Dr Who: The Ribos Operation
The quest to find the Key to Time kicks off with a bang, offering up one of the more under-rated classics of Tom Baker's run as the Doctor and the entire classic series run, "The Ribos Operation."
"Ribos" is a template for what the rest of the Key stories should have been, but many were found lacking, in that the quest for the first segment actually ties-into the story being told on the cold planet of Ribos.
The last truly great story by Robert Holmes until we get to "Caves of Androzani," "Ribos" see the Doctor gettng an epic quest and then beginning his pursuit of it. The first episode is a fairly compact introductory episode, introducing us not only to the season-long storyline but also setting up the planet of Ribos for viewers. The classic Holmes character-duos are on display here, with characters speaking theatrically in a way that sounds incredibly authentic on-screen and coming out of a character's mouth and for all intents and purposes is never the way anyone in reality would talk.
Elements of the quest work well here, with everyone having his or her own agenda in the pursuit of the same object. In this case, it's a lump of jethyrk that just happens to be the first segment of the Key.
This is classic Bob Holmes, which characters who aren't necessarily good or evil, they're all defined in shades of gray. The Count, who for all intents and purposes the villain of the story, actually has a relatively good motive for what he's doing. Everyone here is a victim in some way or other. And the Doctor and Romana aren't necessarily coming in and overthrowing a regime or righting a wrong. They're just as much a catalyst to the series of events unfolding on screen as everyone else here. It could be argued that if not for the Doctor's arrival, things would have gone dramatically different for all the parties concerned.
The story is one that has a high body-count. It's typical of Holmes stories in that a large number of the supporting cast have shuffled off this mortal coil by the time episode four airs. And yet, the body count doesn't feel as substantial as other stories later in the series run until you really step back and think about it.
As a start to the Key to Time saga, "The Ribos Operation" is a good, solid story that is the best story we'll see until John Nathan-Turner takes over with season 18.