Day 485: The Pirate Planet Part 2

The Pirate Planet does succeed in certain areas. One such area is the way in which it uses the Doctor Who mythos. You can easily tell that Adams has seen the show before, because he is able to play with some of the common tropes of the series. For instance, the story plays around with jellybabies an awful lot. Famed for being the sweet of choice for the Fourth Doctor, previous appearances in the series have been generally put at brief one-liners. In this case, Adams is able to use them in such instances as a distraction for a guard, by having the Doctor throw the bag in such a way that the guard goes to investigate, only for the Doctor to sneak past. By including things such as this, it shows that Adams knows how the series works, and put a bit of effort into making what happens on screen to be recognisably part of the series.