Season 16, Episode 1 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 2–23 September 1978 | Writer: Robert Holmes | Director: George Spenton-Foster
Cast
- Tom Baker as the Doctor
- Mary Tamm as Romana
- John Leeson as the voice of K9
- Paul Seed as Graff Vynda-K
- Iain Cuthbertson as Garron
Summary
Tasked by the powerful White Guardian with locating the six scattered segments of the Key to Time, a device capable of restoring cosmic balance, the Doctor is assigned a new Time Lord companion, Romana, whether he wants one or not. Their search begins on the frozen, superstitious world of Ribos, where a pair of con artists are running an elaborate scheme to sell the planet itself to an exiled, unstable warlord, unwittingly complicating the Doctor’s search for the first segment.
Interesting Facts
- This serial opens the season-long “Key to Time” story arc, one of classic Doctor Who’s few deliberately serialised, multi-story quests.
- It introduces Romana, the Doctor’s first fellow Time Lord companion since Susan, played initially by Mary Tamm.
- Writer Robert Holmes crafted the planet Ribos and its con-artist double act of Garron and Unstoffe as a loving pastiche of Dickensian and caper-story storytelling traditions.
- The White Guardian and Black Guardian introduced here would recur as powerful, cosmic-level forces influencing the Doctor’s adventures for years to come.
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