The Space Pirates

"Milo Man's a Dustman", "Argonite is Music Nite", "Liz '69"

“The One with the Ethnic Stereotyping” (USA), “By 'eck - tha's magic darts” ("Darts" magazine)

Doctor Who gets tangled up with some pirates who operate in space

*** - it does for Westerns what The Gunfighters did for... erm... Westerns

Zoe: Pirates!  Is that what Jamie meant by showing me his one eyed boarding party?

Milo: Now listen, don't you worry about pants, little Maddy girl, I'll have a few words with those danglers about that

Robert Holmes blamed "food poisoning" for the first six scripts of the Space Pirates. He blamed "a faulty telephone line" for the remaining four.

During production of this serial there were some impressive models on display. Unfortunately for viewers, they disappeared into Frazer "Man Candy" Hines's dressing room and were not seen again until the following Tuesday.

Gordon Gostelow won the role of Milo Clancy in a raffle and described it as "the best sixpence I ever spent"

Jack May was appearing in "Oops, There Go the Vicar's Trousers" at the Shufflebottom Theatre in early 1969 and late script alterations were clearly on his mind during episode three.

The Tottenham Ferret called part two "the most wondrous thing I've seen since the flat packed shed"

Keen eyed viewers might be able to spot future television fixture Clive James in the role of a chunk of Argonite being towed through space. James, 23, was recording a documentary on the role of the moustache in modern drama when he was asked if he'd play the small but crucial part.

Si Hunt

"I recall that Story YY nearly lost me the respect of my friend Ian Devine. He was browsing my Target Book library one summers afternoon when he suddenly stopped at volume 147 and gasped. "Have you been reading this tome?" he stammered. My stomach lurched as I had, it shames me to admit, been doing just that before he arrived. It was a moment of madness that I haven't repeated since but, yes, I, Dennis Brent, had been having a pleasant read of a fictional volume. I flimmed and flammed for a moment before hitting upon the perfect repost. "Don't be pathetically stupid" I quipped, "I have simply skimmed through it looking for typographical errors which might make the artefact more valuable to sensible collectors such as ourselves". He beamed a blubbery beam at me. "How utterly respectable, Dennis Brent" he announced, "I apologise for accusing you of so plebeian an activity as enjoying reading a work of trifling fantasy." He replaced the slightly creased book on the shelf, ensured it was exactly in place (he used a very impressive looking ruler) and turned back to me. "I don't know why I doubted you, Dennis Brent" he said. "Don't you mean 'I don't know YY I doubted you'?" I said wittily. We roared with laughter until tears streamed down our faces. At this point I insisted we leave the book vault lest any of the salty emissions damage my precious pages."

Watching paint dry

The BBC successfully bottle the Space Pirates but an error on the label means all stocks have to be withdrawn