“The Moonbase” is an absolutely cracking little serial, and of all these missing stories, this story has such a wealth of photographic and audio material still existing that one can enjoy the story almost as it was originally intended. As with “The Crusade,” the Lost in Time DVD contains both existing episodes and the soundtracks to both the missing episodes, making the BBC Radio Collection CD virtually redundant. I say virtually, because I managed to get an extra bit of mileage out of mine, using the soundtrack with Frazer Hines’ narration in synch with the telesnaps on the BBC website to create a decent little reconstruction of Episodes 1 and 3!

I actually rate this story above both “The Tomb of the Cybermen” and “The Wheel In Space,” and although I prefer “The Invasion” as a story, this is definitely the best ‘proper’ Cybermen story of the Troughton era (the Cybermen we later see in “The Invasion” are overshadowed by Tobias Vaughn and UNIT. They barely even speak.) Surprisingly for a television show that aired in 1967, “The Moonbase” has a very realistic feel. The weather control device on the moon is populated by a very cosmopolitan crew, and the design of the place isn’t as cringe worthy as other contemporary takes on ‘the future.’ The story is also very good; fast-paced and exciting. The first episode sets things up wonderfully; Morris Barry’s direction is particularly good as he uses shadows of the Cybermen to build up the suspense – Joe Ahearne used a similar trick with the Daleks recently in “Bad Wolf” to similar effect, so Barry must have been doing something right! Sadly, lovely little touches like this don’t work on audio, but when combined with telesnaps you just about get the picture.

For the most part a tense and claustrophobic story, much of the plot revolves around the Doctor and his companions investigating the strange plague that is slowly killing the crew of the base. Like certain eagle-eyed viewers at home, the Doctor knows it is the Cybermen behind the plague, but he just can’t convince the crew of that until it is too late… However, Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis’ script certainly isn’t without humour; and quite clever humour at that. “The Moonbase” is notorious for the sexist treatment Polly has to put up with, not only from the “make a cup of coffee, Polly” Doctor, but also from just about everyone else she comes across in the story!

“Not you, Polly. This is men’s work!”

And so Doctor Who is hammered by critics for being sexist, which at times is a fair criticism – but not here! These critics forget that it is Polly alone who creates the ‘pollycocktail’ that destroys some of the Cybermen! If anything, in having Polly help save the day, the writers of “The Moonbase” were actually taking the piss out of sexist people, not endorsing sexism!

“The Moonbase” isn’t perfect though. As with the previous story, Frazer Hines’ Jamie is given little to do as the result of being written in at the last minute. He’s unconscious for the first episode, and then spends half the serial in sickbay with a fever. Moreover, after four years of television the Doctor finally visits the moon which is great, but he’s accepted far too easily by the crew for my liking. And finally, after all the hype surrounding the Cybermats, they don’t really impress at all. The story about how they carry the plague is clever and works well, but sadly the visual effects of the time weren’t quite up to the job.

Images of the Cybermen coming out of the sewers near St. Paul’s Cathedral, or emerging from the Ice Tombs of Telos are burned into the memories of so many Doctor Who fans, but I would argue that the Cybermen marching across the surface of the moon with that evocative stock music (the same piece used in “The Tomb of the Cybermen”) playing is just as enduring an image... It’s a shame it’s missing.

“The Faceless Ones” is, in my opinion, one of the strongest stories of the Patrick Troughton era. Sadly, with four of the six episodes missing, this serial is one that is often overlooked by fandom. In the last few years, the release of the existing episodes commercially (initially as part of “The Reign of Terror” box set on VHS, and then more recently on the Lost in Time DVD) as well as the release of the complete story’s soundtrack from the BBC Radio Collection, has helped the story become more widely known. Even so, it still lacks the lofty profile that other ‘missing stories’ like “Marco Polo,” “The Evil of the Daleks” and the Yeti stories enjoy, despite “The Faceless Ones” being every bit as good.

Doing my usual trick of watching the existing episodes and then cobbling together a primitive telesnap reconstruction on the PC (using the soundtracks of the missing episodes narrated by Frazer Hines in conjunction with the telesnaps from the BBC website) I was able to get a good visual feel for the story - a story way ahead of its time in terms of visual effects. Judging by the telesnaps, the ‘switchblade’ Chameleon Tours plane looks superb, as do the RAF sequences. Moreover, right from the word go, “The Faceless Ones” is a captivating story, at every turn doing exactly what Doctor Who does best. I mean, what better start could you have than the TARDIS materialising on the runway of Gatwick Airport, right in the path of an incoming jet?

For me, the story of “The Faceless Ones” works beautifully on two fronts. First off, the ‘Doctor Who’ part of the plot is brilliant. Like a lot of the best stories, it borrows from a lot of classic horror movies. The Chameleons with their blank, inhuman faces are absolutely chilling in themselves, but combined with the fact that they steal people’s identities they are even more disturbing, as is the sheer scale of their plan – 50,000 abductions! As the story progresses though, the writers allow the Chameleons to win our sympathy somewhat; their entire race lost their identities and faces in a planetary disaster and are dying out. Hulke is particularly good at creating alien menaces that the audience can sympathise with, and even understand. Would we not do the same in their position? It’s a recurring theme in Hulke’s Doctor Who stories, but it isn’t one that ever gets old.

Of course, the Chameleons having stolen the identities of many airport personnel, this results in a textbook ‘who can we trust’ scenario, with the Doctor put in the familiar position of having to try and convince the powers that be of the Chameleon threat. This brings me to the second aspect of why I like this story so much – the characters. Malcolm Hulke has a knack for creating very real, very sympathetic characters, but along with co-writer David Ellis he excels himself here, creating not only very believable supporting characters but also very amusing ones. The script sparkles – the first few episodes in particular are electric; the scenes between the Doctor and the Commandant (brought to life wonderfully by Colin Gordon) had me in stitches. The second Doctor is always good at playing the fool and lulling his enemies into a false sense of security, but at times in “The Faceless Ones” the innocent look on his face as he takes the Commandant’s sarcasm perfectly literally is wonderful to watch; hilarious stuff. It’s also very rewarding to watch, as in the first episode the Commandant wants the Doctor locked up for being completely mad, and by the end of episode six he trusts him implicitly to save the world. Fantastic!

Another thing that really makes this serial stand above many of its contempories is its setting. I don’t know exactly how expensive this story was to make, but on screen it certainly looks like it had more than its fair share of the season’s budget. The extensive location shoot at Gatwick really gives the story a unique sense of atmosphere and even in the studio-bound indoor scenes, aircraft noises etc. have been added to the soundtrack to really hammer home the location. Moreover, in shifting the action to a space station in the last couple of episodes the story really sustains itself well. There aren’t many six-parters than manage to hold the viewers’ attention throughout, but this is one of them.

The only real criticism I have of “The Faceless Ones” is how the companions are handled. Any story where two companions go missing for nearly four episodes is almost bound to suffer, though in fairness due to both Michael Craze and Anneke Wills leaving the show having their absence in the middle of the story with a brief ‘goodbye’ cameo at the end is preferable to Dodo’s inauspicious exit in “The War Machines” – “oh Doctor, Dodo says bye” – and also Ben and Polly’s disappearance does give a sense of urgency to the Doctor and Jamie’s search. I just can’t work out how they got Polly’s hair back to normal after “The Macra Terror”…?

In the absence of Ben and Polly, Ellis and Hulke come up with a makeshift companion in Samantha Briggs (played by Pauline Collins, of “Tooth and Claw” fame), who from watching the serial looked like a dead-cert replacement for Ben and Polly. Sam is a feisty young scouse girl who takes a definite shine to Jamie. There’s a lovely chemistry between that I thought would bode well for future stories – they even have a quick snog as Jamie picks her pockets and steals her plane ticket! For some reason though, Sam lost out to Victoria (who is introduced in the next story) so we’ll never know what might have been. Instead, we have a quick, understated goodbye to Ben and Polly, and then the Doctor and Jamie are off in pursuit of the stolen TARDIS, leading us into possibly the most highly-regarded story of Doctor Who’s monochrome era…

Rightly overlooked. The Faceless Ones has points of interest, but as with The War Machines most of its good qualities are in the execution rather than the story. Admittedly I quite enjoyed the two surviving episodes, but reading the scripts almost sent me to sleep. It's thin even by the standards of six-parters and doesn't realise the potential of its ideas.

One problem is its use of the companions. Innes Lloyd wanted rid of Ben and Polly, so had them written out after two episodes here even though Michael Craze and Anneke Wills were still contracted to get paid through to Evil of the Daleks. That I don't mind. The Doctor, Jamie and their latest bit of skirt is a better team than Troughton's four-man TARDIS crew, even though I like the characters. Evil of the Daleks is certainly better for not having to make room for Ben and Polly. Nevertheless it's odd to see them simply disappear, not to mention a wasted opportunity. Make them evil! Creep out the audience! That's the whole point of Invasion of the Body Snatchers stories. You can't trust anyone, even your friends. However here the Gatwick staff are impersonal and officious from the beginning, so it makes less difference to see them get turned into Chameleons.

Admittedly there's thematic mileage in this. The 1978 and 1993 remakes of the 1956 film of Invasion of the Body Snatchers both dropped the original's "cosy small-town America" for a more impersonal setting, where you might almost think you were surrounded by pod people to start with. In 1978 they went for the big city (San Francisco), then in 1993 they went the whole hog by choosing a military base in Alabama. Nevertheless somehow I don't think the Doctor Who production office in 1967 were thinking it through that deeply. Having Ben and Polly duplicated isn't being treated as a story opportunity, but simply as a plot device to write them out in favour of the Doctor, Jamie and Samantha.

The latter's good, by the way. Pauline Collins is best known these days for a distinguished fifty-year acting career including Shirley Valentine and (for Doctor Who fans) Queen Victoria in Tooth and Claw. In 1967 Innes Lloyd asked her to become a regular, but she declined. It's a shame. She'd have been fun, with a Wendy Padbury-like cuteness. She's blatantly the Temporary Companion, chirpily tagging along with Jamie and the Doctor like a prototype Zoe or Victoria.

In fairness Ben and Polly pop back in part six for a rather good (but pre -filmed) leaving scene. That was a nice surprise. Nevertheless I wonder what the contemporary audience must have thought, not knowing everything in advance as we do now. If it's disconcerting for us, it must have been downright bewildering in 1967.

However the production is better than its scripts. It's an odd fish... contemporary to 1967 and so to modern eyes practically a historical. What's more, it has lots of locations and a good sense of place. You get a feel for Gatwick Airport and its petty officialdom that probably hasn't changed an iota since the sixties. All this background is vital, since it gives the Chameleons something to subvert when they start taking over. They work really well. They're sinister, albeit not technically evil. They're merely cold, ruthless and arrogant, in particular being confident in their superior intelligence to the point of stupidity. The production definitely gains atmosphere and verisimilitude for not being set on some cardboard-corridor alien planet. I like the whistling music too.

There are some nice performances. For all you Time and the Rani fans out there, this is the other Doctor Who story to bring together the lovely Wanda Ventham (also in Image of the Fendahl) with Donald Pickering (also in The Keys of Marinus).

I found it odd to see Troughton's Doctor so keen to run to the authorities, but maybe it's his experiences here that put him off doing so in the future. In fairness they find him exasperating too. It's also nice to see for once the Doctor letting the bad guys live! Overall, this story isn't worthless but it's an overstretched runaround that would have been infinitely better as a four-parter. Episode four in particular is just episode three cut-and-pasted with a slightly different sinister revelation at the cliffhanger. I can't even praise it for not being a Troughton base-under-siege story since 'twas only Season Five that went overboard with that particular formula. Personally I'd describe The Faceless Ones as the anti-matter twin of The Wheel in Space. The latter is an overstretched six-parter that really suffers from not being complete, since it has a David Whitaker script with a strong sense of structure and escalation even if it's as slow as molasses. On the other hand this story benefits from not being complete. There are things I like about its surviving episodes, but the sum of its parts is definitely greater than its whole.

Robert Holmes’ dйbut script for Doctor Who is an intriguing and claustrophobic story with some wonderful alien monsters – it’s a textbook Pat Troughton story! Homes’ story is centred around a group of crystalline-based life forms called Krotons who keep the native populace of Gonds in what the Doctor calls “…self-perpetuating slavery.” The Krotons live inside a machine where they rest in suspended animation, and each year the two most intelligent Gonds are taken into this machine where the Krotons feed off their mental energy and then kill them...

The Krotons themselves are wonderfully realised; their simple, building block like structure is very memorable, and their strangely shaped heads conjure up imagery of medieval knights. The only real flaw in their design are the rather feeble pincer-like hands and weapons which must have looked dated even in 1969 – very Flash Gordon! I particularly like how Holmes makes a big deal of the Krotons not being carbon-based creatures; it sets them up as being completely different to Humans (or Gonds), especially when they speak of “exhausting” as opposed to dying. Best of all though, one of them has a very distinctive brummie accent! It makes a wonderful (and quite comical) change from the screeching tones of the Daleks or the almost unintelligible Cybermen voices that were used in the last story.

However good the Krotons themselves are, the parts of “The Krotons” that I enjoy the most are the humorous scenes – particularly the ones between Zoe and the Doctor. Patrick Troughton and Wendy Padbury really steal the show! For example, there is a brilliant scene where Zoe takes the ‘Teaching Machine Test’ and gets the highest score ever. To prevent her from being taken into the Krotons’ machine alone, the Doctor decides that he too should take the test, but completely screws it up! There is a hilarious moment when Zoe looks shocked at how badly the Doctor is doing and says something like “I can’t understand it. The Doctor’s almost as clever as I am.” She says it so matter-of-factly it’s brilliant – there’s nothing like confidence!

“The Krotons” marks the first appearance of the HADS – the TARDIS’s “Hostile Action Displacement System” – which is a useful little device, but it’s dramatic impact in the story is rather wasted. The ‘destruction’ of the TARDIS would have made an excellent cliffhanger, but instead it is used in the middle of an episode and it is only a few seconds before the Doctor reveals that it is safe and sound.

There are some other elements in this story that I think work really well. The cliffhanger ending to episode 3 is very good indeed; the Doctor is caught under some heavy rocks falling from the roof and it transfers onto screen very well. God bless jabolite! Moreover, the Gonds are for the most part an impressive bunch of characters, though for some reason Philip Madoc’s rebellious Eelek reminds me of Anthony Stewart Head’s character in Big Finish’s “Excelis” trilogy when they are poles apart! I think it must be the voice…

“The Krotons” is a clever and amusing story from a man who goes on to become one of Doctor Who’s most respected writers. At just four episodes (the shortest story of the season), it is a refreshingly short and concise story that entertains throughout. It may not be the best of Robert Holmes’ prolific contributions to the series, but it is certainly a long way from his worst.

The first Robert Holmes script ever to be produced! What a glorious beginning, right? I mean, this is Robert Holmes. The best writer to ever contribute to the series. Surely this work is a masterpiece?! 

It's not too shabby, really. By no means, can it rank with such classics as "Deadly Assassin" or "The Sunmakers". But it's a very ambitious start. 

First off, we only see the slightest traits of what would become "inimitable Robert Holmes" storytelling. We don't have a double-act, but we do still have that colourful character as portrayed in Beta, the Gond Scientist. He's still not necessarily one of those truly "larger than life" characters that Holmes became famous for. Like, say, Jago from "Talons Of Weng-Chiang" or even Shockey from "The Two Doctors" but there are hints of what Holmes will give us in the days to come with Beta. Especially the bit where he and Jamie are trying to make sulphuric acid. 

We also have a very complete and well-thought-out society displayed in the Gonds (albeit, somewhat insular too!) and a very well-thought-out alien race in the creatures the story was named after. This, to me, is also very Robert Holmesian. He always put a lot of thought into his aliens and the societies they inhabit or the codes they live by. And this trademark remains consistent right from the beginning.

The other thing I really like about his writing in this particular piece is that its story arc is much more predominant than most 60s yarns. This is one story that breaks down into four episodes -rather than four episodes coming together to make a story. Does that make sense? I'm not sure. But if you look at the series as a whole during the 60s (or even most of Pertwee's stuff in the 70s), you'll notice that a lot of the time the episodes of a story almost depend on you not remembering too well what happened the previous week. The basic plot will get re-stated in every single episode of the story, but a lot of inconsistencies tend to pop up if you watch all the episodes together at once. And, each episode tends to try build itself up into its own little climax, rather than just letting the whole story come to a climax in the final episode. For the most part, this is how stories "flowed" until we got to the Tom Baker days. 

But this is not so much the case with "The Krotons". If you miss an episode, you're pretty much in the dark. Because it's tightly plotted. And I like seeing that kind of storytelling popping up now and again in the 60s. Although there are a few other writers that did this back then, Holmes is still one of the first take the show away from that "30s adventure serial" style and give us more of a sense of storyline that just happens to break down into parts that have cliffhangers to them. And I'm glad to see that happening in even his earliest work.

And now, aspects of the storyline that seem to have not worked so well. We see the first hint of it in Episode One. As a bunch of action is taking place at the main entrance to the lair of the Krotons, a bunch more action is taking place at the back of the Learning Hall with the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe meeting the Gonds for the first time. Result? Too much happening at once. The story flow starts to get a bit "choppy" and awkward. Are we really expected to believe that the Gonds near the front don't notice that three totally foreign-looking strangers have entered their Learning Hall and have picked a fight? I don't think so. Either Holmes should have sent Vena off into the Kroton lair and then introduced the TARDIS crew to the Gonds, or he should have stopped all the action to have the Gonds meet the TARDIS crew and then gone back to sending Vena off. Both actions happening at once seemed a tad too contrived and ill-timed. And causes his writing style to look a little sloppy. 

My other chief complaint would be the fact that he completely ignores Gond politics during Episode Two and then brings it back in Three. Yes, there were a lot of important things to discover in Two, but to completely ignore an important plot aspect for an entire episode and then suddenly re-introduce it out of nowhere also looks a tad sloppy. There should have been, at least, a few brief cutaways to discuss Eelek's bid for power during the second part. Again, another bit of writing that just doesn't seem to work quite right. 

So, we've gotten the most important aspect of this story out of the way: the writing. Now, let's talk a bit about production. "The Krotons", even if it has a fautly prop in the first scene, uses its budget quite well. Some nice model work, really. Not only with the Gond City, but how about that collapsing roof in Episode Three? Almost looked like a real ceiling coming down! And clever use of sets and effects persist throughout the production. Such as the bubbling tanks of dry ice with superimposed images of forming Krotons in them or those really cool dissapearing and/or melting walls. All very above-par for the usually "wobbly" stuff we see in 60s Who. 

The regulars are at their best too. This is probably the best example still in existence of the eccentricity of Troughton's Doctor (especially when he gets upset over his favourite umbrella melting). Zoe is more clever than she is screamer in this story. And Jamie really does a great job with fending for himself through most of the story. As helpless as he should have been in the prescence of the Krotons, Holmes, instead, makes him very rescourceful. Especially as he stalls the Kroton by asking him questions whilst going for the gun at the same time. Great stuff.

Troughton's notorious desire to add comedy in this story is also well-executed. Most noteworthy is the silliness with Zoe as he tries to take the test in Episode Two and then their attempts to stall things at the end of the story as the Krotons melt. 

However, as has been noted in other reviews I've read on this page, our Gonds, for the most part, are either pretty gosh-darned wooden or a little too over-the-top. To the point where some of the more solid acting that comes from good 'ole Philly Madoc tends to almost stick out like a sore thumb. And the Gonds, in general, come across as just a tad too uninteresting. We almost don't care that the Krotons have been manipulating them all this time because they just seem a bit ... well, dull! Whether this can be faulted to writing or direction is difficult to determine. 

So, there are a few blatant flaws to this story, in both its writing and production. But, overall, it shows great promise for the new, up-and-coming Robert Holmes. And, even though one should really judge a story purely on its merits, knowing what is to come from this fantastically-talented writer makes this tale just a bit better than it is!

There’s a lot of nonsense talked about “The Space Pirates.” The last of the ‘missing stories,’ this wonderful outer-space adventure is one that is either savagely attacked or completely ignored by fandom and I really cannot understand why. As Robert Holmes second contribution to the series, it is a substantial improvement on his earlier story “The Krotons.” Full of unforgettable characters caught up in a truly epic space adventure, I really can’t see why “The Space Pirates” doesn’t enjoy the same sort of reputation as some of the other missing second Doctor adventures. Granted, it is certainly no “The Evil of the Daleks”; but I’d argue that is every bit as good as “The Ice Warriors” and “The Abominable Snowmen,” and it is also infinitely better than the likes of “Fury from the Deep” and “The Wheel In Space.”

With five out of six episodes lost and no telesnaps available to give the flavour of the story, I suppose it is inevitable that “The Space Pirates” is so often overlooked. Thankfully, episode 2 of the story exists in its entirety and was recently included (superbly cleaned-up) on the DVD release “Lost In Time.” In watching that episode on DVD and listening to the soundtracks of the missing episodes, I think I’ve been able to get a good handle on the story, and I have to say that I’m impressed.

First and full most “The Space Pirates” is a space opera. Each episode features a specially shot title screen (much like “The War Games” and “Inferno”) featuring a lone soprano voice singing across the wastes of space that wonderfully encapsulates the essence of the story. Inevitably, “The Space Pirates” reminds me of “Frontier In Space,” not only because both serials are set primarily in space but because both stories see the characters travel around so much - the almost identical incidental music also helps! From what I have seen of the famed model work in this story (both from the extant episode and a few film trims) I think that they look spectacular; they have the look of unrendered CGI objects, which for 1969 is absolutely amazing. However, I was puzzled by the complete lack of a starscape. Considering the nature of the story, it is possible that this is a deliberate attempt to convey the desolation of space, but I’m far from convinced!

I think the main reason why “The Space Pirates” is forgotten is because it doesn’t fit in very well with the Troughton era. Season Five in particular was infamous for all its monsters, and although by Season Six things had tamed a little bit and we were treated to slightly more intellectual serials like “The Mind Robber,” this six-parter is completely devoid of monsters or aliens of any kind. The villains of this story are not Cybermen, Ice Warriors, the Great Intelligence or any other race hell-bent on invasion or conquest. They are not even twisted individuals like Tobias Vaughan, willing to sell out their own people for power. The ‘baddies’ here are simply people; human beings out to make money. Interestingly, most of these greedy pirates aren’t even your conventional black and white villains - only Caven would I pigeonhole into that particular category. The rest of the characters are a wonderful shade of grey that helps make Holmes’ story far more interesting than many of its contemparies and on top of everything else, “The Space Pirates” is something of a mystery. It’s not so much a ‘whodunit’; it’s more of a ‘whosdoinit’…

The out-and-out ‘good guys’ of “The Space Pirates” are the International Space Corps commanded by General Hermack, but even they are more interesting than they initially appear. Despite being firmly on the right side of the fence, Jack May’s Hermack is an over-the-top, pompous, almost cretinous commanding officer. He ignores blatant clues that are right under his nose and even manages to rub his own men up the wrong way. Major Warne (Donald Gee) has much more about him, and as is obvious from the surviving second episode, he is held in a much higher esteem by the men than the General is.

Milo Clancey, superbly portrayed by Gordon Gostelow, absolutely steals the show. He is the perfect foil to the buffoon-like General; their interactions throughout the story (and particularly in the extant episode) are a delight to watch. It’s hilarious to see Hermack completely barking up the wrong tree and being constantly humiliated by the grizzled space veteran. I have to say though, I was really surprised when I saw what Clancey actually looks like in the serial. I’d previously listened to the whole soundtrack with a very ‘futuristic’ picture of him in my head, only to have the illusion completely shattered by the “Lost In Time” episode. He looks exactly like sounds – a cowboy in space. After the brummie Krotons I really didn’t expect the original space cowboy to appears just how he sounds – moustache, spurs and all!

Lisa Daniely is also impressive as Madeleine Issigri, the proprietor of a rich mining corporation who has greedily become involved with the argonite pirates. She is a fascinating character because although she wants the money that her involvement in criminal activities brings her, she is totally unwilling to get her hands dirty and she utterly disapproves of violence and murder. The first few episodes are particularly interesting because although she is suspicious from the word go (anyone who wears a bum on their head is suspicious in my book), it is still unclear whether it is her or Clancey who is behind the piracy. There is also a great twist towards the end involving her ‘dead’ father that really helps tie up her thread of the story nicely.

Now, I’d be lying if I said that “The Space Pirates” was without any fundamental flaws. As entertaining as it is, the Doctor and his companions are savagely short-changed by the script. The TARDIS doesn’t even show up until nearly fifteen minutes into the first episode, and the Doctor and his companions don’t get themselves properly involved in the larger story until the beginning of the third episode when Milo Clancey rescues them from Beacon Alpha Four. I suspect that this is why many people criticise the story as being slow. It certainly isn’t slow, especially when compared to other sixth season stories like “The Invasion” and “The War Games.” The problem with “The Space Pirates” is that for two full episodes the ‘space pirates’ part of the story is completely Doctor-less.

Nevertheless this serial is compelling stuff; it’s just that it could have worked just as well (if not better) without the Doctor and his companions to cater for. The three regulars are (somewhat incredibly) kept together for the entire story and as such Jamie and Zoe are reduced to standing around with their hands in their pockets asking plot-related questions. However, I believe that ultimately it’s the lack of monsters that draws fans’ attentions to other Troughton stories. In this story there’s not a rubber suit in sight! It’s ironic really that this story is so unpopular for the very reasons that Robert Holmes’ work is generally so revered – brilliant, realistic characters, excellently written.