I actually enjoyed The Space Pirates...

[Candlelight]

As part of my own anniversary tribute I've been listening to all the official BBC missing episode audios in order (with the exception of The Ice Warriors which I played after The Wheel in Space due to a long story) and so today I finally heard The Space Pirates 6.

I have to say I don't find it the horrible, disgusting puddle of slime that fandom paints it to be. For many of the stories this is only the second time I've heard them, and I think The Space Pirates gets a bi of a bad wrap.

Yes, it's not Troughton's finest story; he's a player on the sideline rather than a main character, the story takes ages to get going and the sole surviving episode doesn't feature any pirates so it's a bit of a misfire.

I enjoyed the atmosphere that the story creates. It was Robert Holmes' second story for Who so he was still finding his feet but you can see the beginnings of his brilliance here. Caven is a good baddie, Milo's comic relief isn't used as much as it should've, Dervish is the one you want to jump on the side of the good guys (and sort of does, towards the end).

Interesting to read the behind the scenes stuff about how all of the main characters scenes for Episode 6 were pre-recorded as they were onto The War Games by then.

Anyway, I've finished my run of 143 episodes since June. Sadly (or should that be happily) its the last time I'll ever listen to The Enemy of the World. It's a brilliant story and I still can't believe it's back!

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I've seen a fan reconstruction several years ago, but I don't remember much about it other than not being all that impressed with it. At that point, I was already a huge fan of Patrick Troughton because I was doing a complete run through his entire catalog (existing episodes and fan reconstructions).

 

[Sindatur]

The thing I remember most about it, is that The Doctor, Zoe and Jamie are all unconcious, and when the Doctor wakes up, he shows where his loyalties really lie. He steps over Zoe, without showing a care for her, and rushes straight to Jamie to make sure he's OK. You would think he's check the person right next to him first, LOL

 

[diankra]

Well, the problem with fan reproductions is that there's no telesnaps, and no PR photos of some fairly important characters. Plus lots of scenes where the effects shots were the main point. Add to that the survival of the rather weak episode two (which audience reaction figures at the time painted as the worst-received by the viewers: a 5% drop compared with part one, and if you take how many people tuned in next week as important, part one persuaded and extra million to try part two, but half a million of them didn't come back for part three) and its understandable that its fan image is maybe worse than the full story perhaps deserves.