As I noted 2 years ago, when Target
Books ended its run of publishing novelizations of Doctor Who serials in
1990, only seven stories remained unwritten in book format. Three of those
tales were by the legendary Douglas Adams (who spent a year as script
supervisor of the show) and while the writer always planned to eventually get
them out in book format, his death in May of 2001 left their fate up in the
air. While Evil of the Daleks and Power of the Daleks would see a prose version via through Virgin
Books, the publishers who were handing the original Doctor Who novel
line in the 1990s and early 2000s, script editor for the show during the last
few years the original series aired, Eric Saward’s two serials remain unwritten
as novels to this day (Eric Saward asking price to adapt them, along
with the always complex licensing issues the BBC has with Dalek creator Terry
Nation’s estate seems to be the best reasons why). But with the publication of The Pirate Planet, the three stories
the late Douglas Adams wrote now exist in novel format.
You see, Target Books had a long
standing policy that allowed writers of serials to pen novelizations of their
stories for around £600. Some writers took it, and others passed, allowing
novelist like the prolific Terrance Dicks to do the job. But when Douglas Adams
penned The Pirate Planet, the second serial of the sixteenth season of Doctor
Who, the Target Books offered him a chance to adapt it. However, he
declined (probably rightfully so), saying: “I don't want to be embarrassing but
I do have a tendency to be a best-selling author”. Which, of course, translated
as: Target Books would fear other authors would demand a higher paycheck for
adapting their stories, so The Pirate Planet would remain a “lost” book
within their line-up. He would do the same with City of Death and the
unfinished and unaired Shada that would be part of season seventeen of
the series.
The Pirate Planet, the first of
three tales Douglas Adams penned for the show, was his first official sale for
TV, and it came about the same time the BBC was commissioning additional scripts for the audio play version
of what would become Adams legacy, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. But
this story, like many Doctor Who serials, would go through much iteration
before being made.
“Adams brought several ideas to
the table. Predominant amongst these was the notion of a planet which is being
mined by the Time Lords, who use a giant aggression-sapping machine (disguised
as a statue) to pacify the natives. One Time Lord becomes trapped in the statue
and absorbs all the aggression, inducing him to turn against his people. He
causes the mining devices to hollow out the planet and now plans to make it dematerialize
and reform around Gallifrey. Additionally, Adams had conceived a drug addiction
allegory, about a company which preys on people who fear death by offering
machines which can slow time for them -- but at an exorbitant price. The
company goes bankrupt, however, leaving one old lady in need of a source of
fantastic energy. Although none of these concepts were viewed as capable of
supporting a story by themselves, it was agreed that some combination of them
might be more viable. The aggression-draining subplot was dropped (because of
perceived similarities to the Season Fifteen serial The Sun Makers), but Adams
mixed the remaining elements together to produce a very complicated plot (which
may have been titled The Pirates). Nonetheless, (script editor Anthony) Read
was sufficiently happy with the result that he commissioned Adams to develop it
into a full storyline called The Pirate Planet.
“As Adams refined his ideas for The
Pirate Planet, the slow-time subplot became deemphasized. The Time Lords --
who would be appearing in the Season Fifteen finale -- were also excised,
including the villain (whom Adams had envisioned as a Time Lord stuck in the
slow-time field, in the midst of his last regeneration). At the same time, he
came up with idea of the air car; this was a device he could employ to avoid
scenes set in corridors, which he detested. Adams also concocted the Polyphase
Avitron to make the Captain's scenes more interesting.”
The televised plot became: “The
Key to Time tracer points the Doctor and Romana to the cold and boring planet
of Calufrax, but when they arrive they find an unusual civilization that lives
in perpetual prosperity. A strange band of people with mysterious powers known
as the Mentiads (these were changed to the Mourners in the book) are feared by
the society, but the Doctor discovers that they are good people but with an
unknown purpose. He instead fears the Captain, the planet's leader and
benefactor. After meeting the Captain on the bridge he learns that they are
actually on a hollowed-out planet named Zanak, which has been materializing
around other planets to plunder their resources.”
While James Goss was give much access
to the papers of Adams stored at Cambridge for his adaptation of The City Death, there was only limited
amount of notes Adams had on it - then again, that serial was never planned as one of
his scripts). But fortune favored him for The
Pirate Planet, and he found a treasure trove of notes, dialogue and
alternate scenes. So instead of basing his novel on the rehearsal script like
he did with Death, he was able to
adapt The Pirate Planet using Adams
first drafts of serial.
Much like what he did on City of Death, Goss captures
the spirit of Douglas Adams' writing in this novelization. While one still
wonders what Adams could’ve done with these stories had he lived, this new take
on a nearly 40 year-old tale resonates with the original writers ingenious, complex,
and overtly sardonic love of science fiction.
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