl. There's about a hundred thousand things I don't understand, but I don't stand around asking fool questions about them, I do something useful. Why don't you do something useful? Why don't you make us all a pot of tea or something?"

I'm suspicious of Madeleine Issigri, there's something about her that I don't trust. In episode 2 Lisa Daniely's performance led me to wonder if she was telling the truth about everything (there's a very telling turn to camera with a smirk), and her insistence that Milo Clancey is innocent in the face of Hermack's determination to arrest him seems incongruous, especially as Clancey and her late father Dom were sworn enemies. She's also got a model of a Beta Dart in her office, and when Hermack notices this, she admits she recently bought two of the new ships. Now, we know that Caven's space pirates are using Beta Darts...

The episode ends with the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie falling into a crevice in the labrynthine tunnels beneath Ta, chased by Caven and his powerful arc lamp. Not the most exciting of cliffhangers, but then I wasn't really expecting one!

First broadcast: March 22nd, 1969

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Gordon Gostelow continues to charm as Milo Clancey.
The Bad: The pedestrian plotting. When will the story kick in properly? We're half way through already!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Four; Episode Five; Episode Six

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-space-pirates.html

The Space Pirates soundtrack is available on BBC CD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Pirates-Frazier-Hines/dp/0563535059.