Quotes
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"Attention all personnel. This is General Hermack. Your V-ship is now fifty days and many billions of miles out from Earth. You're entering the fourth sector of our galaxy. In this sector for some time now, Earth Government has been aware that a highly organised gang of criminals have been roaming the space ways, and preying upon defenceless cargo ships. The main target of these criminals is argonite, the most valuable mineral known to man and so far only found on the planets of the Fourth Sector. A government space beacon marking the approaches to the planet New Sarum has ceased transmitting its navigation signal. These beacons, as you know, are constructed of argonite. It is my belief that the criminals are attacking the government navigation beacons and plundering the argonite. There can be no other explanation for its failure. This being the case, I have decided to abandon our present mission and to investigate the missing beacon in the New Sarum sector. I want all section commanders on the bridge at twenty hundred hours sector four solar time. Resume normal duties until then." ~ General HermackHermack: Yes. They're very well organised. They cut the beacon into several manageable pieces by means of scissor charges, then shoot the bits off to some pre-arranged collection point. Very clever.
Warne: And quick. It cuts down the time they're at risk. And they just burn out the Argonite at their leisure.
Hermack: Ian, we shall have to rethink our tactics. We shall never catch them by normal patrol methods.
Hermack: They understand they have to shoot on sight?
Warne: Yes, sir, I told them. No, anybody poking their nose aboard Alpha Four will find plenty of trouble waiting for him.
Jamie: Yeah. Well I think we'd better get out of here before somebody catches us.
Zoe: Good idea. There's a door here.
Jamie: No, Zoe. I meant in the Tardis.
The 2nd Doctor: Jamie, stop worrying. There's obviously nobody here.
The 2nd Doctor: There's only one thing we can do.
Zoe: What?
The 2nd Doctor: Run!
Jamie: Well, maybe next time you'll listen to me.
Zoe: If there is a next time.
Hermack: Well, these old mining prospectors like Clancey were the first men to go out into deep space. For a time they had the place to themselves, roaming the spaceways, looking for planets, jumping each other's claims. They were a wild breed, Ian, and they learned to live without the law.
Ian: And then the Space Corps came along and started to enforce law and order, right?
Hermack: Yes, much to their resentment. Clancey must be the last of the type.
Jamie: Well, what's on the other side? Could you see?
The 2nd Doctor: Jamie, I'm afraid that there's nothing on the other side. Just space. It appears that this machine we're on has been blown into about eight separate pieces.
Zoe: Are you sure?
The 2nd Doctor: Well, of course I'm sure. Get up and look for yourself if you don't believe me.
The 2nd Doctor: A mile in space, Jamie, with no oxygen or means of propulsion.
Zoe: It might just as well be a thousand miles.
Jamie: Oh, that's just fine then.
Jamie: Oh, what's he doing now?
Zoe: I've no idea. Ask him.
Jamie: Oh, what's the use? He's got his mysterious face on.
The 2nd Doctor: Well, I've got a screwdriver.
Jamie: Oh.
The 2nd Doctor: And I've got a slight knowledge of electromagnetism.
Zoe: Well, if it's similar, your idea won't work, will it? We'll just shoot off in the opposite direction.
The 2nd Doctor: Zoe, don't be such a pessimist.
The 2nd Doctor: Ah! No! I'm stuck. The power's too great.
Jamie: Well, isn't it working?
Zoe: Oh yes, it's working all right, but the wrong way! We're being sucked further into space!
Milo: Now come on, now. If you don't answer my questions, I'm going to have to start getting tough with you!
The 2nd Doctor: Look, I think he's just stunned, Zoe. Now, look here, my man, I will not be threatened in this bullying manner! Do you understand?
Milo: Oh, no. A boy, a girl and a nut case. You can't be the pirates.
The 2nd Doctor: Not so much on it as...
Zoe: In it.
Milo: What, inside? Now how could you be doing that? Look, that is not possible.
Jamie: Anything's possible in the Tardis, especially when he's at the controls.
Zoe: Have you ever heard of argonite, Doctor?
The 2nd Doctor: Well, from what Mister Clancey was saying, I imagine it's a metal that's used in the construction of spacecraft. Am I right?
Milo: Argonite is used for, well, it's used for practically everything. It's ductile, it's tensile, it's heat-proof, it's practically indestructible.
Milo: Well, if that doesn't beat jumping grasshoppers. You mean to say you travel around in time as well as space?
The 2nd Doctor: Well, yes, yes. You've grasped the principle very well.
Milo: Hey, hey! That must be a mighty interesting thing to do.
Zoe: This was the position of our bit of beacon when Milo first saw us. I got the figures from the computer.
The 2nd Doctor: Oh yes.
Zoe: And this was our position eight minutes later when he docked along side.
The 2nd Doctor: Yes, circle fourteen. Yes, go on.
Zoe: Well, from this data it was simple enough to work out our original position and course. Do you see?
The 2nd Doctor: Yes, except that after my little experiment, we veered rather violently off that course.
The 2nd Doctor: All right. All right, but if the Tardis has landed here we'll have to find it anyway. Come on, you two, but for heaven's sake don't make a noise on the ladder.
(Jamie falls over something.)
Zoe: Jamie!
Jamie: We're not on the ladder yet, are we.
The 2nd Doctor: There's a hidden door. The problem of course, is going to be finding it.
Sorba: There's no door, believe me. You're only wasting your time.
The 2nd Doctor: No, no, no, no. There's obviously a less painful way of getting in here so there must be a way of getting out.
Jamie: Oh now, wait a minute, what's an audio lock?
The 2nd Doctor: Well, they were used on safes, Jamie. Combination locks became a little too easy to open when burglars took to taking miniature computers with them on their expeditions. Now I have my tuning forks here somewhere.
Zoe: What are you going to do with a tuning fork?
The 2nd Doctor: I usually carry them with. Ah, yes. Here we are, now then, get these sorted out. Right.
Jamie: Which end did he land on when you fell down that shaft?
Milo: If that don't beat jumping grasshoppers. You listen to me, you three sourpusses. You're only in this pickle now because you did the very thing I told you not to do. You went wandering off into these mine workings. I've had a whale of a time trying to find you, and if you want to get out of here alive, Milo Clancey is the only person who can show you the way. Now, you either come with me, or am I going to leave you here to rot?
The 2nd Doctor: Well, well, well, yes, yes, if you put it that way.
Milo: Well, I thought Madeleine blamed me for her father's death. Poor old Dom. He just disappeared. Years ago now. I wasn't even here at the time. And then all this piracy started and Madeleine started to find argonite in workings that Dom and I had abandoned years ago. Well, it all seemed to fit together somehow.
Zoe: Yes, well, it fits together a bit too well, if you ask me. Aren't we jumping out of the frying pan into the fire?
Milo: No! No! When I followed you down that shaft I recognised the leader of these pirates. He's a murderous criminal called Maurice Caven.
Milo: It's an old power distributor box, I think. We got one on every level.
The 2nd Doctor: Really? Oh. Well, I wonder if it's connected up? Oh!
Zoe: Yes, it's connected.
Jamie: Candles?
Milo: Yeah.
Jamie: In this day and age?
Milo: Or an oil lamp or something. Hey boy, look in that cupboard, you might find something. Yeah, yeah. He was an old-fashioned romantic old critter, was old Dom. He brought all this furniture, he brought all them books and everything from Earth, you know.
Caven: Don't worry. The Space Corp won't get a word out of Clancey, or those friends of his.
Madeline: No! I will not be party to murder. When all this started it was going to be a salvage operation. Space flotsam, you said. But then piracy and now murder?
Madeline: Where are those prisoners?
Guard: Safe and sound.
Madeline: In there? What are they doing in there? That is my father's study! I gave orders for that door to be kept locked!
Madeline: Oh, but my father's dead!
Caven: He's alive. As you can perhaps see from this photograph taken only a few weeks ago. I thought I might need a lever to help you to co-operate.
Madeline: Where is he?
Caven: In his study, where else? When you ordered that room to be kept locked, I thought it'd be the safest place to put him.
Madeline: You? Let me through! What have you done with my father? Let me see him! Let me see him. Please let me...
Caven: Before we get that far, let's talk about how you're going to help me, shall we? Because that's much more important.
Jamie: It's not an audio lock, is it?
The 2nd Doctor: No, Jamie, it isn't.
Jamie: Ah, that's a relief.
The 2nd Doctor: Jamie, I think you don't appreciate all I do for you.
Jamie: What's that?
Zoe: The rocket! The Doctor's going without us!
Jamie: He wouldn't do!
Zoe: Oh, now steady, Doctor.
The 2nd Doctor: It's all right, Zoe. I'll be all right if you don't fuss me. Come along.
Jamie: Then who's going to get us out of here?
The 2nd Doctor: There's only one man who can, Jamie. Milo.
Zoe: But the Liz is still jammed on remote control.
The 2nd Doctor: I know, I know, but we shall free it.
Jamie: You hope.
Zoe: Oh, Doctor, hurry!
Milo: Land sakes alive, girl, he's got to find the right one. He'll blow us all to bits if he moves the wrong wire.
Jamie: Oh no, not the Liz again. Frankly, I'd rather walk.
Milo: You what?
The 2nd Doctor: You never know. You might have to.
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Trivia
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The Space Pirates is notable for being the first serial that John Nathan-Turn was employed by the Doctor Who production office for. He worked in a minor and uncredited role as a floor assistant (as John Turner).
Episode one was also the last Doctor Who episode to be filmed at Lime Grove Studios. Doctor Who moved to BBC Television Centre for Episode 2, which became more or less its permanent home.
Script writer Robert Holmes originally envisioned "The Space Pirates" as a four-part story. This was Holmes second script for Doctor Who, his first was "The Krotons"
Holmes' script was an attempt at creating a "science fiction western". Clear allusions were evident to western character types as were being seen at the time in Britain on American imports like Gunsmoke. Holmes provided archetypes like "the lawman", "the deputy", "the pioneer", "the miner" and "the female businesswoman", amongst others. Indeed, the character of Milo Clancey wasn't even an allusion to a western stereotype; he was a wildcat prospector who dressed as if he'd just walked off the set of Bonanza.
The visual effects were somewhat unique for Doctor Who. They realistically depicted space as starless at short range, perhaps informed by the then-daily glimpses of starless space in press coverage of the Apollo 11 launch.
Episode two was thought lost until 1998, when it was discovered in the collection of an amateur video enthusiast. The episode is the earliest known existing off-air domestic videotape recording of an episode of Doctor Who.
The BBC deemed Episode two "historically significant" as it was a studio show that was unusually recorded on 35mm film at TC4, one of the premiere studios at Television Centre.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe only appear in pre-filmed inserts in Part 6, as Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury were filming The War Games. A common criticism of this serial is how little the regulars affect the main plot.
This is the most recent story from which episodes are still missing in their entirety. A number of later Pertwee episodes are missing in that their original 2" quad tapes were wiped, but copies exist. Episode 6 of Pirates is the last episode of Doctor Who to be completely missing. Episode 2 is available on the Lost Years DVD. Loose Cannon Productions did the reconstruction on the remaining episodes.
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Links (Watch on DailyMotion.com)
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Doctor Who: Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes, The Patrick Troughton Years 1966-1969 DVD is available from Amazon.com
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