The Ribos Operation (TV story)

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The Ribos Operation was the first story of Season 16 of Doctor Who. It was the first story in the season-long quest to find the legendary Key to Time. It was the first serial to feature Mary Tamm as companion Romana.

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.

Plot

Part 1

The Doctor meets the White Guardian

The Doctor is busy planning a holiday when the TARDIS goes dark and a mysterious voice summons him from outside. The White Guardian asks the Doctor to complete a task for him - to find the six segments of the Key to Time, an immensely powerful cube which maintains the equilibrium of time. The segments are hidden throughout the cosmos, though they can be located using a locator and the help of a new assistant, a Time Lady named Romanadvoratrelundar, whom the Doctor calls Romana. Before the Doctor embarks on the quest, he is warned that there is a Black Guardian who also covets the Key.

The Doctor meets Romana inside the TARDIS, but as a new recruit from the Time Lord Academy on Gallifrey, Romana is inexperienced, though believes herself just as capable as the Doctor, who would rather work alone. When inserted into the TARDIS console, the locator reveals a segment to be on 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 chamber containing the jethrik and the crown jewels of Ribos. As the Doctor tries to open the locks to retrieve the segment, Romana is menaced by a creature called shrievenzale.

Part 2

File:Ribos part2.JPG
Garron negotiates

The door is closed, keeping the shrievenzale at bay. The Doctor and Romana hide guards enter the room, followed by Garron, who asks for a substantial sum of money to be kept there for protection. The Doctor is concerned he may also be after the segment.

The money is provided by the Graff Vynda-K as a deposit for his purchase of the planet, which he intends to use as a base to build an army and a battlefleet. The Graff is intrigued when Unstoffe, pretending to be a native of Ribos, concocts a tale about a lost mine containing an excess of jethrik. He parts with his money, but later changes his mind and decides that Garron is trying to con him.

Later, Unstoffe distracts the shrivenzale, recovers their piece of jethrik, and takes the money from the safe. By now, the Doctor has realised that the piece of jethrik is the segment, and he also tries to take it, but the guards are alerted, prompting him to escape using Unstoffe's route (Unstoffe escaped another way with the jethrik). However, the Doctor, Romana and Garron are immediately met by an angry Graff, who intends to kill them for decieving him.

Part 3

File:Ribos part3.JPG
Unstoffe hides with Binro

Instead of killing them, the Graff 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, but they are soon found by the Graff.

Part 4

File:Ribos part4.JPG
The Graff turns on the incompetant natives

The Graff and his aide Sholakh are scared off by the shrievenzale. 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.

Cast

Crew

References

  • The Doctor refers to the recent Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey. Chancellor Borusa has been promoted to President, and it was in this form that the White Guardian appeared to and recruited Romana I.
  • This is the first appearance of the White Guardian, the Black Guardian would later appear to attempt to steal away the Key to Time.
  • Romana I states that she achieved "a triple first" at the Academy, while the Doctor only got "fifty-one percent on the second attempt."
  • K-9 Mark II makes his first appearance.

Story Notes

  • Working titles for this story include Operation and The Ribos File.
  • The Key to Time prop was created by visual effects designer Dave Havard.
  • New companion Mary Tamm had attended RADA with her predecessor, Louise Jameson.
  • Originally, the shortened form of Romanadvoratrelundar's name was to be "Romy."
  • 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. The scar was quite noticeable on screen, and also throughout most of this season and the next.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Ratings

  • Episode 1 - 8.3m viewers.
  • Episode 2 - 8.1m viewers.
  • Episode 3 - 7.9m viewers.
  • Episode 4 - 8.2m viewers.

Location Filming

to be added

Discontinuity

  • How can the coordinates of the segment change while the TARDIS is in the vortex (i.e. outside space and time)?
  • Why do the trained soldiers stop when the Doctor tells them rather than obey the Graff's orders?
  • How can the Doctor walk out of the catacombs after they have been sealed?

Continuity

  • This story marks the beginning of the quest for the Key to Time, with all stories in Season 16 being linked around this theme. This was the first time a story arc encompassed an entire season.
  • The Black Guardian appears in The Armageddon Factor.
  • The White Guardian next appears in Enlightenment.
  • The original credits list the White Guardian as simply "The Guardian." This may be a hint at a suspicion the Doctor voices at the climax of "The Armageddon Factor," that he and Romana have along been working for the Black Guardian disguised as his more benevolent counterpart.
  • From this story until The Horns of Nimon The Doctor will wear an extra long scarf, which is the original scarf and the stunt scarf sewn together.

DVD, Video and Other Releases

Video Release

DVD Releases

  • Released on DVD in the United States (Region 1) in episodic format in October 2002. Extras include commentary by Tom Baker and Mary Tamm, a photo gallery and production information subtitles.

Target Novelisations

to be added

See Also

to be added

External Links

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