The Ribos Operation

4 January 2015

One of my husband's birthday presents was a DVD boxset of The Key to Time.   I missed the first part of this season on first broadcast.  I'm not sure what was on ITV at the time, Buck Rogers maybe? but whatever it was, we preferred it in my house.  My Mum never really took to Tom Baker, as she didn't like his eyes.  (She didn't like Marty Feldman's eyes, either, which prevented me from ever being allowed to see Monty Python - the fact that he wasn't in it didn't matter).  I therefore came in part-way through The Stones of Blood, and have no memories of seeing  the first two stories on first broadcast. Until we eventually got hold of a VHS tape, my only knowledge of them was through my husband's Target novelisations.

Our VHS machine is no longer operational, so when we settled down last night to watch The Ribos Operation, I was in the situation of having seen it only once before, and that quite a long time ago. The first surprise on viewing was the discovery that it is actually pronounced 'REEbos' and not 'RIbos' as I had assumed all these years. The second surprise was just how annoying Romana (or 'Fred') was in her debut story. Though that is no excuse for dressing her up like a reject from Boney M. I kept expecting her to break into a chorus of 'Mary's Boy Child' any minute.

The story is entertaining in a very silly sort of way. The intergalactic con artist Garron, is rather similar to Glitz, who turned up in a couple of stories in the 1980s. He is attempting to sell the planet to the Graf Vynda-K, a rather unpleasant military type who is trying to win back his own planet, by conning him into believing that Ribos is a source of a valuable mineral. All this takes place surreptitiously, as the locals still believe that  the seasons are caused by warring gods and have no concept of interplanetary travel. The exception is Binro, who was ostracised as a heretic for his novel belief that the planet is a sphere that rotates around the sun, and that the lights in the sky are other worlds. It is a touching moment when Garron's accomplice Unstoffe tells Binro that he was right all along.

Ribos being such a primitive planet, when the local authorities need to search for criminals they employ a Seer to track them down. The Seer, whose predictions prove strikingly accurate, is a delightfully over the top role, though towards the end of the story she gives up on the blood-curdling shriek at the end of a prophecy.  Sadly, she, the Graf Vynda-K and his men and poor old Binro all end up being killed in the catacombs under the city. Garron and Unstoffe survive, but may be forced to go straight, as the mineral they were using as part of their con turns out to be a segment of the Key to Time and Garron is adroitly relieved of it by the Doctor's sleight of hand.

All in all a good opener to the season. 

Last Christmas...

Sunday 28 December

It’s been a couple of days now since I first saw Last Christmas, and I’m still not sure what I think. I really did not like it much on first viewing. I thought the whole dream plot rather obvious and lazy, and the general theme ‘we are all dying and we celebrate Christmas because we think it will be our last’ very bleak. 

On second viewing, I liked it a bit better. Nick Frost’s Santa-with-attitude was excellent, as were the two sarcastic elves, Wolf and Ian. And the juxtaposition of Santa and the Doctor as two impossible beings with implausible means of transport that are bigger on the inside worked well, up to a point. 

But comparing the Doctor in this way with Santa Claus, and emphasising that dreams can be nested within dreams and that we can never know whether we are truly awake, serves to undermine any future stories. How can we be sure that next season isn’t still part of the dream? For that matter, perhaps the last season was part of the dream. I mean, the Moon is a giant egg? Forests that grow overnight to protect the Earth? Missy is surely a creature from the Doctor’s worst nightmare.

 

 

My Top Ten Christmas Specials: No. 1

And finally... at number one, it is of course The Christmas Invasion.

The first 'real' Christmas Special, in which we meet the Tenth Doctor properly for the first time, and discover what sort of man he is.

It's a brilliant romp, with echoes of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the dressing gown),  Star Trek (Sycorax culture seems rather reminiscent of Klingons) and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (the severed hand).  Plus Jackie almost gets killed by a Christmas tree.

And after all that, the Doctor saves the world with a satsuma, brings down the government and then enjoys Christmas dinner chez Tyler.

What could be more Christmassy than that?

Christmassy factor: 10/10

Victorian/Dickensian Factor: 0/10, but who cares?

My Top Ten Christmas Specials No. 2

The Unquiet Dead

OK.  Technically, this one isn't actually a Christmas Special, but it should have been.  After all, it's a story with Charles Dickens, at Christmas, with ghosts (as Donna might have put it.) It deserves the number two spot for simply setting the precedent of Christmassy Doctor Who.

It was only the third story to be broadcast after the series returned. Back then, we didn't even have a concept of a Doctor Who Christmas Special, other than William Hartnell taking time out from the Daleks Masterplan to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Christmassy Factor: 8/10
Victorian/Dickensian Factor: 10/10

My Top Ten Christmas Specials: No 3

No 3: A Christmas Carol

The first Steven Moffat Christmas special, which manages in typical Moffat fashion to be very clever, a bit timey-wimey (how he must regret having written that line!) and very Christmassy.

Like many non-Who Christmas specials, it is basically a rip-off of the plot of the Dickens story, but with the Doctor (and Amy) in the role of the ghosts.  Unlike many non-Who Christmas specials, it is set on a foggy mock-Victorian cyberpunk planet. With fish.  There is an added twist in that reforming the central character is ultimately not sufficient to solve the problem. What the situation really needs is Katherine Jenkins singing to a shark.

Christmassy Factor: 8/10
Victorian/Dickensian Factor: 8/10

My Top Ten Christmas Specials: No. 4

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

The Doctor goes to Narnia (well, almost) in this story, which has a real Christmas feel to it. Not only is it set at Christmas, but the Doctor’s special treat for the children is a trip to a snowy planet where real Christmas trees grow, complete with baubles. 

It being Christmas, when things start to go slightly wrong, it is down to mother to sort everything out, and ensure a happy Christmas for everyone. She even makes sure that the Doctor goes off to spend Christmas with his in-laws.

Christmassy factor: 9/10

Dickensian/Victorian Factor 0/10

 

My Top Ten Christmas Specials: No 5

Number 5: The Runaway Bride

OK so this is not the most Christmassy of Christmas Specials.  Although it is supposed to take place on Christmas Eve, and the robot Santas make a (slightly implausible) repeat appearance, the bright sunshine doesn’t really convey a festive mood.

But this is the episode where the Tenth Doctor meets Donna, my favourite of his companions.  She takes absolutely no nonsense from him.

And Sarah Parish does a wonderful job of eating the scenery as the Queen of the Racnoss.

Christmassy Factor: 1/10

Victorian/Dickensian Factor: 0/10