The Ribos Operation

098 – The Ribos Operation
Doctor Who serial
The White Guardian gives the Doctor his assignment - to find the six segments of the Key to Time.
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
Companions Mary Tamm (Romana) John Leeson (Voice of K-9 Mk. II)
Others Cyril Luckham — The Guardian Iain Cuthbertson — Garron Nigel Plaskitt — Unstoffe Paul Seed — Graff Vynda-K Robert Keegan — Sholakh Timothy Bateson — Binro Anne 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
Incidental music composer	Dudley Simpson
Production code	5A
Series	Season 16
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	2 September – 23 September 1978
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Invasion of Time The Pirate Planet

Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation

Author	Ian Marter
Cover artist	John Geary
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	52
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	11 December 1979
ISBN

The Ribos Operation is the first serial of the 16th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 September to 23 September 1978. This serial introduces Mary Tamm as the companion Romana. After finishing his first year as producer of Doctor Who, Graham Williams was determined to try something different. In The Ribos Operation the Doctor embarked on a season-long quest with a single goal: to retrieve the six segments of the Key to Time.

The White Guardian recruits the Doctor to collect the six hidden and disguised segments of the powerful Key to Time. He assigns him an assistant Time Lady named Romanadvoratrelundar, whom the Doctor calls Romana (despite her preference for "Fred" when given a choice by the Doctor). He warns him that the Black Guardian also 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 the TARDIS console, 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 Ribos crown 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" 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.