99) THE PIRATE PLANET

The Pirate Planet is a bit of a mixed bag. Douglas Adams provides some great moments of ingenious writing, but his overall active imagination causes moments of stupidity. It can be quite hard to takes things seriously when it is so overtly bizarre. Just watch the moment K-9 operates the hovercar and the Captain’s line ‘by the great parrot of Hades’ – likeable nonsense in a good way. The visuals tend to be poor because the budget evidently would not stretch far enough to accommodate the requirements of Douglas' big world ideas he had. The story is all over the place concentrating on multiple plotlines without any focus and attention. The story jumps about episode by episode and goes through long periods forgetting about the others. Adams clearly spend time creating a true alien world and he must be admired for that, but his ideas were never truly polished off nor were they edited in such away to bring out his full potential. The trophy room of the destroyed planets is a moment of genius and genuine intelligence. The Pirate Planet is enjoyable, Purchase provides a fitting booming voice a bit akin to Brian Blessed and can switch between emotions at will. Just look at how he towers over his workers like a big bully and then he is cradling his deactivated Avitron like a baby. The finished product does work and is very enjoyable. ***​