Doctor Who: The Space Pirates (1969)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 8 March 1969 - 12 April 1969
Number of Episodes: 6
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: black and white
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Producer: Peter Bryant

SCRIPT
Script Editor: Derrick Sherwin
Script: Robert Holmes

DIRECTION
Director: Michael Hart

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Peter Winn
Film Camera: Peter Hall

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Martyn Day

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranged By: Delia Derbyshire
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson
Vocals: Mary Thomas

SOUND
Studio Sound: David Hughes
Special Sounds: Brian Hodgson

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Sylvia James, Sallie Evans
Costumes: Nicholas Bullen

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: John Wood

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Ian Watson

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Snowy Lidiard-White
Assistant Floor Manager: Liam Foster

CAST
Patrick Troughton (Dr Who)
Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe Herriet)
Jack May (General Nicolai Hermack)
Donald Gee (Major Ian Warne)
George Layton (Technician Penn)
Dudley Foster (Maurice Caven)
Brian Peck (Dervish)
Nik Zaran (Lt Sorba)
Anthony Donovan (space guard)
Gordon Gostelow (Milo Clancey)
Lisa Daniely (Madelein Issigri)
Steve Peters (pirate guard)
Esmond Knight (Dom Issigri)
Tom Laird (double for the Doctor - uncredited)
Valerie Stanton (Issigri HQ secretary - uncredited)
John Caeser, Edward Cogdell, Leslie Conrad, Bill Richards (pirate guards - uncredited)
Terry Nelson, Tom Segal, Neville Simons (Space Corps technicians - uncredited)
Alf Coster, Tony Hutchins, Clive Rogers, Peter Roy, Neville Simons, Ray Turton (Space Corps guards - uncredited)
Derek Chafer, James Haswell, Paul Kirby (walks-ons and non-speaking artists - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

A space beacon launched by Earth in the future is attacked by space pirates. The Doctor and his companions become trapped in a sealed off section which is taken by the pirates as plunder. The pirates are pursued by the interstellar space corps.

Possibly inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey released that year, The Space Pirate's mundane story is more akin to Moon Zero Two (1969). The model effects still stand up but the one episode that survives drags interminably .The Doctor and his companions are fairly peripheral to the plot and in one episode hardly appear.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC

1969
March
8: UK - Part One television broadcast (on BBC1)
15: UK - Part Two television broadcast (on BBC1)
22: UK - Part Three television broadcast (on BBC1)
29: UK - Part Four television broadcast (on BBC1)

April
5: UK - Part Five television broadcast (on BBC1)
12: UK - Part Six television broadcast (on BBC1)

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.168-70
credits, synopsis, review (by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker)

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

aliens, time travel

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008