This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Ribos Operation

This is such a good story on so many levels, to start, it's written by Douglas Adams, who gives these 4 parts a very distinct style from what Doctor Who has had to offer so far. The clever sci-fi concepts mixed in with surreal, witty dialogue make for one of my favourite 4 parters yet.

The concept of a planet that mines other planets by teleporting around them is fascinating and makes for a puzzling mystery that leads into a great cliffhanger. The conversations are all very entertaining to watch unfold and it gives the usually shallow side characters a life of their own. All this is generously helped by the incredible supporting cast, especially Bruce Purchase's "Captain". Tom Baker also gets a change to show off his range as the Doctor.

Just a solid story all round and an all-time classic.

Next Story: The Stones of Blood

The Pirate Planet is good humoured and has excellent character moments. It takes a bit of time to fall into Douglas Adams’ idiosyncratic writing style, but once it does it is particularly charming. The comedic exploration of fascinating sci-fi concepts is quite different from typical Doctor Who. It is the very same year Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first released and has a milder form of the same bookish, British, slightly surreal humour. The epic realisation at the end of part two, that the planet they have found themselves on eats other planets and strips them of their resources is both brilliant in scientific terms but also in analogous when thinking about the real world - an example of Adam’s flare for storytelling.

In the opening episode Adams pens some brilliant dialogue between Romana, K-9 and The Doctor. It's actually a better introduction to the new companion / Doctor relationship than the previous story. You get a great insight into The Doctor’s charming childishness and inability to accept that another Time Lord might be better at some things than himself (working the TARDIS, finding out information from locals). I love how his pomposity is periodically pricked by Romana, who feels like a much more distinct and full bodied character in this one. I remember when I saw this story for the first time, in 2013, I found the larger than life, bombastic and overacted lead villain irritating. For some reason his performance sat better with me this time round. I like how the excellently named Mr Fibuli is his punching bag, only in the final moments of his life being touchingly, almost homoerotically appreciated.

If the villains were a little less moustache twirling and more believable as characters I think this story would be considered a real classic. As it is though it is still a strong second instalment of season 16.

I went into this serial bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Ribos Operation was a little weird but left me excited for the new adventures with Romana, this has DOUGLAS ADAMS as its credited writer, and it's a fun little premise with a famous little robot.

How the hell did this all go so wrong?  I could not get into this story to save the life of me.  I found the characters incredibly underwhelming - the Captain was kind of boring and I flat-out hated his actor's performance. Queen Xanxia, who feels like a crucial part of the plot barely felt like a presence in the story.  The Fourth Doctor had some decent moments but they were few and far between, while I don't know if Romana did much that couldn't have been done by any generic companion.  It is insane to me that Adams worked on this at the same time as Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - because my experience with that classic book and The Pirate Planet could not have been more black and white.  Hitchhiker's is engaging, silly, full of fun characters, and full of little details that make its universe feel a very specific brand of satire you can very rarely experience in many other corners of science-fiction.  The Pirate Planet's world of Zanak wasn't very interesting to me and without any solid characters to back that up, I was left thoroughly disengaged.

I know it isn't just Adams outside his element either, since City of Death is one of my favourites in all of Doctor Who.  I really, really expected to like these episodes more than I did but by the third and fourth part I was just feeling miserable watching it.

Even that robot parrot just looked awful.  I was expecting something that could actually make some noise or talk but that thing barely did anything.

Anyways.  I did enjoy the idea of the Captain shrinking down random planets for trophies.  To be blunt, a better villain could have made more use of that idea in a fun way.  I feel like I'm being harsh here, but I hated this episode on a level comparable to some of the worst moments in all of Doctor Who.  It really took me off guard because I know The Pirate Planet has its fans.  The best I can offer is the notion that I simply am not one of them.

I wanna give this a 4.5 but there's just enough detractors. But before that: this is one of the funniest stories ever, with amazing dialogue from Adams, fantastic wit, a very fun villain performance from The Captain, and great nuanced performances from both Tamm and Baker. And the premise!!! It's such a cool sci-fi concept executed decently.

But the Mentiads are just sooooo boring. And the Queen Xanxia twist comes kinda out of nowhere and hijacks the entire story, making the final part a bit of a letdown and a drag. More than enough for me to dock half a star.

Oh and on a neutral note: the bad special effects this time made me laugh hard, but I can't really be too critical of ambition

Definitely a solid story with an interesting premise and plenty of fun character moments. Unfortunately, there are many  tropes in this serial which I feel were done better in previous episodes of the show.

Romana is much more enjoyable in this episode than the last, actually feeling like a proper character for the most part. I like how much she seems to enjoy the Doctor's antics.

I found the Captain a bit too over-the-top and poorly acted to enjoy, and his quick 180 when Mr. Fibuli died felt very unrealistic with his previous characterisation.

I felt that the story forgot the overarching plot of the season a bit too much. It didn't feel like the Doctor and Romana were at all focused on finding the Key. One thing the previous episode did better was integrate that into the plot.