You wouldn’t understand. For years, I was jeered and derided. I began to doubt even myself. Then you came along, and you told me I was right. Just to know that for certain, Unstoffe, well, is worth a life, eh?
Of all the episodes to miss back in the 1970’s, ‘Ribos Operation’ episode one was probably one of worst. Not only did I have a very limited idea of what was going on in the story, but also the entire series. I didn’t really have a clue what was going on, which is sort of a problem when you lived in a world without iplayer, video recorders or DVD’s and highlights a bit of a flaw in the whole idea of linked stories at this point in time. The first time I saw episode one was 1997 – 19 years later! Back in 1978, I didn’t really know what the quest was or who Romana was. I think I might have thought she was Rodan from ‘Invasion of Time’ – although I don’t think I could remember anything much from that story apart from the Sontarans turning up. Luckily for most of these episodes all you really know is that they are searching for something that is disguised, but I’d never seen the Guardians and didn’t know who they were, which is a bit of an issue later on.
What I did see of the story, I wasn’t very impressed. It was really, really dull. The only monsters were the laughably duff Shrivenzales, which look like they are left over from a Punch and Judy show and it mostly consisted of people standing around talking in the cold. Watching now, as an adult I really rather like it. It is similar to ‘Mysterious Planet’ by the same author, in the same slot for the ‘Trial of a Time Lord’ season, in that it is a bit of a slow start, meandering in an endearing sort of way, instead of getting things going with a punchy opener. It is a much stronger production though with better cast (the Seeker and some really unfunny mugging by Tom aside), sets, costume and well, scripts. In normal seasons the less than punchy opener wouldn’t matter – for the most part there wasn’t much of a structure to seasons in the 60’s-80’s. Maybe Barry Letts would have the Daleks or three Doctors together to kick things off, but mostly a season just started with any old story that was ready and ended similarly. In a structured, themed season like this though – you need to kick things off and end with a finale that wraps things up and explain what it was all about – don’t you?
Graham WIlliams’ grand idea
The opening sequences (at least for those who saw them..) set up the conceit of the quest for the segments of the ‘Key to Time’ and the high concept ideas of the god-like White and Black Guardians. This is Graham Williams big idea for the season. I’m not hugely convinced any of it is needed though, especially not the Guardians – what exactly do they add to the show? I do think the sequences with the White Guardian are rather well done though – Tom like a contrite naughty schoolboy in front of the Head, who appears to be dressed somewhere between Colonel Sanders and an elderly character from a Chekhov play in a reflective mood sat outside his dacha.
That’s the new assistant...
And then.. well Mary Tamm appears and is gloriously, effortlessly superior. The moments when she arranges her hair or runs her finger down the console looking at the dirt, tell you all you need to know about the character. She looks absolutely stunning as well, an ice-maiden in white as the camera tracks up from her feet. Even Tom looks impressed (the look he later gives as he says ‘Really? You’re in wonderful condition’ leaves us in little doubt of that). And it is just a great idea to pair Tom with Mary/Romana at this moment in time, she is there to effortlessly put him back in his place when he gets too big for his boots, I suspect in real-life as well as on screen her presence might have prompted slightly better behaviour than he managed with Louise.
Their relationship works so well because although she is at least as clever, she has no experience of the universe beyond Gallifrey – it is as if the Doctor has been assigned a graduate trainee to help him out, one of those smart Oxbridge ones that companies like KPMG hire, that are hugely confident, quick to learn but have absolutely no practical knowledge whatsoever. She gets to puncture his pomposity, but he gets to bluster and show off his instinct (with the exception of being caught in the animal net) and experience, knowing the name of their destination without looking for example and so he wins the odd round of their sparring. It is a variation on the sort of relationship you see in the films of the 30’s and 40’s – Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn etc.
Ice Time and Sun Time
Ribos, the world they emerge into, is beautifully drawn by writer Robert Holmes and the set and costume designers. Holmes specified the medieval Russian premise and the designers apparently watched Eisenstein’s ‘Ivan the Terrible’ to get the look and feel. Whilst theatrical, the sets are effective, as is the dark, winter setting. Through the script, we are artfully told about its religion, level of development, climate, seasons, wildlife and society. It is a world that is a long away from the levels of development that would allow alien contact, yet we see it through the eyes of 3 sets of highly developed alien outsiders. It is a world without even a basic understanding of the stars and planets or i’s place in the universe, the townspeople of Shur even knowing little of the other settlements on Ribos.
Worth A Life?
All of which brings us to the best thing about the ‘Ribos Operation’ – the scenes between Unstoffe and Binro the Heretic. Binro lives out his life in a squalid hovel, unwashed and wearing rags and furs, his only crime being to theorise that the lights in the sky might be other planets like Ribos, in a society that hasn’t yet developed the telescope. His redemption via his friendship with Unstoffe is one of my favourite plotlines in history of the show, beautifully played by Timothy Bateman and Nigel Plaskitt. I am going to quote the whole scene here, because it is utterly beautiful:
UNSTOFFE: Thank you. Thank you for helping me escape.
BINRO: Oh, it was nothing.
UNSTOFFE: Why’d you do it?
BINRO: Well, I know what it’s like when every man’s hand is against you.
UNSTOFFE: Binro the Heretic.
BINRO: Oh, you heard that. Well, it wasn’t much of a heresy, my friend. Just a little thing.
UNSTOFFE: What?
BINRO: Oh, it was m any years ago now. Have you ever looked up at the sky at night, and seen those little lights?
UNSTOFFE : Mmm hmm.
BINRO: They are not ice crystals.
UNSTOFFE: Go on.
BINRO: I believe they are suns, just like our own sun. And perhaps each sun has other worlds of its own, just as Ribos is a world. What do you say to that?
UNSTOFFE: It’s an interesting theory.
BINRO: What? Hey, a broadminded man. Perhaps in the north, they are a different people after all. You see, my friend, I have taken measurements of those little lights and of our sun, and I can prove that Ribos moves. It circles our sun, travelling far away and then returning. That’s the reason we have our two seasons, Suntime and Icetime.
UNSTOFFE: Nobody believed you.
BINRO: Nah, those blockheads. They prefer to believe that Ribos is some sort of battleground over which the Sun Gods and the Ice Gods fight for supremacy. They said that if I did not publicly recant my belief, the gods would destroy our world.
UNSTOFFE: And did you?
BINRO: In the end. See these hands? Useless for work now. That’s why I live here.
UNSTOFFE: Binro, supposing I were to tell you that everything you’ve just said is absolutely true. There are other worlds, other suns.
BINRO: You believe it too?
UNSTOFFE: I know it for a fact. You see I come from one of those other worlds.
BINRO: You?
UNSTOFFE: I thought I should tell you, because one day, even here, in the future, men will turn to each other and say, Binro was right.
It is a wonderful thing that the story can stop for a moment to reflect on a single life, a man tortured and ostracised just for using his brain and well just build the detail of a world where science and logical deduction is still heresy. ‘Worth a life, eh?’. This was back in the days when a story had time to meander for 4 or 6 episodes, introduce us to lots of well-drawn characters and an entire new world. A time when kids had nothing better to do and not too many other options to watch on TV. And I miss that, that pace, the detail. Of course the show didn’t always use that time wisely, but this season is crammed full of interesting characters and worlds
Holmesian double acts in abundance.
Ribos is maybe at the slower end of the scale in its pacing, but to compensate we at least have the pairings of Garron and Unstoffe, the Graff Vynda-K and Sholakh and of course Binro. All have a life, relationships with each other and reasons and motivations for being there.
In comparison with Glitz and Dibber in ‘Mysterious Planet’, Garron and Unstoffe are much stronger creations, more finely drawn and well, much better acted. Iain Cuthbertson is obviously larger than life, but plays it nicely, large enough to give Tom a run for his money, but not too broad to become pantomime.
Likewise, the Graff and Sholakh, Paul Seed’s performance is just the right side of over the top, sometimes over, sometimes under, but quite nicely judged for a ‘Doctor Who’ villain, even when looking into the camera and breaking the fourth wall. I love his relationship with Sholakh, who has fought beside him so often. As Sholakh dies, the Graff closes his eyelids and kisses them. It is to be the Graff’s final campaign and ignoble end, but his love of Sholakh is strangely moving and gives his character a depth that it wouldn’t otherwise have.
GRAFF: So you’re the last of my guards, eh? The last of my Levithian Invincibles. All the rest are dead now, even Sholakh. Were you with me on Skarrn, soldier?
DOCTOR: No, sir.
GRAFF: So many battles, Skarrn, the Freytus labyrinth, Crestus Minor. Now there was a fight! I remember Sholakh planting my standard in the very heart of the Crestan general! So many battles,
In his fantasy world as he dies, he even calls for Sholakh:
All but one of us! Sholakh. Sholakh? Sholakh! To me! To me! Charge! Onwards! Onwards! Push their attack back! Onwards! Onwards!
Of course, none of this fancy world-building and character stuff matters when you are a kid and you want monsters, invasions, scares and explosions. But I’m not a child any more (OK a bit of me still is) and nowadays ‘Ribos Operation’ is a rare treat. In some ways it is rather like a slow-motion version of ‘Caves of Androzani’ with all of the action and pace and dynamism removed, mixed with the twin conmen/showmen of Holmes’s ‘Carnival of Monsters’ or ‘Mysterious Planet’. Even the cliffhangers, such as they are, are thrown away by the direction, tension is really is not a strength of this story! It is like a rest-cure for the traveller weary of the sturm und drang of a new series finale. Now in my dotage, when a cup of tea and sit down are the highlight of the day, I really rather like it. ‘Doctor Who’ for the over-50’s?
A Journal of Impossible Things 