I don't remember watching 'The Pirate Planet' episodes of 'Doctor Who'. I'm afraid I didn't like Romana, so I stopped watching when she became part of the cast. On the other hand, I've loved the Doctor's robot dog, K-9, for decades, and I was pleased with his role in this adventure. This audio book is the original soundtrack, not the novelization. John Leeson, the actor who provided the voice of K-9, narrates the action we can't see.

This is adventure two in what's known as 'the Key to Time' arc. The Doctor and Romana are having to gather the segments of the key. This time they try to go fetch the segment on a planet named Calufrax. They wind up on Zanak instead. The Captain, Zanak's leader, had to have many of his original body parts replaced with robotic ones. He is attended by a nurse. The Captain possesses a murderous robot parrot named Polyphase Avatron.

What the Captain and his pirate planet, Zanak, have been doing I can't reveal without spoilers, but the implications are staggering. Most of the inhabitants of Zanak are enjoying the prosperity the Captain's activities have brought them at the 'trifling' cost of free speech/thinking. The Captain and his guards regularly kill some of the inhabitants to keep mysterious persons or creatures known as the 'Mentiads'.

Pralix and ( )