'The Pirate Planet' (4 Parts) Story Code '5B' by Douglas Adams

In the search for the second segment of the Key to Time, the tracer leads the Doctor and Romana to the planet Calufrax. After a difficult landing, the Doctor realises that they are not on Calufrax at all, but are in fact on Zanak, a planet that has been hollowed out and fitted with engines capable of travelling through the space / time vortex. Zanak is controlled by the Captain, a piratical madman with a half-human / half-machine body following a near-fatal crash. Together with his henchman, Mr Fibuli, and his attendant nurse, the Captain uses Zanak to materialise around planets such as Calufrax, draining them of their energy and mineral wealth and then displaying the remaining shrunken husks inside his trophy room, where they are held in check by gravitational forces. The Doctor and Romana ally themselves with the Mentiads, a race of telepaths that have recently began to develop from the population of Zanak. The Doctor organises an attack on the Captain's control Bridge, but is captured; he discovers that the real power on Zanak is not the Captain, but is in fact Queen Xanxia, the original ruler of Zanak; the Capatin's nurse is a projection of the Queen, whose real body is being sustained with the use of the time dams and the pillaged energy until such a time as her younger body stabilises. On hearing that the next planet to be devoured is Earth, the Doctor and the Mentiads attempt to stop the jump. Discovering that he is nothing but the Queen's puppet, the Captain attempts to revolt against her, but is killed. Using their telepathy, the Mentiads sabotage the planet's engines, cutting Xanxia off from her supplying energy forces, and she is then shot by a rebel. The Doctor realises that the husk of Calufrax is actually the second segment, and he arranges for the trophies to be dropped into a space / time vortex created by the TARDIS, enabling him to collect the next part of the Key.

Tom Baker (Doctor Who), Mary Tamm (Romana), John Leeson (Voice of K9), Bruce Purchase (Captain), Andrew Robertson (Mr Fibuli), Ralph Michael (Balaton), David Sibley (Pralix), David Warwick (Kimus), Primi Townsend (Mula), Clive Bennett (Citizen), Bernard Finch (Mentiad), Adam Kurakin (Guard), Rosalind Lloyd (Nurse)

Produced by Graham Williams
Directed by Graham Williams

TX:
Part 1 - 30th September, 1978 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 2 - 7th October, 1978 @ 6.20pm - 6.45pm
Part 3 - 14th October, 1978 @ 6.30pm - 6.55pm
Part 4 - 21st October, 1978 @ 6.20pm - 6.45pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor, the First Romana, and K-9 MKII

*Part 2 of the 'Key to Time' story arc

*Working title: 'The Pirates'