Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet

4th Doctor Novelisation

By: Douglas Adams

Narrated by: Jon Culshaw

Jon Culshaw reads the brand-new novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure by Douglas Adams.

The hugely powerful Key to Time has been split into six segments, all of which have been disguised and hidden throughout time and space. Now the even more powerful White Guardian wants the Doctor to find the pieces.

With the first segment successfully retrieved, the Doctor, Romana and K9 trace the second segment of the Key to the planet Calufrax. But when they arrive at exactly the right point in space, they find themselves on exactly the wrong planet - Zanak.

Ruled by the mysterious 'Captain', Zanak is a happy and prosperous planet. Mostly. If the mines run out of valuable minerals and gems then the Captain merely announces a New Golden Age, and they fill up again. It's an economic miracle - so obviously something's very wrong.

Duration: 10 hours approx.

©2017 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2017 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

A great expansion of a great story from the show!

A fun expansion if the storyline from the original 1970's TV serial. And a great performance from John Culshaw doing his best Tom Baker impersonation.

Required reading for Douglas Adams or Doctor Who fans.

Excellent story by Adams, smart and funny, just what you’d expect. Jon Culshaw’s reading was superb, his characters are amazing and his Tom Baker is spot on.

Available on Audible MONTHS before Amazon.com

Where does Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Very good adaption of a classic 4th Doctor story. Great follow-up to "City of Death" and "Shada". The previous 2CD release of TPP was the original TV release with additional narration, while the 2017 release is unabridged allowing greater development of characters and expanding upon the original story/screenplay.

Which character – as performed by Jon Culshaw – was your favorite?

All the voice acting was excellent.

Any additional comments?

Actually, I just wished to let fellow fans know that one doesn't have to wait the extra months for this product as it appears to have been available on Audible.com since it was first released in the UK (January 2017). Amazon.com lists it as Jun 2017, so a six month delay for those fans in the US unless you want to spend extra $$ for overseas shipping.... or just get it right away via Audible. :)

Tried leaving a review to that effect on Amazon.com, but as I bought it via "Audible - An Amazon Company" it doesn't actually count as a "verified/valid" Amazon purchase, and such "unverified" reviews are hidden by default. So just deleted that one and tried again here.

Great read

I watched the pirate planet this novel had so much more action than the show all whovians will enjoy this novel

Wonderful in Every Way

I can hear why some have called this the greatest Dr Who storyline ever.
I loved hearing so many of the lines Douglas Adams peppered through of his Hitchhiker stories. They stand in memory of his humor and his concerns.
The Pirate Planet is skillfully narrated by Jon Culshaw who renders a delightful reading.
I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent listening to this book.

More enjoyable than the original TV script.

I must admit that the original broadcast story of "The Pirate Planet" was never my favorite. When it first aired in the 1970s that dratted metal parrot creeped (very young) me out. when I saw it again in reruns on PBS in the 1980s, I dismissed it as just so much pantomime silliness, even if it was written by Douglas Adams.

But age brings wisdom and a better appreciation for the sillier things in life. Also, I had read James Goss's adaptation of "City of Death" - the other acclaimed DW story by Douglas Adams - and enjoyed it immensely. So I decided to take a chance on this, largely on the strength of Jon Culshaw's reading in the preview.

Apparently this is old news to Brits still in residence in the olde countrie, but I had no idea of Culshaw's astonishingly good impersonation skills,. and his portrayal of the fourth Doctor is practically spooky.

This story is indeed quite camp and Culshaw does not bother holding back. He's an absolute hoot to listen to. Goss' expansion of the original script was great fun - especially the expansion of Romana's role, as I remember she didn't have too much to do in this one, originally.

So, all in all, this audio version has greatly improved my opinion of its original source, and that wasn't easy! Well worth the expenditure of my monthly credit!

Excellent!

I loved every moment of this production. Truly excellent. John Culshaw does an amazing job with the voices, the Doctor in particular. Highly recommend.

Exactly what a novelization of Dr. Who should be

Most of the Target novelizations are direct translations of the TV script to prose with little change beyond adding identification of speakers like "The Doctor Said...." They make for a read faithful to the original source, but the lack of anything new to develop the story can make for rather dull and very short listening experiences. That is great for encouraging new readers, but us older fans get little out of it. The Pirate Planet is a late noveliztion and not under Target so there seems to have been greater scope for creativity. Instead of the usual 3-4 hour book, this is over 11 hours. The original story is all here but character development and world development is much enhanced. You even get the thoughts of the Doctor on his new companion that really fits with the nature of the 4th doctor. The same for the inner thoughts of Romana and many other characters. The author also can write in the style of Douglas Adams so well you woul think Adams left behind an extended version of his script as he did with Shada.
The narration by Jon Culshaw is among the best of any book in the series. He sounds so much like Tom Baker you may find yourslf checking the Title details to see if a younger Baker was the reader. He also does a great version of the Captain.

love

loved it!!!
fun n witty. a need to read. great surprises as well id say

Are there going to be anymore adaptations?

The Key to Time Arc is one of the definitive Doctor Who Story arcs ever and this is a good adaptation of arguably the best story from it. It also helps that this is a good Douglas Adams story with James Goss perfectly bringing it here for Adaptation. Jon Culshaw is fantastic with the voices and manages to capture the voice of the Fourth Doctor perfectly. I hope that there are future plans for adapting more of the Key to Time Arc.

I highly recommend this for Doctor Who Classic Fans. If you have to get a good expanded edition of a classic story, get this one.