Ah, the famous Space Pirates. I'm afraid that in his first season working on the show, Mr. Holmes is 0 for 2. This serial isn't bad per se, but the only memorable thing about it is the music. I kind of wish that haunting, operatic vocal sting belonged to another story.
I think this story was misjudged in the sense of having the TARDIS crew do absolutely nothing of note, with the exception of the Doctor taking 10 minutes to defuse a bomb in the last episode. The setting and side characters, while not bad, simply aren't anywhere near interesting enough to carry the weight in their stead. It's very hard to tell in the reconstruction, but the spaceship sets don't seem particularly impressive, and the story's six-part structure makes its pacing feel glacial at times.
A word must go to the utterly bizarre twist that Madeleine's father has been kept alive for several years inside of a Victorian styled library on the mining planet. It definitely strains credulity that Ms. Issigri wouldn't have noticed all those years, since it appears she's living and working right around the corner.
I do admit, a clever trick is done by transplanting Milo Clancey into this spacefaring setting, because he has basically walked out of an Old West movie. It does highlight that this is basically a train robber story of that period recolored to fit a space-age theme instead. I have to give Clancey's actor some accent props, since I didn't notice until I checked the cast list that he wasn't an American.
The whole thing makes the bizarre call of ending the serial on Jamie going "oh, not again" and then everyone laughing as the credits roll.
😵
I will say that The Space Pirates is not the worst story of this season. Not even close, really. It at least isn't as offensively cliched as The Krotons, and its guest cast is better than The Dominators. It's just that I probably won't remember any of it in a few months' time.
Notably, Episode Six marks the very last of the missing episodes. Although it took me three and a half years to make it to that point, I finally vanquished the recons, and from here on out every single episode will be available. That's a heartening notion at least. John Cura is sorely missed for this season's missing episodes, and I once more have to tip my hat to him, and to the fans who recorded the audio tracks at home, for making this leg of the marathon possible.
The Jigsaw War is next.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 18 March 2021.)
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