The Ribos Operation

And they'll look back and say, "Binro was right."

There are a lot of Doctor Who stories that are fondly remembered by fans when they were children that they go back to as adults and find they aren't as good as they remembered. The Ribos Operation is the inverse of that as it is a story that children would have found a bit boring but as an adult, the story is highly entertaining.

The Ribos Operation is essentially The Sting set on an alien world. The story is set up early in episode one that the Doctor must find the six segments of the Key to Time (as established by the White Guardian) and is given a Time Lord companion (Romana) to complete the task. They then find themselves in the middle of a botched con job and must extricate themselves from it and take the first segment as well, which is disguised as a valuable object being used as bait for the mark.

The script is written by Robert Holmes and it is one of his best. All three factions (the con men, the Graf and General Sholakh, and the Doctor and Romana) work closely in pairs and the dialogue whips tightly between each of them. Even when the con man Unstoffe gets separated from his companion Garron, he pairs up with Binro the Heretic, which is more touching and sentimental than witty, but still very enjoyable to watch.

Because of the dialogue and the tightness of the overall plot, there are no points that feel like they are dragging. In fact as each cliffhanger comes in to focus, there is a pressing desire to start the next episode. Not that you feel any real peril for Doctor, but just because you are drawn in and want to see what happens next.

The acting is also very well done. The Doctor and Romana play well off each other with each softening towards each other's ways as the story unfolds. Garron and Unstoffe are the classic lovable rogues that you would happily lose a bit of money to just to have a chance to sit down and chat with over a drink. Sholakh is also very enjoyable as the noble general devoted to a lost cause, living on the memory of the glory days. There was much about the actor and the performance that actually reminded me of Tywin Lannister, although a bit less independently minded.

Now, there are a couple of nits with this story. The first is the shrivenzale. They do pretty well with it in the first couple of episodes, focusing tightly on it's head and forepaws. But in episode four there a couple of full focusing shots on it and that reveals it's shortcomings as a rubber costume. Worse is the fact that it wasn't necessary. The shrivenzale doesn't actually play any real role in the story and if the shots had stayed tight on the head or a slithering movement in the shadows, it would have played much better.

The second nit is with the Graf Vynda-K. I understand he is supposed to be a bit mad but he puts the dial near 9 in episode one when he gets excited about the supposed mineral wealth of Ribos. He keeps attempting to amp it up as things spin further out of his control but because he started so high to begin with, his performance comes across as shrieky. It's hammy, but it doesn't go so over the top to become painful. Overall, it would have been perfectly acceptable except that since he was already getting shrieky through episodes one through three, much of the impact of his going over the edge with the death of Sholakh is lost because he simply cannot go any higher on the scale.

Some people have felt uncomfortable with how easily and coldly the Doctor kills the Graf at the end of episode four, but I didn't have a problem with it. The bomb had been armed and they had both heard the Seeker say that only one would emerge from the catacombs alive so it was a simple matter of kill or be killed. The fact that the Graf walks off with grief tearing his mind apart so that he is imagining himself in past battles, almost makes the Doctor's actions feel like an act of mercy. I view it in the same way as how a rabid dog must be dealt with. You cannot reason with it or help it recover. Death is the merciful option.

The minor flaws that exist do very little to detract from enjoying this story. I would not hesitate to watch this again and it probably would make for a very good entry into classic Doctor Who for another adult.

Overall personal score: 5 out of 5