Adapted from a long-forgotten draft of the script found in the Douglas Adams archive in Cambridge, BBC Books have released James Goss’ take on the Fourth Doctor adventure, The Pirate Planet.
Differing vastly from the TV serial, the book adapts a draft by The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author that has remained unseen for 40 years.

The hugely powerful Key to Time has been split into six segments, all of which have been disguised and hidden throughout time and space. Now the even more powerful White Guardian wants the Doctor to find the pieces.
With the first segment successfully retrieved, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 trace the second segment of the Key to the planet Calufrax. But when they arrive at exactly the right point in space, they find themselves on exactly the wrong planet – Zanak.
Ruled by the mysterious ‘Captain’, Zanak is a happy and prosperous planet. Mostly. If the mines run out of valuable minerals and gems then the Captain merely announces a New Golden Age and they fill up again. It’s an economic miracle – so obviously something’s very wrong…
James Goss was also the author of the novelisation of Douglas Adams’ City of Death and an adaptation of Shada, an unfinished Adams Doctor Who story. He has also written several audio books including the Tenth Doctor story, Dead Air, which won Best Audio Book in 2010 along with many titles for Big Finish.
Doctor Who – The Pirate Planet by Douglas Adams & James Goss is available to buy now from Amazon in hardcover format for £11.89.