There's a scene in the centre of this episode that sticks out completely as the highlight of the story. The Doctor has been kidnapped by the evil cyborg pirate Captain and is led around his domain. The key stopping area is his collection of planets, planets which he has mined by de-materialising his own planet from where it currently is and re-materialising it around another, slightly smaller, planet, then crushing it for all that it is worth. A fantastic idea, both on the part of Adams and on the part of the Captain, but the Doctor is perplexed. A fair chunk of these planets were inhabited, and the Captain destroys them, it would appear, without thought. The Doctor asks the Captain in a rage "What's it for?!". This works on different levels. For a start, it shows that the Captain is clearly a maniac, conquering worlds if only to look at and appreciate them, not realising the lives that have been destroyed in order to get his small amount of appreciation. It also works because Adams is playing with the notion of the Doctor Who villain. The Captain is so one-dimensional in his approach that he doesn't even have a fully fleshed out motive, and Adams sees fit to play with that idea, revealing his inadequacy to the full audience. On top of all that as well, it's a scene with a fantastic performance from Tom Baker, showing that his performance is very easily one to be appreciated.
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