The Enterprise tracks the pirate ship by a trail of radioactive residue to an explosive asteroid belt. When they reach their destination, they discover that the other starship’s hold is empty. When Spock falls ill with choriocytosis, the crew of the Enterprise arrange a rendezvous with a vessel carrying the cure. He’s criminally overlooked, probably because most of the story is missing from the archives, but Caven should be a contender for one of the Doctor Who’s best villains. Caven is played with no nonsense thuggery and menace by Dudley Foster. In addition to space piracy, the actual lead pirate Maurice Caven commits capital larceny, kidnap, blackmail and shoots people in the back. In reality, Clancey is a walking Jimmy Stewart impression, but one that ultimately distracts from the core of the story. He's likely to explode like glycerol trinitrate”. They warn the authorities to be careful because he “has a terrible temper.

In an attempt to hide the truth, one of the conspirators tries to implicate space prospector Milo Clancey as the mastermind behind the piracy. As one side is played off against the other. The piracy isn’t merely breaking and entering with a side order of pillaging, it’s part of a tangled web of intrigue. Hidden beneath the spectacularly silly hats and the rubbishy new-fangled solar toasters is a story with surprising depth.

The space pirates attach propulsion devices and use explosives to blow the space beacon into separate pieces, which they send through space apparently unmanned for collection elsewhere. The beacons are constructed from the valuable mineral Argonite (Arrr-gonite?). The Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton, finds himself trapped aboard a space beacon while it is in the process of being stolen. So, what better day to explore that scifi trope - space pirates! David Black seeks buried treasure. Shiver me timbers! Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Star trek orion pirates ship models