The Ribos Operation

098 –The Ribos Operation
Doctor Whoserial
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker–Fourth Doctor
Companions Mary Tamm–Romana John Leeson(Voice ofK9)
Guest Cyril Luckham– The Guardian Iain Cuthbertson– Garron Nigel Plaskitt– Unstoffe Paul Seed– Graff Vynda-K Robert Keegan– Sholakh Timothy Bateson– Binro Ann Tirard– The Seeker Prentis Hancock– Shrieve Captain Oliver Maguire,John Hamill– Shrieves
Production
Directed by	George Spenton-Foster
Written by	Robert Holmes
Script editor	Anthony Read
Produced by	Graham Williams
Executive producer(s)	None
Music by	Dudley Simpson
Production code	5A
Series	Season 16
Running time	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast	2 – 23 September 1978
Chronology
←Preceded by The Invasion of Time Followed by→ The Pirate Planet

The Ribos Operationis the first serial of the16th seasonof the Britishscience fiction televisionseriesDoctor Who,which was first broadcast in four weekly parts onBBC1from 2 to 23 September 1978. This serial introducesMary Tammas thecompanionRomana.

The serial is set on the primitive and superstitious planet Ribos. In the serial, the exiled Emperor of Levithia, Graff Vynda-K (Paul Seed), seeks a piece of the rare element jethrik on the planet. At the same time, theFourth Doctor(Tom Baker) and his travelling companionRomana(Mary Tamm) look for the first segment of the powerful Key to Time, disguised as the same jethrik piece.

Plot

TheWhite Guardianrecruits theFourth Doctorto collect the six hidden and disguised segments of the powerful Key to Time. He assigns him an assistantTime Ladynamed Romanadvoratrelundar, whom the Doctor callsRomana.He warns him that theBlack Guardianalso 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 theTARDISconsole, the locator first reveals a segment to be on Cyrrenhis Minima, but then 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 among the Riboscrown jewels.This is all part of a ruse orchestrated by Garron; the jethrik was planted by Garron's assistant Unstoffe, who also was playing a native with an "honest face" who spins a yarn to the Graff about a nearby lost mine. 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 as a deposit for the planet 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 acovert listening devicein his room. He imprisons Garron with his "accomplices", the Doctor and Romana, and 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, and that there are other stars in the universe, which Unstoffe confirms to be true (because he was from Earth). 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 labyrinthineCatacombsunder the city, where the natives bury their dead.

The Graff and his men enter the Catacombs without the guards, who fear the place, and the Seeker warns that if they enter, "All but one are doomed to die."K9helps the Doctor, Romana, and Garron escape and go to the Catacombs. The guards destroy the entrance to the Catacombs causing the ceiling to collapse on the Graff's men. Having recovered the money and the 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 as the sounds of one of his previous battles resound around him, before exploding.

After leaving the Catacombs, the Doctor, Romana, and K9 dematerialise in the TARDIS. Garron and Unstoffe claim the Graff's deserted ship, full of years of plunder, while the Doctor and Romana transform the jethrik into the first piece of the Key to Time.

Production

Working titles for this story includeOperationandThe Ribos File.The opening scene, with the White Guardian, was actually written by Anthony Read and Graham Williams, and not Robert Holmes. The society depicted inThe Ribos Operationwas closely based upon medieval Russia, and the name Ribos was an anagram of the common Russian first name Boris.Popular British stereotypes of Imperial Russia were of a backward, primitive nation whose people were mired in superstition and ignorance, precisely the same qualities that the characters not from Ribos attribute to Ribos and its people. The currency of Ribos, the opek, was a near anagram ofkopek,the Russian equivalent of a cent.

Operation is a British slang term for a swindle.The title ofThe Ribos Operationmeans something like the Ribos scam or the Ribos swindle. The critic Christopher Bahn noted that Holmes had a fondness for conmen as characters as several of hisDr. Whostories feature likeably sleazy conmen as major characters, and that the characters of Garron and Unstoffe were much the sort of characters whom Holmes liked to create.Bahn noted that Holmes subverted traditional ideas of morality by presenting the mark (the victim of the scam), the Graff Vynda-K, as a thoroughly unlikeable and unsympathetic character while presenting the scammers Garron and Unstoffe as "loveable rogues" whom the audience was to sympathise with.In British culture, there are broadly two archetypes associated with criminals, namely the "hard man" and the "lovable rogue".Bahn wrote of the Graff Vynda-K that he was "a perfect mark for a con-job story—dour and humorless and eager to use violence where it’s probably not even necessary, it’s easy to feel like he deserves to be rooked".The character of Garron was intended to be Australian-hence the references to Australia such as the statement that he swindled investors by fraudulently selling the Sydney Opera House-but was changed to being English when Iain Cuthbertson won the part in an audition.The end of the Graff Vynda-K, wandering about the catacombs of Shur (the capital of Ribos), delusional and insane while ranting about his past glories and future dreams of conquest was based upon the end of the villainous protagonist of the 1972 West German filmAguirre, the Wrath of God.

The serial was filmed entirely in studio in April 1978.From this story untilThe Horns of Nimon(1979–80), Baker wears an extra-long scarf, which is the original scarf and the stunt scarf sewn together.

Cast notes

Elisabeth Sladen,who asSarah Jane Smithwas last seen inThe Hand of Fear(1976), was approached to return to the series as a replacement forLeela(who had left inThe Invasion of Time). When Sladen declined the offer, Romana was created.

Prentis Hancock had appeared inSpearhead from Space(1970),Planet of the Daleks(1973), andPlanet of Evil(1975).

Broadcast and reception

Episode	Title	Run time	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)
1	"Part One"	25:02	2 September 1978(1978-09-02)	8.3
2	"Part Two"	24:46	9 September 1978(1978-09-09)	8.1
3	"Part Three"	24:42	16 September 1978(1978-09-16)	7.9
4	"Part Four"	24:50	23 September 1978(1978-09-23)	8.2

Paul Cornell,Martin Day,andKeith Toppinggave the serial a favourable review inThe Discontinuity Guide(1995), calling it "a lovely story".InThe Television Companion(1998),David J. HoweandStephen James Walkerpraised the "cracking set of scripts" and production values. They described Binro as "perhaps the most fascinating and well written of all the characters in the main part of the story set on Ribos" and also praised Mary Tamm's debut as Romana, despite noting that "she goes through the whole ofThe Ribos Operationgiving the impression that she has got an unpleasant smell under her nose ".In 2010, Patrick Mulkern ofRadio Timesgave the story a positive review, in particular towards the acting and production, but stated that he did not like Binro.The A.V. Clubreviewer Christopher Bahn calledThe Ribos Operationone of Robert Holmes' better stories, writing that it was "a fun, tightly constructed caper".DVD Talk's Justin Felix gave the story three and a half out of five stars, writing that it was an "effective beginning" to the season despite being a "simple" story. While he praised Romana's character, he felt that Tamm's performance was "a bit flat".

Commercial releases

In print

Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation

Author	Ian Marter
Cover artist	John Geary
Series	Doctor Whobook: Target novelisations
Release number	52
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	11 December 1979
ISBN	0-426-20092-6

Ian Marter's novelisation was published byTarget Booksin December 1979. Curiously, it features the Doctor opening the TARDIS doors by means of an old brass knob.

In audio

It was released onCDin March 2011.John Leeson,who provided the voice of K9 in the original 1978 TV serial, readsIan Marter's complete and unabridged novelisation of this story.

Home media

It was released onVHSon 3 April 1995. Along with the rest of season sixteen, it was released in North America as part of theKey to Timebox set, as well as being marketed separately. It was released in a restored limited edition on region 2 DVD on 24 September 2007.The DVD box set was reissued in November 2009. It was also released as part of theDoctor Who DVD Filesin Issue 107 on 6 February 2013.

Books and articles

• Jenks, Chris; Lorentzen, Justin (2004). "The Kray Fascination". In Chris Jenks (ed.).Urban Culture Critical Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies Volume 4.London: Routledge. pp. 3–24.ISBN9780415304993.

External links

• The Ribos OperationatBBC Online

Target novelisation

• Doctor Who and the Ribos Operationtitle listing at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database