Who Reviews Target Zone: Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation by DJ Forrest

‘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.’

Written by Ian Marter and Robert Holmes

Published in 1979

Target Books

I can’t remember watching this on the television or indeed DVD later, and so trying to figure out the creature lurking in the depths of the catacombs or protecting the Sacred Room that is about to be broken into by a skinny thief, is hard to imagine, apart from the image that does the creature no favours from the front of the book.

The story is interesting but there were a few times where I lost what was being sought after, and Romana (long title) drove me to distraction. It was almost as if she really didn’t need to be there, but for the search of the segments which held the story together.

I was rooting throughout the story for Unstoffe, the young robber of the jewel which was really the priceless segment the Doctor and his companion were after. It was also what the Graff Vynda Ka was after also, but for reasons different to the Doctor.

The Graff was a spoilt brat of a Prince who clearly liked to get his own way and was lost when his manservant was killed in a rock fall, because without Sholakh the Prince lost his mind and became unpredictable in his actions, which cost him dearly.

There was an old man who had predicted life on other planets and who had been exiled because nobody on Ribos believed that life existed anywhere else other than Ribos – bit like Earth then! I felt that his character was too short lived and wasted in the story – it might have saved Unstoffe from being run through by Vynda Ka but I felt that there was so much more in this old man that could have been explored, perhaps in another story. He seemed wasted in this story. A too ‘throw away’ character.

Overall the story was enjoyable and engaging and kept the momentum up throughout. It’s probably not one I’ll read again but I would like to see the televised episode to see just what the creature in the catacombs really looked like.