"Tried reading that once." **thump**

In a word, classic. Season 22 of Doctor Who was off to an excellent start... it's debut story, "Attack of the Cybermen" was great, if not perfect (I took the liberty of giving it four stars out of five in my review for it here), and the following tale, Philip Martin's "Vengeance on Varos" builds up from that. Unfortunately, this trend was not to continue (the story after this one, "Mark of the Rani", is a couple pegs down even from "Attack", at least in my opinion, though still not bad). But if I had been both British and old enough to cleary remember 1984 (I fail on both counts), I know I would have been impressed by the way the series was going. True, both this story and its preceeding one were rather violent, but... well, evil has to be evil, right? To paraphrase the Doctor himself, Colin Baker says on the "Colin Baker Years" tape that the "villains should be able to do more than just say 'boo' and then run away." Heartily agree.

Some find Baker's brash, arrogant, selfish, mean, and sometimes cowardly Doctor too different from the hero the character had been in the past, through the portrayals of actors like Jon Pertwee or Peter Davison, which is why Colin Baker is not as popular of a Doctor among most fans as some of the others. But really... compare the First Doctor with the Sixth... I think that Colin Baker's take on the character is actually more accurate to William Hartnell's original portrayal than those that came after him, making Colin Baker really a more traditional Doctor! It reinforces the mysterious, alien qualities of the character. We know that deep down, in spite of all the negative qualities that form our first impression of him, the Sixth Doctor is good and kind at heart, for we see the transformation from one to the other occur in most of his stories. Colin Baker is my favorite Doctor, but he's not the only reason why I think this was a great story.

Varos is a very believeable world (the whole concept of reality TV featured in the story was definitely ahead of its time), gritty and industrialized. The governor, played by Martin Jarvis, was a wonderful, reluctant weary character who does what he has to do (marvelous performance), as was the alien creature Sil (is it just me, or does Nabil Shaban bear an uncanny resemblance, both in his appearance and in the sound of his voice, to the late David Rappaport? The first time I saw Sil, I thought it WAS Rappaport!). Wonderful, slimy character, in more ways than one. The story is intruiging, as the Doctor arrives on Varos to refuel his TARDIS (why do so many people hate this element of the story? I mean, why not?) and things don't go quite as smoothly as he thought they might (but do they ever?).

Nicola Bryant remains wonderful as Peri, who for me had her best run of stories from her first in "Planet of Fire" (in spite of her accent, which I'm willing to overlook... it improved drastically with the next story, "Caves of Androzani") up to this one. I didn't feel like the character felt quite the same after this one, which is really more the fault of the scripts than it is Bryant's performance. Up until the next story, Peri was just an American college student... spoiled and thrust somewhat unwillingly into a completely bizarre new direction in life. Once the writers seemed to think she'd settled into the routine of things, the character for me didn't work as well. They added the whole botany thing for reasons I've never been able to figure out (not that she couldn't be a botany student, but... well why should she be?). But I'm deviating from THIS story, where Peri remains wonderfully realized as just what she's supposed to be, a student who still hasn't gotten used to time and space travel and being the constant, frustrated companion of a man that half the time seems to forget that she is just as alive and as important as he is. Love the bit where she tries to convince the Doctor to read the TARDIS operations manuel, while he tries to ask her what the point is, as she'll be dead in sixty years or so anyway?

Before I finish, let me offer up my compliments to the director/writer for the brilliant cliffhanger! Rather than describe it, just see it for yourself. I recall thinking, immediately before episode one ended, "wouldn't it be great if they put the cliffhanger HERE?", and then they did.

"Vengeance on Varos" is probably my second favorite story from the Colin Baker era (my first favorite, which I've already reviewed here at Amazon, is the incredible "Revelation of the Daleks". Of the mere eleven stories he starred in, both this one and that one are both definitely five-star efforts. Give them a shot! (the DVD commentary and deleted scenes are a nice couple of extras too, but the only two that really interested me). Give "Varos" a chance, and I don't think you'll be sorry.

Carry on Carry on,

MN

"Under the circumstances, that man deserves an Oscar..."

"Vengeance on Varos" is one of "Doctor Who"'s more controversial stories. Taken from Season 22, right before the show got cancelled (albeit briefly), it's unusually dark and violent. This was at the beginning of the short-lived Colin Baker 6th Doctor era, whose darker take on the title role caused some audience acceptance problems. "Varos" is then a worthwhile choice for the first 6th Doctor story to be released on DVD, while not the best story available.

Given the "Restoration Team" treatment, "Varos" is notably lacking in the care and attention given to the extra features that made, for example, "Aztecs" and "Caves of Androzani" such outstanding DVD acquisitions. There are no production featurettes here, no behind-the-scenes interviews with cast members or the production crew. 3 features simply dump raw video footage without any explanation. The "outtakes" and the "behind-the-scenes featurette" basically show the same thing... aborted takes with a PA calling cast members "darling" and "love" a lot. The extended/deleted scenes montage, while satisfyingly long (10 minutes), doesn't offer any context to those scenes would have fit into the story, as was done on the far more professional "Remembrance of the Daleks" presentation. Baffingly, one audio tracks allows you to watch the complete episode... without incidental music or sound effects. I'm not sure who would sit through 90 minutes of this.

Fortunately, the audio commentary track is well above-average. Many DW stories are narrated by aging cast members who barely remember their time on the show; not here. Colin Baker is well-versed in his character's mythology, and is able to walk the audience through the particularly controversial scene in which the Doctor seemingly shoves a security guard into a vat of boiling acid. From a production standpoint, he attempts to explain why this scene isn't as bad as it appears. Nicola Bryant (Peri) doesn't say much (and she didn't on the "Caves of Androzani" DVD either), but Nabil Shaban (Sil, an anatomically-correct slug sitting on a fishtank) shows himself to be a real "Doctor Who" fan, and tells some funny on-the-set stories as well (such as the time when, in costume, he was mistaken for an inanimate prop!). Both Baker and Shaban together may come across a bit smug, as they deride "reality TV" and "post-Thatcherite economics", but they both provide excellent, funny context for the story. "Varos" becomes one of the few DW DVDs so far with an audio commentary worth playing more than once.

James Bond fans who purchase the disc will be interested to note that "Varos" marks the TV debut of Jason Connery, son of Sean. He doesn't have a whole lot to do here -- he plays a no-nonsense rebel who goes shirtless most of the way -- but it's interesting to note that his chest is nearly as hairy as his dad's.

Story taking on voting, governments, and corporations

Having run out of a vital component for the TARDIS, the Doctor and Peri are forced to land on Varos and replenish it with Zeiton 7. Unfortunately for the Doctor, he has landed during the period where Varos is a "prison planet, a colony for the criminally insane, [where] the descendants of the original officers still rule by fear." The rest of the people live in poverty, toiling without hope.

They interrupt the execution of the rebel leader Jondar, rescuing him, and joining his wife Areta through a labryinth of passages beset by mental booby traps in order to find a safe exit. The Doctor is able to maneuvre through some of the traps, and evades capture longer than the other three.

Varos has a dysfunctional totalitarian system, where the referendum system has the governor submitting any proposals to the voters. If they approve, fine, but if not, he is subjected to a human cell disintegrator. Four losing votes generally kills the governor, and then there's a new candidate. The reason for this is that the planet isn't prosperous, its Zeiton 7 being the only asset, and that is ruthlessly exploited by the Galatron Mining Corporation through its representative, a tiny cackling seaweed-coloured reptilian slug named Sil. The governor wants to further rationing of food in order to hold out for a better price per unit on Zeiton ore, but men vote with their stomachs despite the fact that Sil is trying to buy Zeiton ore for less money, cheating them.

We meet a typical Varosian couple, Arak and his wife Etta, the former who hates the governor, the latter an ardent supporter. They, like others, have a TV screen with a set of voting buttons (yes, no) per person. They are bored and dissatisfied with their life, but kept entertained by scenes of execution and torture on TV, which also serve to deter subversive activities. The interesting thing here is that voting is mandatory, and Etta isn't above reporting her husband. But more than that, they are a society dominated by TV and must keep themselves apprised of special announcements.

The concept of forced voting is interesting. Less than 50% of eligible voters turned out for the 2000 election in contrast to over 90% in Saddam's Iraq. Voting is supposed to be a privilege, but do governments have a right to force people to participate in order to eliminate apathy? Even more is the referendum system of Varos. What if we had a setup like this, where the president was forced to directly appeal to the people and get his proposals accepted or defeated, with four strikes meaning the end for the president? Makes one think, eh?

It's not a good system for the Varosian governor, who tells Peri that "the theory [is] that a man scared for his life will find solutions to this planet's problem... except that the poor unfortunate will discover that there are no popular solutions to the difficulties he will find."

When the series was temporarily put on hold, one of the excuses was of the violence in the series. Possible targets include the acid-bath deaths of two characters, the Doctor showing little remorse for the acid-bath casualties, and resorting to killing rather than trying to talk sense to the villains. And a guard slaps Peri's face for tricking him early in the story. Nasty characters include the scientist Qwillam, who says of the rebels "I want them to scream till I'm deaf with pleasure, to see their limbs twist in excruciating agony, ultimately their blood will flow down the gutters of Varos."

Jondar is played by Jason Connery, son of you-know-who and clearly not as good an actor as his famous father. Nabil Shaban would return as Sil in part two of Trial of a Timelord, Mindwarp. The marsh minnows he eats are sliced peaches dyed green, BTW. The actors portaying the villains do a better job here, but Martin Jarvis plays the governor and does a good job conveying a well-meaning politician wanting the best for his people but trapped by the political system.

A cross between 1984 and futuristic sci-fi movies of rebellion against an oppressive regime, Vengeance In Varos succeeds despite it being totally studio-bound due to the thought-provoking ideas derived from it.