The Ribos Inheritance (audio story)

The Ribos Inheritance was the second and final story in the audio anthology Silver and Ice, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Jonathan Barnes and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush and introduced David Rintoul as Garron.

Publisher's summary
The Doctor and Mel arrive expecting Suntime on Ribos, but find a world still shrouded in snow and ice - but it’s not just the climate that’s gone awry...As forces plot against the young King, a soothsayer predicts doom. And out in the wilds, the Doctor finds wily conman Garron caught up in events on Ribos once again.

Part one
On Ribos, King Kari is told by the Seeker that the Duke of Hishtar, one of his advisors, is a traitor. Kari ignores the Seeker's suggestion that he be burnt and instead exiles him from the city of Shur. Hishtar speaks out against him and tells the commoners that the Ribosians need to take back their planet.

Mel finds the Doctor in the Cloister Room, brooding about the changes he sees for himself in the future, and comforts him. After Mel advises him to live in the moment, the Doctor decides to take her to Ribos in the Suntime; whilst the TARDIS does materialise at the time the Doctor intended, they find that it is still Icetime. The ice that they step out on begins to crack and they run to solid ground, but the TARDIS is submerged and they are chased up a tree by a wild Shrivenzale. After a while, the Shrivenzale falls asleep and they try to get away quietly, but it gives chase once again until Sandarr the Barbarian slays it.

Sandarr takes the Doctor and Mel to her village to stay for the night. Whilst it is said that the unending Icetime is a punishment from the gods for greed, pride and sin, Sandarr does not believe in the gods and was told by her father that he saw strange lights that could be responsible. She advises the Doctor and Mel to see the wizard.

Kari comes to wonder if he had done the right thing in exiling Hishtar, having heard rumours that he is stirring up an army. The Seeker offers to consult her bones whilst he prays to the gods. He hears a robotic voice which he recognises as that of the gods and is told that he is loved and respected and should go to sleep. The voice wakes him up later on, warning him of a dangerous shapeshifter from beyond this world who could be of use. This stranger has many names and faces but is best known as the Doctor.

Part two
Sandarr takes the Doctor and Mel to the home of the wizard and stands guard outside. The Doctor recognises the wizard as Garron and is able to convince him that he is the same Doctor that he met twenty years ago. Garron begins to tell the story of how he came to be here, but Sandarr interrupts and warns them that her people believe they are witches and plan on killing them and burning their bodies. They escape through the caves and head north towards the Desolation of the Plains before Sandarr instead suggests hiding at an abandoned town that her people believe is haunted by spirits and blood-suckers.

Kari has Shur searched for the Doctor and tells the voice that he is nowhere to be found. He consults with his advisors, who offer no advice about how to deal with Hishtar and his rebellion. The Seeker informs him of her prophecy of the approaching magus, but Kari is unimpressed as he has already heard of this from the gods and wonders if he really needs her. Later, the voice tells Kari that they have found the Doctor.

In the abandoned town, Garron tells the story of how he came to Ribos; on Designate 9, he bought from Baladin Smith a device that extends meteorological conditions and planned on turning Ribos into a world of permanent winter, going straight and selling package holidays to holidaygoers. The lock and key of the device were stolen from him by brigands whilst he was in Shur and he has since heard a rumour that a strange key was sold to the rebels. The Doctor decides that he and Garron will go to Shur whilst Mel and Sandarr go in search of the rebels, but the rebels, led by Hishtar, find the four of them first.

The Doctor is transmatted to Kari by the voice of the gods. He tells Kari that he will help him defeat the rebels and suggests that the phrase "resistance is useless" could be a good one to use.

Part three
Over the next few days, the Doctor and the Seeker pretend to argue over how to deal with the imminent war in the hopes that Kari will choose to prepare for war but strive for peace. The Doctor searches the castle and finally finds Garron's lock in a chamber of relics and antiquities. He takes it and is confronted by the Seeker, who has been following him during his sojourns. It begins to glow, searching for something, and the Seeker demands at the point of a blade that he hands it over.

Hishtar has taken a fancy to Mel and presents Garron's key to her, believing its glow to be an omen of the rebels' victory. Sandarr returns from a scouting mission and reports that Shur is weak and will be vulnerable to the rebels' attack in the morning. She also tells Mel and Garron that she has heard rumours of Kari having a new and unusual advisor.

Kari is awoken by the voice and given instructions regarding the object that the Doctor has found. He has the city prepare for a seige by shutting the gates, sending archers to the spires and preparing the Battle Shrivenzale. The Doctor steals Garron's lock back from the Seeker and, with Kari's blessing, goes and raises a white flag to parlay with Hishtar and Mel. Kari and the Seeker watch from the battlements above.

The Doctor tells Hishtar about the lock and key and how they can restore summer. Hishtar hands the key over, but when nothing happens he takes his key back and sends the Doctor and Mel into the city to die. The attack begins.

Part four
Garron tries to slip away during the fighting and Sandarr stops him as Hishtar will have deserters executed. She promises to protect him, but later comes up with a plan and tells him to flee. She kills the distracted Hishtar and takes the key from him, claiming that his final command was for the army to fall back.

The Doctor and Mel head to the throne room and learn from the Seeker that Kari has fled into the city. A loose Battle Shrivenzale chases them and the Seeker takes it on so that the Doctor and Mel can escape and find Kari. They find him praying to the gods and join him in leaving the city to follow the voice's advice. The Doctor has the lock and key passed to Kari; when Kari puts them together, he collapses and Suntime begins to return. The Doctor takes command of the voice and he and the group are transmatted away to a colony vessel in orbit of Ribos.

The Doctor explains that Baladin Smith had set the lock and key to respond only to Garron's DNA and that Kari is Garron's son. Kari signed up for one of Garron's holidays roleplaying as the king, but he was attacked by a Shrivenzale and came to believe that he was indeed the long lost ruler as the Seeker claimed. The real reason he took the holiday, however, was to find his father. Garron decides that they will go into business together. With the Doctor's blessing, Sandarr declares that she should be the Ribosians' new leader and is met by the Seeker, who calls her "Your Majesty".

The Doctor and Mel return to the TARDIS, which is transmatted to the surface, and they materialise on Designate 9. The Doctor claims that it is a coincidence. He tells Baladin Smith to destroy her wares and dedicate her life to good works and, when she refuses, blackmails her with knowledge of a death that she was connected to. Baladin agrees, but warns Mel to be careful about hanging around with a man like the Doctor who will exploit a stranger's tragedy.

Mel sits alone in the Cloister Room and, when joined by the Doctor, worries about whether the new him will be like he was on Ribos or on Designate 9. She shakes the thought from her mind, however, and hopes that wherever they have landed is somewhere warmer.

Cast

 * The Doctor – Sylvester McCoy
 * Mel – Bonnie Langford
 * Garron – David Rintoul
 * King Kari – Homer Todiwala
 * Sandarr – Vivienne Rochester
 * The Seeker / Baladin Smith / Computer Voice – Issy Van Randwyck
 * The Duke of Hishtar – Paul Bazely

Worldbuilding

 * Mel says "change is the law of life", quoting an American President. The Doctor recognises it as one of Jack's and hints that he gave him that idea.
 * Ribos is a quaint and picturesque stage 3 planet in the constellation of Scytha.
 * The Doctor looks for sunscreen.
 * The Doctor suggests that Mel gets a flask of soup or sweet tea.
 * Shrivenzales grow larger outside of captivity.
 * When Mel wakes the Doctor up, he mistakes her for Katarina.
 * Sandarr's father told her stories about the Suntime. He died in the Battle of the Mercenary's Ditch.
 * Sandarr gives Mel a shawl after she declines to wear animal skins.
 * Garron dropped Unstoffe off at a petting zoo on the Second Moon of Krytoven after he fell in love with a lepidopterist.
 * Garron's story began in the bazaar below the metropolis on Designate 9.
 * Mel likens Garron to a crooked Crusoe.
 * Sandarr says that they must head north to the Desolation of the Plains.
 * Mel mentions Charlton Heston.
 * Kari's mother was Claire from Canning Town. She kept Kari a secret from Garron until the day she died, something that she regretted.
 * Baladin Smith was connected to the death of a young singer in a nightclub on the Second Moon of Animalia.

Continuity

 * Mel mentions the Sixth Doctor and his regeneration. (TV: Time and the Rani)
 * During his fourth incarnation, the Doctor met Garron. Twenty years have passed since then. (TV: The Ribos Operation)
 * Mel questions whether she wants to continue travelling with the Doctor and hopes that they will land somewhere warmer next. In Iceworld on Svartos, Mel leaves the Doctor to travel with Sabalom Glitz. (TV: Dragonfire)