Friday 1 December 2023

What's Wrong With... The Ribos Operation


Very little, truth to be told, which is surprising. 
The writer, Robert Holmes, did not like "shopping lists" from the producer / script editor. He much preferred the freedom to do his own thing.
In at least one interview, Holmes cited The Ribos Operation as his favourite story, despite it having to include the Key to Time. Not only that, but it had to launch the whole integrated season.
A few minor issues / questions can be identified however...

For a start, how can a time machine travelling through the Vortex detect the movement of an object travelling in normal space / time? 
Why does the Doctor have to work out what the segment is disguised as? Why disguise them at all? No-one is going to work out what an oddly shaped crystal is / does, and as they're spread through the cosmic history it's highly unlikely anyone would obtain more than one.
Why couldn't the Guardian have just told him what to look for? Is it that even he doesn't know?
Is there an even higher power which scattered and disguised them in the first place?
The Guardian never explains why it is the Doctor who has to go get the segments - and the Doctor never asks.
Why is the Doctor allocated a companion? As he says himself, they can often be an added hindrance.

Where did the Jethrik lump usually live? Why have the locator seek it when it's been placed into an even more difficult to access location? As we'll see throughout the season, the locator appears to pick the time and place when it is most difficult and dangerous to obtain the segments.
Why was Binro persecuted when you have people like the Seer acting as a professional mystic, with magical powers?
The Seer leads everyone to the Concourse but Unstoffe has already left. The Graff isn't to know this: to him she's simply wrong - so why continue to be guided by her?
Where on Earth is Garron supposed to come from? His accent varies considerably.
Why does a hardened warrior-prince like the Graff fall for Unstoffe's Jethrik tale, when it is so obviously dodgy? 
The Graff kills the Seer. She didn't see that coming...

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