Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation (novelisation)

 was a novelisation based on the 1978 television serial The Ribos Operation.

Publisher's summary
Reluctantly cancelling his well-earned holiday, the Doctor sets off in the TARDIS to trace and re-assemble the six segments of the Key to Time on which the stability of the entire Universe depends.

Assisted by the argumentative Romanadvoratrelundar and K9, he lands on the planet Ribos in search of the first segment and finds himself entangled in the machinations of two sinister strangers, Garron and the Graff Vynda Ka.

Who are they? Is Garron simply a shady confidence-trickster dealing in interplanetary real estate? Is the Graff Vynda Ka just a power-crazed exile bent on revenge? Or are they both really agents of the Black Guardian, intent upon seizing the precious Key in order to throw the Universe into eternal chaos?

Risking his life within the monster-infested catacombs of Ribos, the Doctor has to use all his wit and ingenuity to find out …

Chapter titles

 * 1) Unwelcome Strangers
 * 2) The Beast in the Citadel
 * 3) A Shaky Start
 * 4) Double Dealings
 * 5) Arest and Capture
 * 6) Unlikely Allies
 * 7) Escape into the Unknown
 * 8) The Doctor Changes Sides
 * 9) Lost and Found
 * 10) Conjuring Tricks

Deviations from televised story

 * The Doctor plans to holiday in Occhinos instead of Halergan 3.
 * The Guardian's meeting place dissolves into space and the Doctor nearly makes it to the TARDIS.
 * The tracer is called the Locatormutor Core.
 * Romana graduated from the Academy with a Triple Alpha while the Doctor graduated with Double Gamma on the second attempt.
 * Cyrrhenis Minima is renamed Cyrrhenis Minimis.
 * Jethrik is renamed Jethryk.
 * The Graff Vynda-K is renamed the Graff Vynda Ka.
 * The Graff is unhinged and needs Sholack to control him.
 * The Seeker is unaffected when the Graff stabs her to death, but carries on in a zombie-like form.
 * The end of the story happens in a different order to the televised story.

Writing and publishing notes

 * Although based upon the first story to feature Romana I, this book (and all the Key to Time novelisations that followed) was actually published after Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks, which began the character's second series.
 * When Target retroactively numbered the first seventy-three novelisations alphabetically, this was given the number #52; by coincidence it was the 52nd book to have been published.

British publication history
First publication:
 * Hardback
 * W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK


 * Paperback
 * Target

Audiobook
This Target Book was released complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by John Leeson, who voiced K9 in the television story.

The audio set of four CDs was released in March 2011 priced £13.99 (UK)