Holistic Review: Some entertaining guest stars and the two wonderful leads enliven an amusing script, but its high dialogue-to-action ratio makes Ribos feel rather uneventful.

Story arcs are a funny thing. At their best, they provide a strong dramatic hook that leaves the audience breathless with anticipation and strongly empathic for the characters involved. At their worst, they're like a lead weight around the neck of the show, dragging it down to depths from which it may never recover. People's opinion of the Key to Time arc seem to be pretty variable; fortunately, for my part, I find it highly inventive and very enjoyable. The idea of it is fantastic, full of mystique and awe, and I'm generally a very big fan of quest plotlines. However, my opinion of the individual parts is pretty well split: there are three I love and three I don't (although only one that I really don't). The Ribos Operation falls into the latter category, although I find that I'm appreciating it more with time. I've always found it to be just kind of dull; there are lots of scenes of people sitting around talking (or yelling) at each other, and not a lot of exciting things going on. Fortunately, the script partly makes up for this by creating vivid characters who frequently have amusing (although not hilarious) lines, and a fairly engaging con plot, so it's enjoyable to watch even though I'm not crazy about it overall.

By far the high point of this story is Mary Tamm as new companion Romanadvoratrelundar (or Romanadvoratnelundar, whichever she's calling herself that particular day). She makes an immediate impression as a natural glamour queen with a rather smug attitude, managing instantly to bring out a bitter side in the Doctor that even Leela didn't provoke. It's rather startling to see the Doctor treating his companion with such contempt, but when said companion dishes back equal or greater contempt, it makes for incredibly enjoyable repartée. Now, I don't think this would work so well if contempt were all they seemed to feel for each other (cf. some of the scenes between the sixth Doctor and Peri), but once they get to Ribos, the Doctor and Romana attempt to put aside their differences, and you can tell that they're beginning to respect one another as the story progresses. Their rivalry throughout is highly entertaining (and it is admittedly fun to see Romana effortlessly deflate the sometimes-pompous fourth Doctor), I love that Romana knows all about the Doctor but has had to revise her already-not-very-high opinion even further downward, and the contrast of reckless experience versus naïve practicality works extremely well. Their scenes together are delightful, and both actors deliver their lines perfectly. Mary Tamm, for all her straight-man characterization, actually shows great comic timing, and Tom Baker gives a particularly memorable performance, perhaps because he gets to play irritated and resentful as well as his usual flippant comedy. I love the way he tells the snoozing-on-duty guard "I couldn't sleep either", shakes hands with Garron, and feigns great offense as he slaps the Graff back with his own glove! One of his very best deliveries of the story comes during the opening scene, when he tells the White Guardian, "He's a very sensitive machine - sorry, sir." Nothing special in the line; it's all in the delivery. Speaking of K-9, John Leeson does his usual great job, and gets a very funny scene in the beginning, although Robert Holmes later gives him some very out-of-character dialogue (which I'll discuss further along).

Impressively, the other characters all range from 'interesting' to 'great'. On the "low" end of this scale, I'd put Prentis Hancock as the Captain and Robert Keegan as Sholakh. Neither gets an awful lot to do, but both are impressively characterized, and have some good scenes with Paul Seed as the Graff Vynda-K (which, incidentally, nobody seems quite sure how to pronounce - does it rhyme with "kinda" or "Linda"?). The Graff, meanwhile, is one of those characters I've never really liked - on the surface, he seems like your average everday ranting power-seeker - but I think I've underestimated him. In fact, Seed gives a fairly nuanced performance, as the Graff goes from greedy to suspicious to outright warmongering. It's interesting that the Graff initially appears stupid, as Garron runs rings around him, then suddenly wises up and proves himself to be a more clever adversary than we had expected. Cyril Luckham also makes a very nice first appearance as the White Guardian, a genteel man clearly dripping with power, who may be on the side of good but isn't exactly angelic himself. I'm almost sad that he didn't get to appear in the series more, although I think they made the right decision to reserve the Guardians for very special storylines. Iain Cuthbertson is great at Garron, an unlikeable character who nevertheless endears himself to the audience through his jolly personality and his sheer nerve. It really is quite fun watching him and Unstoffe pulling the wool over everybody's eyes (excluding, obviously, the Doctor and Romana!); no doubt it helps that they seem to inflict their cons only on those who actually deserve it. It's a testament to them that, although Garron attempted to swap out the jethryk for a lump of stone, I was still glad to see them come out all right in the end. Then we have my upper tier of guest stars. Ann Tirard is a hoot as the wide-eyed shrieking Seeker, who waves bones about and screeches dire prophecies which, creepily, are unerringly accurate. As a child, she was definitely not my favorite part of the story, primarily because I was always worried that my mother would walk into the room and decide she was satanic. (I actually worried about this up through season one of Buffy, with its very demonic-looking vampires, at which point either I decided it was an irrelevant thing to be concerned about, or she became a bit more tolerant of such things, I'm not sure!) Nevertheless, she's very entertaining. As is Binro, although for very different reasons: his sweet, selfless, resigned nature and his friendship with Unstoffe make him very memorable. He gives a nice delivery of the line "They are not ice crystals!" and the scene in which Unstoffe reveals to him that his calculations were right all along - which could have turned out very cheesy - is practically tearjerking, due mainly to Timothy Bateson's beautiful reaction. Finally, there's honest-faced Nigel Plaskitt, who I think is just superb as Unstoffe, a friendly and likeable guy who somehow seems to have gotten caught up in Garron's schemes although he seems like he'd be much happier going straight.

There isn't much demanded of the effects team this time around, but what they deliver is very nice. I was particularly impressed with the TARDIS materialization, which looks surprisingly good given that they had to do a fade amidst swirling snow (and it's just a good thing the materialization didn't occur just a few seconds earlier, or the Doctor and Romana would've been greeted by a group of shrieves with their jaws on the floor). K-9's nose-laser also looks good, and I particularly like the effect when he dissolves the rockfall in the catacombs. The transformation of the jethryk into the first segment is nifty, and suitably impressive. But, oops, when Unstoffe charges at the Graff and gets shot, the beam from the weapon hits the opposite shoulder from the one he grabs in pain. There's also some very nice design work going on in this serial. My favorite is the jethryk prop, which has a very interesting shape, a beautiful blue color, and a bewitching internal glow. The Graff's rooms feature some lovely décor, notably a very nice brazier sort of thing and a neat gate visible behind Romana and Garron at one point. The Hall of the Dead is a superb set, dark and ominous and lit with dozens of flickering candles; the darkness of the set is also cool in that it makes the Tracer seem to glow (which maybe it does?). Sound-wise, the Tracer makes a great noise (akin to a radiation detector) when Romana waves it around.

There are also some great costumes on display. I love the White Guardian's plantation outfit; meanwhile, Romana gets a very elegant white gown topped off with an amusingly feathery coat (which looks altogether too flimsy to provide any warmth on Ribos, but has the advantageous side-effect of tickling Garron's nose while they're hiding in the catacombs), and I love her boots. Binro, oddly, seems rather obviously to be wearing makeup. There's also some nice music throughout, notably when the guards are putting out the lights in the relic room. George Spenton-Foster has a nice directorial eye, my favorite shots being the slow pan up Romana's imposing figure, and the shot through an archway of Garron talking to the Graff. The one rather dire element of The Ribos Operation is the realization of the shrievenzales, probably a token monster at best, which features an unconvincing toothy mouth and claws that are all-too-clearly molded plastic (witness the way they unflexibly point upward as the monster vainly swipes at Romana underneath the stone portcullis). Less disastrous, but still funny, is the way an ancient rock formation in the catacombs wobbles about when Unstoffe tries to sit on it.

Minor points:

• This story features a very nice little prologue when the TARDIS is waylaid by the White Guardian. The rapport between the Doctor and K-9 is quite amusing, and the Guardian is wonderfully powerful and impressive. But poor Tom, his dogbite scar is terribly obvious in the opening scenes (particularly given the brilliant white light they would insist on aiming directly at his face).

• Starting things right off with a great quote, brilliantly written:

  Doctor: "Ah! You want me to volunteer, isn't that it?"
  White Guardian: "Precisely."
  Doctor: "And if I don't?"
  White Guardian: "Nothing."
  Doctor: "Nothing? You mean nothing will happen to me?"
  White Guardian: "Nothing at all. Ever."

• The first of very many great interactions between the Doctor and Romana:

  Romana: "My name is Romanadvoratnelundar."
  Doctor: "I'm so sorry about that, is there anything we can do?"

• This leads shortly to one of my favorite Mary Tamm quotes:

  Doctor: "One more thing. Your name."
  Romana: "What about my name?"
  Doctor: "It's too long. By the time I've called that out - what's your name?"
  Romana: "Romanadvoratnelundar."
  Doctor: "By the time I've called that out, you could be dead. I'll call you Romana."
  Romana: "I don't like Romana."
  Doctor: (getting irritated) "It's either Romana, or Fred!"
  Romana: (much better!) "All right, call me Fred."
  Doctor: "Good. Come on, Romana."

  I'm sad, though, that they cut out the bit (which was included in the novelization) of the Doctor comparing her name to a Siamese railway station!

• So maybe this bit of the review will be all quotes, hmm?

  Doctor: "The secret of survival is always to expect the unexpect - whoooa!"

• I like that the Megallanic Mining Conglomerate still seems to use parchment in their business dealings! I'm not sure how authentic it is for a spacefaring civilization, but it certainly fits in well on Ribos.

• When Unstoffe drugs the guard, it seems somewhat irresponsible to leave him lying in a snowdrift. Given how cold Ribos apparently is during its Ice Time, the poor man's gonna get frostbite!

• Why is it that when the Doctor and Romana are struggling to escape the shrievenzale, the guards on the roof can hear the monster growling, but seem to be completely oblivious to the two Time Lords' unhushed conversation?

• When the shrieves enter the relic room to put out the lights, one of them kneels by the wall in full view of Romana, surely no more than a few feet away, then turns directly toward her as he leaves. How on earth does he not see her??? To be (exceedingly) fair, it's quite clear from the other shots that Tom Baker and Mary Tamm weren't actually on set hiding behind the folding screens that day, so there's nobody there for him to see, but I refuse to allow a real-life excuse to let a fictional scenario off the hook. Sloppy direction. Sorry, Mister Spenton-Foster.

• A very nice line that gives us insight into the Graff's character:

  Sholakh: "The man's making it up, sir."
  Graff: "No-one jests with me, Sholakh, you know that."

• An inspired line, as the Doctor turns Garron's deception against him:

  Garron: "Do you live in Shirr?"
  Doctor: "No, we come from the north."

• And then the Doctor tries to disabuse Romana of some of her naïveté:

  Doctor: "Romana, you can't be a successful crook with a dishonest face, can you?"

• Tom Baker gets a funny, if slightly inexplicable, scene, when he seems to be switching sides between Garron and the Graff ("Yes, get up, you cringing cur!") only to then leap to Garron's defense with "Don't hit the cringing cur."

• There's a very nice scene when the Graff realizes he's been tricked... part of the appeal, I think, is that he doesn't immediately fly off the handle; instead, he plots his revenge, and given how vicious he is, you know it's not going to be nice.

• Great delivery by Tom Baker as an evidently overconfident Doctor:

  Doctor: "I get on terribly well with the aristocracy."

• Shrewd advice for the stressed-out Romana (and in no way an attempt by the Doctor to impress her):

  Doctor: "Listen, when you've faced death as often as I have, this is much more fun."

• A nice moment for Romana, demonstrating that while she may be inexperienced, she's not stupid:

  Romana: "Don't patronize me, Garron, just tell me."

• I just love the way the first Romana psychoanalyzes everybody in this story; shame they let this character trait fall by the wayside in later stories.

  Romana: "Do you know, I think his social maladjustment is entirely due to a deep-rooted sense of rejection."

• A great line for Unstoffe, as he provides vindication for poor Binro:

  Unstoffe: "I thought, I thought I should tell you because one day, even here, in the future, men will turn to each other and say, 'Binro was right.'"

• Trapped in the Graff's quarters, the Doctor summons K-9 for aid, who trundles along and stuns the guard so that the Doctor can escape. But... wasn't the door locked, as well? So how did K-9 unlock it?

• It's a good thing that the Graff's men hadn't gotten to the concourse yet by the time Garron managed to page Unstoffe, or else he would've led the Graff's men straight to him and Binro!

• Having been invited back into the plot, K-9 mark II demonstrates his superior, and short-lived, command of colloquial English to that of his predecessor:

  Romana: (re: stunned guard) "Is he dead?"
  K-9: "Negative. He'll be out for hours. I used stun, mark seven."

  K-9: (in the catacombs, as guards approach) "Quick! Into these holes!"

• On viewing this story, my friend Roni shrewdly observed that when the Doctor, Romana and Garron are hiding in the catacombs, they look quite a lot like a bobsled team!

• There's a nice scene when the Graff actually kills one of the guards, finally proving once and for all that he is a callous murderer.

• On a much less serious note, I like that way that Romana irritatedly flicks her cloak over K-9's head.

• The Seeker gets very creepy when she moans, "All but one of us is doomed to die." Nice resolution of that particular plot point, too.

• It suddenly occurred to me around this point to wonder exactly how old the Graff is? From his behavior, and the apparent length of his distinguished military campaign, I'd always assumed he was middle-aged, but Paul Seed actually looks quite young, like mid-twenties. (in which case, if true, it's a very good "mature" performance.) Is it just the moustache that makes him look older?

• Why on earth does the Captain want to close the catacombs forever? Wouldn't the gods be terribly angry with him for doing something like that? (Besides, surely they have some sort of historical value... although I suppose maybe the population of Ribos doesn't appreciate that yet, being more concerned with avoiding the catacombs altogether.)

• Eek, how violent and non-pacifistic (and hypocritical!!! figures he'd wait to do this until Leela wasn't around) of the Doctor to blow the Graff up with his own bomb! Amusingly, we have yet another bomb that only blows itself up, rather than blowing up the entire catacomb system as it was intended to do. (And if the Graff wants his loyal soldier to blow up the catacombs, shouldn't he be heading for the entrance while the soldier goes deeper in? Or shouldn't they both go toward the entrance? His sanity must really have been affected by Sholakh's death.)

• One last great quote:

  Doctor: "I do dislike faint praise."

Overall, definitely a story with relatively high humor quotient, and there are some very good performances to enjoy, but I just can't help feeling that this doesn't manage to lift it above "average". Far from bad, but I don't think it approaches greatness.