TV Club: Doctor Who, The Ribos Operation
The Ribos Operation (season 16, episodes 1-4. Originally aired Sept. 2-23, 1978)
At its heart, The Ribos Operation is playing for relatively small stakes in comparison to the kind of thing you usually get with Doctor Who. Its a story about a con game gone wrong between two hard-luck grifters and a fallen aristocrat who thinks theyre his route back into power. Though its set on a faraway planet with connections to a vast interstellar empire, mainly its just about the con, and how the Doctors own little quest gets in the way of that. But wrapped around The Ribos Operation is a much broader story of literally cosmic scope, and its there that we should start.
By Doctor Whos sixteenth season, the show had run into a problem inevitable for any series that lasts that longit was outgrowing its own founding mythology. The seemingly all-powerful Time Lords had been a lingering background presence for years, first as the unknown people the Doctor was running away from, then later a persistent source of unwanted control. But by this point, the question was: What do you do when your hero finally defeats the one foe he was never supposed to be able to defeat?
Originally published June 24, 2012 on avclub.com. Read the complete article.
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