“The Ribos Operation” is the first adventure of the sixteenth season, known by the global title “The Key to Time”, which aired in 1978. It follows “The Invasion of Time” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Robert Holmes and directed by George Foster-Spenton.

The story

The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) wants to go on vacation when the Tardis stops completely. The White Guardian of Time has summoned the Doctor to assign him the mission to reunite the six parts of the Key of Time scattered around space and time in order to restore the balance of the cosmos.

The Guardian appoints the young Time Lady Romadvoratrelundar (Mary Tamm) to assist the Doctor in his search. They use the locator provided by the Guardian to find out that the first segment of the Key of Time is on the primitive planet Ribos. To fulfill their mission, the Doctor and Romana with the assistance of K-9 will have to handle themselves among monsters, interstellar crooks and a warrior-prince who’s trying to take his throne back.

Extras

Note. The adventure “The Ribos Operation” was published in a single DVD or in a box-set that includes the entire season “The Key to Time” in different editions. This review refers to the edition published in 2009 in a box-set, available on Amazon UK, Amazon USA and Amazon Canada.

This DVD contains just a few extras but the two documentaries have an overall length almost equal to the adventure. There are typical contents such as the original BBC trailer that in this case promoted the season “The Key to Time”, a PDF file with the Radio Times Billings, production subtitles, a gallery of pictures from this adventure and the announcement of the DVDs to be published shortly.

There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonists Tom Baker and Mary Tamm.

A Matter of Time. A documentary of about 60 minutes which speaks not only of the production of the season “The Key to Time” but also about the evolution of the series in the second half of the ’70s with the transition from horror stories to more comedic plots. It’s also a tribute to producer Graham Williams and writer Douglas Adams, two protagonists of those years who passed away much too early. This is one of the great documentaries that allow fans to deepen their knowledge of a period of the original series of Doctor Who.

The Ribos File. A documentary on the production of this adventure with interviews with cast and crew.

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For the sixteenth season it was decided to produce a series of six adventures linked by a common thread, the Key to Time. A similar concept had already been explored back in the first season, in the adventure “The Keys of Marinus“, which after almost fifteen years was expanded into a great epic.

Instead of having the keys to a machine that affects the mind as in “The Keys of Marinus”, now there’s the Key of Time, which ensures the absolute power over time. Instead of having an adventure with each episode set in a different place but only on one planet there are six adventures each set on a different planet. Finding the segments of the Key to Time is more difficult because they can take on any appearance so the Doctor and Romana have a specific locator.

For the occasion the Guardians of Time were also introduced, two entities whose powers aren’t very clear but they must be huge because the White Guardian halts the Tardis and even the Doctor shows him respect.

The White Guardian maintains order in the cosmos, the Black Guardian is the bringer of chaos. It would be easy to think that the White Guardian is the good one and the Black Guardian the bad one however when the Doctor hesitates to volunteer for the mission and the White Guardian assures him that if he doesn’t nothing’s happening to him, ever, there’s a quite explicit threat.

At least the approach towards the Doctor is open but with Romana the White Guardian uses his powers to take on the appearance of the President of the High Council of the Time Lords to assign her the mission without telling her the whole truth.

Often in “Doctor Who” a new season also brings a change of companions so after leaving Leela on Gallifrey at the end of the adventure “The Invasion of Time” the Doctor gets a companion who’s completely the opposite. Leela was a savage who grew up in a primitive society, Romana is a young Time Lady – she’s only 140 years old! – who graduated with the highest grades at the Academy. Thus the Doctor gets a companion who’s supposed to be at his own level.

“Doctor Who” budget had increased since the days of “The Keys of Marinus” but not so much so “The Ribos Operation” is in many ways similar to a stage play as it was shot in a limited number of sets. The result is an adventure with lots of dialogue and little action despite the complexity of the plot.

The slow pace recalls again the adventures of the ’60s however I think that Robert Holmes wrote another classic that gave us memorable characters. The K-Vynda Graff, driven solely by the desire to take back the throne that was taken from him. Garron, an interstellar con man who tries to convince the Graff he can sell him the whole planet Ribos. Binro the heretic, forced to recant his theory that the stars are just many suns.

These and other characters along with the initially confrontational relationship between the Doctor and Romana give us one of the best mixes of drama and humor. The result is an adventure that I think is a strong start to this season and also very good in introducing its central theme.

Because this DVD is part of “The Key to Time” box set a global judgement must necessarily be given only at the end of the reviews of this season’s adventures.