The Ribos Operation

Doctor Who had reached a significant point in its development as Season 15 closed. Tom had now played the Doctor for just about as long as any of his predecessors, the previous years stories had represented Philip Hinchcliffe's gothic space opera tales being stretched as tightly as they could across the budget, and even the assistants shoes were empty now that Louise Jameson had left. Doctor Who was in need of a new direction, and furthermore it had exhausted many of its best ideas. It's a situation best summed up by Tom grinning wildly to camera at the close of "The Invasion of Time" and revealing that the replacement for the departing K9 was to be... another one just the same.

That manic smile, and the scene at the start of "Ribos" where solo-Tom is holidaying with his pet computer, quite aptly heralds the arrival of the Tom Show. If there were a single point in his era where he decides he's in charge, it's now. The professional and hard-to-handle Louise Jameson, who had clashed so uncomfortably with Tom during "Fang Rock" was gone, and a producer told by Head of Serials that his job was less important than keeping his star was powerless to kurb any whims or excesses Tom felt were appropriate. Thus every "Ribos" cliffhanger ends with Tom camping it up direct to camera, and the somewhat cheap components of the story come a close second to him in prominence. From here on, Tom became the nation's favourite son that all other bodies orbited.

Luckily "Ribos" is a peach of a story, a human tale which reminds me of a children's series called "Wonders in Letterland" (you might better know it by the titles of later series, which centred around the chief villainess T-Bag) in which parts of a puzzle had to be collected each week before another cardboard and spray-painted backdrop could be visited. From its fake snow to the big painted panto door inside the Relic Room (not to mention the hunt for the Key to Time segments), "Ribos" is pure T-Bag, and that's no criticism. It's the perfect embodiment of Doctor Who's strengths; lovable characters and pleasantly amusing humour. No show with a big wooden dragon could not be for children, and yet Garron's quips about property laundering would make any parent chuckle wryly. There's also the brilliant bit where Tom laughs very loudly off-camera to Garron's "always said dying was the last thing I wanted to do!" and you wonder for a few seconds if they've stopped filming and are doing it just for fun. "Ribos" is the story your parents will walk in and laugh at because there's lots of men in silly hats wandering about covered with BBC snow, but also the video they'll still be watching an hour later thinking that this Doctor Who was actually quite a good one.

And much as I hate to ape one of David "J" Howe's 'magical moments', I never fail to be touched by the scene in which Binro's faith is restored. I'd be lying if I said it hadn't made me want to cry before. Unfortunately I don't think "Ribos" succeeded in establishing a new direction for Doctor Who when it needed to in the same way that "The Ark in Space" and "The Face of Evil"/"Robots of Death" had done earlier. Season 16 may be bound by a linking quest, but ironically this encourages the stories to be more diverse from one another, and therefore not as coherent together. Season 16 doesn't follow or start a gothic/opera/Earthbound theme; the show was once more winging it week by week. But what fabulous weeks they were...