Doctor Who over the years: Episode quotes
The Ribos Operation – Part 1
The White Guardian: Doctor, you have been chosen for a vitally important task.
The Doctor: That's very flattering, sir.
The White Guardian: It concerns the Key to Time. You know of the Key to Time?
The Doctor: Well, I've heard a few stories. Old legends, myths, that sort of thing.
The White Guardian: It is no myth.
The Doctor: Sorry, sir.
The White Guardian: The Key to Time is a perfect cube, which maintains the equilibrium of time itself.
(A holographic image of a spinning cube appears for illustration, then fades away.) It consists of six segments, and these segments are scattered and hidden throughout the cosmos. When they are assembled into the cube, they create a power which is too dangerous for any being to possess.
The Doctor: Well hidden then, I hope, sir.
The White Guardian: There are times, Doctor, when the forces within the universe upset the balance to such an extent that it becomes necessary to stop everything.
The Doctor: Stop everything?
The White Guardian: For a brief moment only.
The Doctor: Ah.
The White Guardian: Until the balance is restored. Such a moment is rapidly approaching. These segments must be traced and returned to me before it is too late, before the Universe is plunged into eternal chaos.
The Doctor: Eternal chaos?
The White Guardian: Eternal as you understand the term.
The Doctor: Look, I'm sure there must be plenty of other Time Lords who'd be delighted to
The White Guardian: I have chosen you.
The Doctor: Yes, I was afraid you'd say something like that. Ah! You want me to volunteer, isn't that it?
The White Guardian: Precisely.
The Doctor: And if I don't?
The White Guardian: Nothing.
The Doctor: Nothing? You mean nothing will happen to me?
The White Guardian: Nothing at all. Ever.
The Doctor: Ah. What do they look like, these segments? How will I know them?
The White Guardian: They're all disguised.
The Doctor: Yes, I thought they might be.
The White Guardian: They contain the elemental force of the universe. They can be in any shape, form or size.
The Doctor: Then how will I recognise them?
The White Guardian: You will be given a locator.
The Doctor: Thank you.
The White Guardian: And an assistant.
The Doctor: An assistant? Please, sir, on an assignment like this, I'd much rather work alone. In my experience, assistants mean trouble. I have to protect them and show them and teach them and couldn't I just, couldn't I just manage with K9?
The White Guardian: K9 is a mere machine.
The Doctor: He is a very sensitive machine! Sorry, sir.
The White Guardian: You will find your assistant waiting for you in the Tardis.
The Doctor: Very well, sir. If you insist.
The White Guardian: One final thing, Doctor.
The Doctor: Yes?
The White Guardian: I am the White Guardian. In order to maintain the universal balance, there is also a Black Guardian, and he also requires the Key to Time, but for a different purpose. An evil purpose. He must not get it. Doctor, at all costs, you must prevent that.
The Doctor: How am I to prevent that?
The White Guardian: Beware the Black Guardian.
The Doctor: Beware the Black Guardian.
The White Guardian: Beware. Beware.
The Ribos Operation – Part 2
Romana: That thing. What is it?
The Doctor: A Shrivenzale.
Romana: I never imagined. Are there many creatures like that in other worlds?
The Doctor: Millions. Millions! You shouldn't have volunteered if you're scared of a little thing like that.
Romana: I'm not scared, I'm just. Listen!
(There are marching footsteps approaching.) The Doctor: Let's hide. Hide. The locks.
Romana: We could explain, surely.
The Doctor: Oh, yes, we can explain. Sorry old thing, we're just helping ourselves to your Crown Jewels! They'd have our hands off before you could say Rassilon's Rod.
(The Doctor picks up the locks from the floor under the display case.)* Romana:
(sotto) Rassilon's Rod?
The Ribos Operation – Part 3
Unstoffe: Thank you. Thank you for helping me escape.
Binro: Oh, it was nothing.
Unstoffe: Why'd you do it?
Binro: Well, I know what it's like when every man's hand is against you.
Unstoffe: Binro the Heretic.
Binro: Oh, you heard that. Well, it wasn't much of a heresy, my friend. Just a little thing.
Unstoffe: What?
Binro: Oh, it was many years ago now. Have you ever looked up at the sky at night, and seen those little lights?
Unstoffe: Mmm hmm.
Binro: They are not ice crystals.
Unstoffe: Go on.
Binro: I believe they are suns, just like our own sun. And perhaps each sun has other worlds of its own, just as Ribos is a world. What do you say to that?
Unstoffe: It's an interesting theory.
Binro: What? Hey, a broad-minded man. Perhaps in the north, they are a different people after all. You see, my friend, I have taken measurements of those little lights and of our sun, and I can prove that Ribos moves. It circles our sun, travelling far away and then returning. That's the reason we have our two seasons, Suntime and Icetime.
Unstoffe: Nobody believed you.
Binro: Nah, those blockheads. They prefer to believe that Ribos is some sort of battleground over which the Sun Gods and the Ice Gods fight for supremacy. They said that if I did not publicly recant my belief, the gods would destroy our world.
Unstoffe: And did you?
Binro: In the end. See these hands? Useless for work now. That's why I live here.
Unstoffe: Binro, supposing I were to tell you that everything you've just said is absolutely true. There are other worlds, other suns.
Binro: You believe it too?
Unstoffe: I know it for a fact. You see I come from one of those other worlds.
Binro: You?
Unstoffe: I thought I should tell you, because one day, even here, in the future, men will turn to each other and say, Binro was right.
The Ribos Operation – Part 4
The Doctor: Four o'clock and all's well. Goodbye, Garron!
Garron: Doctor?
The Doctor: Yes?
Garron: Doctor, I still don't understand.
The Doctor: What don't you understand, Garron? Go on, ask me something. What is it don't you understand? Who came first, the chicken or the egg? Go on, ask me something. Ask me something.
Garron: How did you manage to switch the jethrik for the thermite pack without the Graff noticing?
The Doctor: Garron, I would've thought you'd have known that. Sleight of hands.
Garron: Oh.
The Doctor: I was trained by Maskelyne.
Romana: Quite clever, really.
The Doctor: I do dislike faint praise. It was astoundingly clever, wasn't it Garron?
Garron: Indeed it was, Doctor.
The Doctor: Yes.
Garron: Oh, Doctor?
The Doctor: Yes?
Garron: A favour to beg. Do you think I might just handle the jethrik once more? Please? For old time's sake, you know?
The Doctor: All right.
Garron: Oh, it's lovely, isn't it? I'm so reluctant to part with it.
(Garron strokes the stone like a pet and turns his back on the Doctor, putting it in his pocket before turning back.) Oh, dear me. Well, there you are, Doctor.
The Doctor: Thank you very much. Goodbye, Garron.
(The Doctor hugs Garron.) Garron: Oh, goodbye, Doctor.
The Doctor: What's your name?
Unstoffe: Unstoffe.
The Doctor: Goodbye, Unstoffe.
Unstoffe: Goodbye, Doctor.
(The Doctor goes into the Tardis.) K9: Mistress.
Romana: Come along, K9. Goodbye.
Garron + Unstoffe: Goodbye.
(K9 and Romana enter the Tardis and close the door.) Unstoffe: Well, that's it, Garron. We'll have to go straight now.
Garron: Oh come, my boy, don't be downhearted. We haven't done too badly.
Unstoffe: Haven't done too badly? We've lost the jethrik, and we've come out of this without a penny.
Garron: Oh, don't forget that there's the Graff's ship stuffed with eighteen years of loot.
Unstoffe: You crafty old
(The Tardis dematerialises.) That's a queer takeoff.
Garron: Well, thank goodness he's gone. I was afraid he'd notice.
Unstoffe: Notice? What?
Garron: We haven't lost the jethrik. I switched it for a piece of ordinary stone. Yeah, I did. Look!
(Garron takes the stone from his pocket.) He switched it back again. Oh, Unstoffe, is there nobody you can trust these days?