The Ribos Operation Part One

The one where the Doctor is given a new quest and a new companion...

The TARDIS is back! When I say back, I mean back as in looking more like it should: spacious, clean and impressive, not the shabby, cramped travesty of Season 15. It's nice to see some care taken over the TARDIS set (by Ken Ledsham), and this is probably the best it's looked since its sporadic appearances in Season 13, three years earlier!

Some things haven't changed all that much though, such as Tom Baker's capricious approach to the role, including the tiresome "comedy" scenes with K-9 which probably entertained the younger viewers no end at the time, but come across as somewhat childish to older viewers. The Doctor wants to take K-9 on holiday to the idyllic Halergan 3, but fate has other ideas. That holiday is destined never to take place, as a mysterious force seems to take over the TARDIS, plunging it into darkness and opening its doors to beckon the Doctor outside. The lighting in this scene is gorgeous, care of Jimmy Purdie, one of the BBC's most experienced lighting designers who worked a lot on sitcoms and light entertainment shows, but who achieved wonders in both this Doctor Who story, and his only other (Image of the Fendahl).

Dudley Simpson's bombastic music livens things up too, lurching from grandiloquence to tranquil when the Doctor steps outside. He steps into a rather unconvincing studio desert scene, but director George Spenton-Foster manages to inject some distance and space by shooting from further away and placing the Doctor within the setting. And there, sitting nonchalantly on a wicker chair in white linen suit and panama hat, sipping a vast quantity of crème de menthe, is a gentleman of some refinement and poise.

He is the White Guardian, and he's got a job for the Doctor. He wants him to retrieve the six segments of the Key to Time, which are scattered throughout the universe and can be disguised as absolutely anything, animal, vegetable or mineral. The Key to Time maintains the equilibrium of Time itself, but a time approaches when the universe will have to be "stopped", and that equilibrium reset, in order to maintain the balance. This Key to Time must be a phenomenally powerful artefact, too powerful to be possessed by one being (hence the scattering), but nevertheless the Guardian needs the Doctor to find all the bits. Why can't the Guardian do it himself? He'd probably find it easier and quicker. This isn't made clear, but what is made perfectly clear is that if the Doctor declines this offer, his life as he knows it will change. Nothing will happen to him if he says no. "Nothing at all," shrugs the Guardian. "Ever." That very last word, delivered so pointedly by Cyril Luckham, is like a knife to the hearts for our adventurous Time Lord. The idea of his wanderings, his adventures, his explorations through space and time coming to an end is too much to contemplate, so of course he agrees.

He must also agree to being given a new companion to help him (it's probably most appropriate to say assistant), which the Doctor rails against at first (he just wants it to be him and K-9), but then humbly accepts.

Back in the TARDIS, the new assistant awaits both the Doctor, and the viewer. And WOW! Romanadvoratrelundar is a Time Lady chosen by the President of the Time Lords to join the Doctor on his quest, and the President (whoever they may be now) certainly chose well, and with an aesthetic eye! Mary Tamm is statuesque in her poise and beauty, and has the screen presence of a catwalk model. I still think they should have kept Hilary Ryan on as Rodan from The Invasion of Time, but Tamm is the perfect alternative. She brings an arch intelligence to the part of the companion, and is certainly the most glamorous sidekick Doctor Who's had so far (if not ever). It's also amusing to note that the Fourth Doctor asks if she can make tea, joining the Second Doctor in the list of incarnations with sexist tendencies (which does not, as some 21st century showrunners would have you believe, include the First Doctor).

Tom Baker tries his best to undermine Tamm's debut scene by larking about, kissing the TARDIS console and overacting terribly, but Mary Tamm is worth more than that, and rises above Baker's childish pranking. This is one actress Baker cannot swamp off screen, either with his own indomitable presence or his attempts to upstage with accentuated "humour". Tamm is a match for her co-star, just as Romana is more than a match for the Doctor, and this will bring a refreshing new dynamic to the show.

The scene shifts to Ribos, a snowy medieval-type world reminiscent of Game of Thrones. Ledsham's set design is great, and it's no surprise to see that the costumes are designed by the legendary June Hudson (this is her first of eight credits on the show). I love the big black furry cossack hats for the Ribos guards, reflecting the planet's cold environment, and the capacious flowing robe for Garron.

Garron and his impish sidekick Unstoffe are one of Robert Holmes's finest double acts, and an obvious precursor to Glitz and Dibber in The Trial of a Time Lord (although Garron and Unstoffe are better written and acted). There's an amusing sparring between the two, and Iain Cuthbertson and Nigel Plaskitt are clearly comfortable with each other, and have worked on the rapport. Cuthbertson is revelling in Garron's pomposity, and his later scenes with the Graff Vynda-K are greatly amusing.

While Unstoffe breaks into the crown jewels, Garron goes off to meet the Graff Vynda-K, a tyrant from the planet Levithia who has visited Ribos with a view to buying it. The Graff left Levithia to fight in the Alliance Wars, but in his absence his half-brother deposed him, and now all the Graff wants to do is reclaim his throne as prince of the Greater Cyrrhenic Empire. Robert Holmes has always been good at this subtle world-building, adding depth to new characters by giving them backgrounds and motivations. It might sound obvious to say this, but not all writers bother to flesh out their characters this way, they just leave it all to stereotypes. I also love the cursory mentions of other civilisations, such as the Pontonese and the mercenaries of Shlangii, as well as the rarest and most valuable element in the galaxy, jethrik! It's even unusual for the planet to get a name for its city, Shurr.

Paul Seed is magnificently fiery as the Graff. Some might say he's a bit OTT, but I enjoy his splenetic performance, he makes a good villain, and we've been painfully short on good villains lately. He even has his own sidekick, Sholakh, who acts as a temper to, well... the Graff's temper!

Garron comes across as a bit of a chancer, a wheeler-dealer, and his association with cat burglar Unstoffe suggests he's not above board at all. But he presents himself to the Graff as an agent between himself and the Megallanic Mining Conglomerate which owns Ribos, and which he claims is a primitive planet, with a view to selling the planet to him for ten million opeks. Where are the real rulers of Ribos? They clearly exist, because there are crown jewels to guard. Is it really that easy to pretend to sell a planet you don't own to someone from another empire? There are shades of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - which involved the planet Earth being bulldozed by an alien race in order to make way for an intergalactic bypass - which had debuted on BBC Radio in March 1978. Holmes was commissioned to write The Ribos Operation in December 1977, so it must just be a vague thematic coincidence!

Meanwhile, the Doctor continues to arse about, babbling about Somerset accents and cricket, while Romana remains level-headed in her quest to trace the first segment. They locate it inside the cabinet holding the crown jewels, which we know is guarded by a terribly ferocious/ not ferocious creature called a Shrievenzale. These monsters are wisely kept in the shadows by Spenton-Foster, because they look pretty rubbish, with their floppy claws and minimal articulation. They are the first in a lamentably lacklustre line of monsters in Season 16 (Ogri, Taran wood beast, Megara, Kroll), but it's actually indicative of the Graham Williams era as a whole, which struggled to come up with as many convincing monsters as Philip Hinchcliffe. The Shrievenzale is actually one of the more impressive efforts!

All in all, this opening episode of Season 16 is very promising. The collaboration of the creatives behind the scenes is working wonders (sets, lighting, costumes, music, writing), and the addition of a new companion quite unlike any that have gone before means things have been shaken up a bit. I just hope Tom Baker responds to this renewal well.

First broadcast: September 2nd, 1978

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Mary Tamm. A breath of fresh air, looking fine and resplendent with her catwalk poise and confident beauty.
The Bad: The Shrievenzale looks a bit too floppy to be scary!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 17

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-ribos-operation.html

The Ribos Operation is available on BBC DVD as part of the Key to Time box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Key-Time-Re-issue/dp/B002TOKFNM