Doctor Who: The Space Pirates - Episode 3

We're back in telesnap land for the duration now. Despite this and despite it being The Space Pirates I... actually enjoyed this episode. I wasn't expecting it. I was expecting the remaining four episodes to be a hard slog of space hell. But the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe became the focus of this episode, unlike the previous episodes in which they had seemed like the asides.

Milo Clancy is the fellow who shot Jamie at the end of Episode 2 but of course Jamie is only stunned. Milo gives them a hand as he is heading to a nearby planet. The Space Corps are keeping an eye on things and believe that the planet is the base for the space pirates.

They are right. When Clancy, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe land, Clancy tells the other three to remain in the spaceship because they will get lost in the caves. But they talk and start to think that maybe Clancy is one of the pirates so head off. They get lost, then confronted by some pirates with a huge scary floodlight so they all jump down a hole.

With less emphasis on the Space Corps and fewer shots of spaceships just moving around in space, this episode became interesting. We haven't actually seen much of the pirates since the first episode but the conclusion of Episode 3 means this is likely to change hopefully. Separating Clancy from the TARDIS crew after a while was good because having the three of them compete for dialogue could have become problematic.

I am feeling more optimistic about the rest of this story now but daren't get too excited as it could all nosedive as quickly as it lifted up. My only gripe for this episode is Milo Clancy. The audio recording with my telesnaps is not immaculate and his strong accent is difficult to understand at times. It is also starting to grate somewhat.