Pirate Planet (Doctor Who zine by Lee)

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You may be looking for the zine by David Bishop called Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet.

Zine
Title: Pirate Planet
Publisher: Pony Press
Editor:
Author(s): Matthew Lee
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s): 1994
Medium: print
Genre: gen
Fandom: Doctor Who
Language: English
External Links:
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Pirate Planet is a 64- page Doctor Who zine by Matthew Lee.

front cover

It is oversized paperback - approx. 8x11.5 inches - mostly text but some black and white photos. - Fan written novelization of Tom Baker story originally written by Douglas Adams. While this is not an official version it's fun to compare it the more recent official version.

Descriptions

From Datazine #28: "Doctor Who -- Pirate Planet" published by Overmind was going to be "late this year because Douglas Adams may never get around to it."

From Datazine #41: "This is the complete novelization of the Tom Baker Dr. Who episode. Part of the Key to Time series. Target Books won't be publishing this episode due to contract problems, but you can get it from us!"

Context

This is one of five Doctor Who serials that were never novelised by Target Books (the others being City of Death, Shada, Resurrection of the Daleks, and Revelation of the Daleks). This is because Douglas Adams, the original writer, and the BBC, could not come to an agreement on who should write it.

Much later, the BBC Books published a 2017 novelised version of the serial, written by James Goss.

In 2021, an abridged Target Books edition titled Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet was published in paperback.

Another Earlier Novelization?

There may be another version, written in 1986 and published by Pony Press. The author was Leigh Arnold.