The Ribos Operation Part Four

The one where the Doctor blows the bad guy to smithereens...

The dog whistle that the Doctor has perfected for K-9 Mark II also seems effective in summoning Shrievenzales, but not - oddly - K-9 himself. The whistle is used twice in this episode to attract the unconvincing lizard creatures, and on both occasions K-9 stays put and does not heed the call. Maybe the Doctor can whistle different notes? Or maybe it's just a neat little convenience? Either way, it means we see slightly more of those ridiculous monsters with their floppy claws and lumbering gait, and which look like nothing more than men in rubber suits rolling around on the floor.

Thankfully, there's more scenes between Binro and Unstoffe to cheer me up. Those two together are lovely. Timothy Bateson is obviously a seasoned professional who, despite affecting a country bumpkin accent, manages not to send up the part one iota. Nigel Plaskitt was much less experienced as an actor, and actually ended up specialising as a puppeteer, but is so gentle, warm and convincing here that you'd think he'd been going for years. He is so good with Bateson. The scene where Binro says that just knowing he was right about the stars and the planets is heart-breaking. "It's worth a life."

The Ribos Operation Part Three

The one where Binro was right...

It all goes a bit panto at the start of this episode, principally due to Tom Baker sending the whole thing up while those around him keep it straight. He ruins it really, with his childish mugging and attempts to improvise which fall flat. It's a shame Baker felt the need to do things like this, because it invariably doesn't work, especially as the rest of the cast aren't joining in with his game.

It's a rocky start to what becomes a cracking episode though, and that includes a great improvement in the way Tom plays it. After the initial tomfoolery, he settles back down into a semblance of the Fourth Doctor recognisable from earlier seasons, who uses levity to gain the trust of others, but has steel when he means business. The scenes with Iain Cuthbertson's Garron, in which he pumps the scoundrel for information about both his own background and the Graff's, are nicely played, and Tom employs the tempered grit we know of old to keep both a bewildered Romana and a loquacious Garron in check until he learns what he needs to.

The Ribos Operation Part Two

The one where the Graff agrees to buy Ribos...

This episode is very much Iain Cuthbertson's, and he's so good in it, thriving on Robert Holmes's juicy dialogue and revelling in the limelight by turning in a memorably vivid performance. Holmes loved his chancers, charmers and wheeler-dealers (see also: Milo Clancy, Sabalom Glitz, Stotz, Henry Gordon Jago), and Garron is indeed a garrulous rogue who runs rings round his unsuspecting adversaries. His plan - the Ribos Operation of the title - is a risky but ingenious ruse to cheat the Graff Vynda-K out of millions of gold opeks, and then do a runner. It just so happens the Doctor and Romana are circling this grand scheme, almost incidentally.

Our heroes take a back seat to Holmes's fascination with his own creations, Garron and the Graff, and it means the Doctor and Romana remain pretty passive throughout the episode, listening, learning, but little else. Garron and Unstoffe are the stars of this show, and the Graff is second attraction.

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).