The Ribos Operation
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| 098 - The Ribos Operation | |
|---|---|
| Doctor | Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor) |
| Writer | Robert Holmes |
| Director | George Spenton-Foster |
| Script editor | Anthony Read |
| Producer | Graham Williams |
| Executive producer(s) | None |
| Production code | 5A |
| Series | Season 16 |
| Length | 4 episodes, 25 mins each |
| Transmission date | September 2–September 23, 1978 |
| Preceded by | The Invasion of Time |
| Followed by | The Pirate Planet |
The Ribos Operation is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from September 2 to September 23, 1978. This serial is the first appearance of Mary Tamm as the companion Romana.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The Doctor is recruited by the White Guardian to seek the six segments of the Key to Time, and given a new assistant, the Time Lady Romana. The quest for the first segment takes them to Ribos, a medieval planet that galactic confidence trickster Garron is trying to sell to the Graff Vynda-K.
[edit] Plot
The White Guardian recruits the Doctor to collect the six hidden and disguised segments of the powerful Key to Time. He assigns him an assistant Time Lady named Romanadvoratrelundar, whom the Doctor calls Romana (despite Romana's preference for "Fred" when given a choice by the Doctor). He warns him that the Black Guardian also seeks these segments, but for an evil purpose. The White Guardian provides them with a wand-like device which can locate the pieces and remove their disguise. When inserted into the TARDIS console, the locator reveals a segment to be on Cyrrenhis Minima, but then the signal moves to Ribos.
Ribos is an icy planet with late-medieval-type inhabitants who are unaware of alien cultures. A human from Earth named Garron tries to sell Ribos to an exiled tyrant called the Graff Vynda-K. The Graff is impressed by the planet's supposed quantity of jethrik, the rarest and most valued mineral in the galaxy. He believes the opportunity confirmed when he sees a piece of jethrik with Ribos crown jewels. This is all part of a ruse orchestrated by Garron; the jethrik was planted by Garron's assistant Unstoffe. The locator points the Doctor and Romana to the same jethrik, which must be the disguised segment of the Key to Time.
The Graff Vynda-K provides a large sum of money for the planet upfront that is to be kept safely in the room with the crown jewels, watched by Ribos guards by day and a shrivenzale beast by night. Later, Unstoffe distracts the shrivenzale, recovers their piece of jethrik, and takes the money from the safe. The Graff learns of Garron's deception when he discovers a covert listening device in his room. He takes Garron hostage with his "accomplices" the Doctor and Romana, and he starts the search for Unstoffe, who still has the money and the jethrik. Unstoffe hides with Binro, a homeless outcast who believes that Ribos is a planet orbiting a star, which Unstoffe confirms to be true. The Ribos guards summon a Seeker who locates Unstoffe's hideout. Using the listening device in the Graff's room, Garron warns Unstoffe about the Graff. Binro, thankful for Unstoffe's encouragement, leads him to the labyrinthine Catacombs under the city.
The Graff and his men enter the Catacombs without the Ribos guards, who fear the place. K-9 helps the Doctor, Romana, and Garron to escape from the Graff's quarters and go to the Catacombs. The Ribos guards destroy the entrance to the Catacombs causing the ceiling to collapse on the Graff's men. With the money and the piece of jethrik, the Graff gives his last surviving guard an explosive to kill himself with. The guard, actually the Doctor in disguise, swaps the explosive for the jethrik. The Graff walks off into the maze yelling like a madman before exploding. After leaving the Catacombs, the Doctor, Romana, and K-9 dematerialize in the TARDIS. Garron and Unstoffe are free to the Graff's deserted ship and the Doctor and Romana reveal the first piece of the Key to Time.
[edit] Cast
- Doctor Who — Tom Baker
- Romana — Mary Tamm
- Voice of K-9 — John Leeson
- The White Guardian — Cyril Luckham
- Garron — Iain Cuthbertson
- Unstoffe — Nigel Plaskitt
- Graff Vynda-K — Paul Seed
- Sholakh — Robert Keegan
- Binro the Heretic — Timothy Bateson
- The Seeker — Anne Tirard
- Shrieve Captain — Prentis Hancock
- Shrieves — Oliver Maguire, John Hamill
[edit] Continuity
- This is the first of six linked serials that comprise the whole of Season 16, known collectively as The Key to Time. Although this is the first time that Doctor Who attempts a season-long theme as such, Tom Baker's first season (twelve) is in a sense one extended, linked narrative — as are much of the first six seasons of the show. In the 1980s the show often returns to a linked narrative, and in one further case (season twenty-three: Trial of a Time Lord) an even more explicit story arc. The 2005 revival again consists of a sequence of loose series-long arcs, built out of episodic adventures.
- This story marks the first appearance of the White Guardian, played by Cyril Luckham. His counterpart, the Black Guardian, would appear in The Armageddon Factor, the last story of this season. Both Guardians would return to the series in Season 20, with the Black Guardian reappearing in Mawdryn Undead and the White Guardian appearing in Enlightenment
- This story includes a rare instance of the Doctor acting directly to kill a human(oid) enemy, when the Doctor does a switch and leaves the murderous Graff holding his own explosive. See also The Brain of Morbius and The Two Doctors.
- On the night before the last day of recording The Ribos Operation, Tom Baker was bitten on the left side of his upper lip by a dog belonging to Paul Seed (who played the Graff Vynda-K). Publicity photographs from late April show Baker with a plaster cast on that lip, and the wound had to be concealed with makeup, much to the actor's discomfort. It was partially explained on screen by having the Doctor bump his mouth directly onto the TARDIS console at the beginning of the next story.
[edit] Production
- Working titles for this story include Operation and The Ribos File.
- Elisabeth Sladen, who as Sarah Jane Smith was last seen in The Hand of Fear, was approached to return to the series as a replacement for Leela (who had left in The Invasion of Time). When Sladen declined the offer, the character of Romana was created instead.
[edit] In print
| Doctor Who book | |
 |
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| Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation | |
|---|---|
| Series | Target novelisations |
| Release number | 52 |
| Writer | Ian Marter |
| Cover artist | John Geary |
| ISBN | 0 426 20092 6 |
| Release date | 11 December 1979 |
| Preceded by | Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks |
| Followed by | Doctor Who and the Underworld |
A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Marter (who had played Harry Sullivan earlier in the Fourth Doctor era), was published by Target Books in December 1979.
[edit] DVD release
This serial, along with the rest of season sixteen, was released in North America as part of the Key to Time box set.
[edit] External links
- The Ribos Operation episode guide on the BBC website
- The Ribos Operation at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- The Ribos Operation at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
[edit] Reviews
- The Ribos Operation reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- The Ribos Operation reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
