The Ribos Operation

Chapter The 108th, where the con is on a global scale.

Plot: 
The Doctor and K9 Mark II are hijacked on route to a holiday by the White Guardian, and forced to go on a quest to find the six segments of the Key to Time, scattered throughout the cosmos. Recently qualified Time Lord Academy graduate Romana is assigned to help too. Searching for the first segment leads them to the planet Ribos, and slap bang into the middle of a crime caper. A couple of con artists, Garron and Unstoffe, are attempting to trick a deposed aristocratic tyrant, the Graff Vynda-K, out of a substantial amount of gold in a land sale scam (the land in question being the entire planet Ribos). One prop that the dodgy duo are using as part of this is a lump of a precious mineral, which turns out to be the first segment in disguise.

The Graff gets wind of the scheme, but thinks that the Doctor and Romana are involved too; he and his personal guardsmen pursue the conmen and the TARDIS team into the dangerous catacombs of Ribos, aided by the local wise woman who has a non-scientifically explained psychic ability. (There's also a brief detour made to tell a persecuted scientific heretic that he was right all long; sounds extraneous, but trust me - you wouldn't want to cut it.) The Graff and his troops end up dead, and the Doctor tricks Garron with his hitherto unmentioned pickpocketing skills, lifting the segment from him. Our heroes depart, leaving Garron and Unstoffe with the consolation prize of the Graff's ship full of loot. And the quest continues...

Context:

As the random number generator had landed on two Tom Bakers in succession, which it felt a bit samey to ask the family to join me in watching, and also because it's a favourite of mine, I kept The Ribos Operation all to myself as a treat. I watched it from the Australian DVD (long story - see the First-time round section of The Armageddon Factor post for more details) with a crafty craft ale late one evening. It went down as smoothly as I remembered. It's a hidden gem: well regarded by many enthusiasts (as a quick google of online reviews will confirm) but never appearing too high in any fan popularity list (it was 103rd out of 241 stories in Doctor Who Magazine's most recent poll in 2014 - resolutely mid-table).

First-time round:

April 1995; Britpop bestrode the charts, I had finished Uni the previous Summer and was back at home in Worthing, working in an office while figuring out what to do with my life (it turned out what I was going to do with my life was work in an office, but hey ho). I'd just met the very wonderful person who would later become The Better Half, when something almost as significant happened: BBC Video brought out the Key to Time season on VHS. Two of the season's stories were released every month from April to June until the set was complete. I don't know why they didn't just release 'em all in one go. Box sets were not such a big thing then, I suppose; there had been a few, but never containing as many as six stories in one hit. So, it was just the first two tapes - Ribos and The Pirate Planet - that I bought one lunchtime; I remember queueing to get a burger in Old Nick's Diner (a much missed institution) and perusing the boxes trying to work out what picture would be revealed across the spines when I'd collected them all. Once I'd collected them all, I was still none the wiser.

Reaction

The producer of The Ribos Operation, Graham Williams, took over the year before Ribos with a grand plan to have each of the stories in his first season linked by one over-arching narrative. For whatever reason, it was ultimately decided not to attempt this in his first season in charge, so it happened - as the Key to Time quest - for his second, season 16, which aired in 1978/79. On watching, you can instantly see that the show has stepped up a gear, and is more confidently meeting its maker's requirements. Season 15 was bitty and scrappy, a transitional phase; season 16 works much better, and reaches the best imaginative heights that Williams ever achieved (his third and final season in charge is, alas, bitty and scrappy and something of a transitional phase). That these heights were reached is even more surprising when one considers that the tale that kicks off this epic quest is resolutely small in scale, and character-driven.

Robert Holmes - no longer the script editor of Who by now, having left the role the previous year, but a gun for hire - is still in his imperial phase. He writes two scripts in the Key to Time year, commissioned by his successor, and in both he appears to be having fun trying new things, to see if they will work within the Doctor who structure. Although such a story type hadn't been tried before in Doctor Who, The Ribos Operation only very slightly qualifies as a heist narrative - the con isn't complex, and is dispensed with after the first couple of episodes. What propels the action is a set of marvellous characters, perhaps the best quality group that Holmes ever conjured up in one story. Starting with the regulars: Tom Baker and John Leeson (voicing K9) are firmly in their groove, delivering the witty dialogue with aplomb. The production team are trying to do something a little less sexist with the character of Romana, who is more studious than the Doctor but has fewer street smarts, but it's only a baby step: ice maiden glamour bomb is about as bad as semi-clad savage, or girl-next-door. Mary Tamm is excellent despite this, instantly making her mark.

Over the years, there's been lots of guest characters that have appeared in Doctor Who (often double-acts in Robert Holmes scripts, to be fair) that fans have wanted to see in their own spin-off. But characters like Garron and Unstoffe, or the Graff and Sholakh, are already starring in their own shows - they just happen to have crashed their shows into Doctor Who for a few weeks, that's all. Both pairs come with believable history and relationships, fully formed. Ian Cuthbertson is perfect as a lovable rogue, and gets some of the most memorable lines ("Who wants everything? I'll settle for ninety percent", "If mine's mines, what's yours?", "There's no comfort in dying - I've always said it was the last thing I want to do.", etc.). Nigel Paskitt uses his "honest, open face" to great effect. And would it be pushing things too much to suggest that the Graff Vynda-K, and his second-in-command, played with brio and just the right amount of scenery chewing by Paul Seed and Robert Keegan, are the most complex villains in classic Doctor Who? The world building that the script achieves in just a few sentences convinces you that a very 'large' characterisation is nonetheless real. When the Graff mourns the death of Sholakh, planting a kiss on his dead comrade's lips, you can't help but be mesmerised (and feel a little bit sorry for him).

Even tiny roles shine: Prentis Hancock - normally much higher up the bill when guesting in Who - makes the most of not many lines playing the Guard Captain; Ann Tirard as the Seeker; even the nasty guard that bullies Binro - they all get a magic moment, or several. There's great music, inventive sets and great costumes too. To me, it's almost flawless. The Shrivenzale is rubbish, but who cares? It's not the main point of proceedings. Obviously, not being the main point of proceedings doesn't mean something can't be great too. Case in point: Binro the Heretic. This character would lift out of the script without much effort to rewrite; the subplot about his persecution for heresy doesn't fit with the rest of the narrative at all, but somehow it works, probably as the character is written and performed excellently. The 'Binro was right' scene between him and Unstoffe - two minor characters discussing something unconnected to the story's plot nor the season's arc, lest we forget - is one of the greatest in Doctor Who's history. Simple, but affecting. If you can watch it without being overcome with emotion, then your heart is truly stuck in the Icetime. 

Connectivity: 

Loads of connections this time. The Ribos Operation and The Masque of Mandragora are two Tom Baker four-parters that each kick off their season of Doctor Who; both feature superstitious societies and characters that claim to have supernatural powers as a seer. The societies are both on the brink of new knowledge, with a character in each who has awareness of emerging scientific principles - both stories contain an essentially identical scene where this character shares with another a Copernican revolutionary theory. Both endings hinge upon the Doctor operating in disguise, donning one of the bad guy's outfits.

Deeper Thoughts:
Christmas, but not Special. The Ribos Operation features a lot of snow, and that's sufficient enough reason in my mind for deeper thoughts to turn to Christmas already. I have started the heavy rotation of my Christmas tunes playlist at home, and have had my first cup of mulled wine too, even though it's not even quite December. I love Christmas, you see - always have. It drives the Better Half mad, as she is more on the side of old Ebeneezer when it comes to things festive. I tend to have worn her down with my relentless enthusiasm by about December the 24th, though, and she usually enjoys the big day (but would likely not admit to that). Yes, I am a big kid, but a contented one. From Christmas 2003, after the announcement that Doctor Who was coming back to TV,  I have had enough of a Who-related gift in the promise of a new series to be made every year or so. Getting a Doctor Who special every Christmas from 2005 to 2017 was just a wonderful bonus. I'd have been stupidly, blissfully idiot happy anyway. But - as is sometimes the way with wells and water running dry - now I'm not getting a Doctor Who Christmas special on December 25th 2018, I'm mightily miffed.

After an uninterrupted run of 13 years, the seasonal Doctor Who special appears to be no more. Just as the regular series is no longer the brash young child of Saturday nights but has matured into a sensible Sunday night staple, so this year's extra episode is not a fit for the festive evening schedule, but is airing a week later on New Year's Day 2019. Did the production team jump at the chance to do something different, or were they pushed? There were rumours rumbling even before it aired that the 2017 Christmas special would be the last. But as any long-term Doctor Who fan will tell you, literally everything anyone could conceive about Doctor Who is rumoured at some point somewhere. The law of averages means that one will turn out to be right every so often, as this one has. This is why I can't get too worried about other rumours murmuring away in the background right now. There might be a full series next year, there might be only a few episodes with the rest showing in 2020, or there might be none except the one on January 1st. There's no way to know, until we know.

What seems likely, though, is that Doctor Who won't be on TV on December 25th in 2019, 2020, or any year after that. It's very rare for a series to bounce back into the Christmas day schedule once it's left. I find this a bit disappointing. It feels like a demotion; plus, the extended family doesn't gather round to watch TV on New Year's Day, so that ritual - which happened rarely, but warmed my heart whenever it did - is gone too. What's even more frustrating is that the last story to air on Christmas Day was so rubbish. I still haven't come to terms with Twice Upon A Time, but I thought a lovely hour of Jodie and the Team / Gang / Fam, washed down with lashings of sherry and mince pies, might have finally exorcised that bad memory. Alas, it will have to be a slightly more sober January 1st viewing experience instead.

In Summary:

Ribos is like a good wine: nicely put together, with dramatic and sweet notes, and lots of character.