Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos (Story 139)
by Ron Jones
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DVD details
Actor: Colin Baker, Jason Connery, Martin Jarvis, Nabil Shaban, Nicola BryantDirector: Ron Jones
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 89 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-03-04
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Video / Warner Bros.
DVD Reviews of Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos (Story 139)
DVD Review: Quite good!
Summary: 4 Stars
I have seen some of the Sixth Doctors earlier stories. I immediately loved Colin Baker's portrayal as the Doctor. I thought his violent mood swings (sometimes homicidal) as his regeneration trauma was a nice twist against the Doctor's more comedic breakdowns.
But now we come to Vengeance on Varos. The Doctor is a lot more stable, and the story is nicely done. Russell Davies would do something similar to this in the revival series, but his episode doesn't match the sadistic nature of the type of people running throughout this story. Here is episode introduction in a nutshell: The TARDIS needs a certain metal to run properly, so the Doctor and Peri arrive on Varos to obtain such a fuel. But it turns out the world is run on television broadcasts of torture and death. There is more to it, but I won't spoil it for the other Who-nerds. It's not a completely dark story, there is comedy thrown in to lighten the mood. The comedy either comes intentionally from the dialogue, or unintentionally by the props and acting.
This brings me to the acting. Colin Baker does a fantastic job as the Doctor. He makes you believe he is a mad incarnation of the Doctor. His Doctor is very unpredictable in his words and actions. Watching him is the real treat. After watching the Twin Dilemma and Attack of the Cybermen, I expected Peri to constantly whine like child, and therefore annoy the hell out of me. To my surprise I found her quite tolerable here, though the actress who played her still could have taken some acting lessons. Instead of Peri, the character I was most annoyed by was Sil. This little green monster spends his time shouting stupidly and doing this annoying cackle with his tongue. If they had changed Sil's mannerisms, I wouldn't have minded him being there. Nevertheless, this guy is the reason I gave the episode four stars.
To summarize, a good addition for any Doctor Who fan. Dark, funny, violent, and somewhat trippy. The more I watch Colin Baker's Doctor, the more I like him. Possibly my favourite Doctor. I don't care what anyone says, I like his costume! Fits his personality nicely.
DVD Review: Colin Baker's Finest Story
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the criticisms leveled against Baker's stint as the Doctor is the level of violence in his serials. Though this factor is oft repeated as responsible for the series downfall, I find very few people bothered by it, and many actually in favor of it. It seems yet another case of the loud few speaking for the many, while the unthinking mindlessly parrot what they heard or read, "knowing" that it must be true. How ironic, then, that this particular story has come to be regarded as the poster child for that complaint.
Varos is depicted as a depressing world with corroding, claustrophobic hallways that mirror its corrupt society. Ruled by a disillusioned governor who vainly tries to balance the contradictory goals of doing what must be done for the good of society with what he has to do to appease the uneducated, brain-washed masses in order to retain his governership (sound familiar?), the planet's government uses violent, reality TV shows to distract the working class from pondering too deeply their increasing lack of liberty, deteriorating life-styles, impotence of government to handle important matters, and the fact that leading figures of government come from a few ruling families in spite of its supposed democratic ideals (this last is mentioned only once and never followed up on, sadly, but again, does it sound familiar?). Enter the Doctor to tangle with the powers-that-be while, against this backdrop, a subplot involving an alien corporation attempting to pirate Varos' economy plays out, a coporation willing to use military force to obtain its commercial ends (does THAT sound familiar?).
Like "the Sun-Makers" and "the Caves of Androzani", this one delivers socio-political commentary that may be too frank for those who like their commentary laden with agendas, emotions, and/or "proper" thinking. And that is exactly what this serial is about, how the ruling class manipulate an increasingly jaded public with a carrot-and-stick combination of gratuitous entertainment that does double duty as implied threat against those who would be "subversive" by thinking improperly (as determined by the rulers). All this is done in the name of "the People".
The cast is excellent, particularly the actor who plays the besieged governor, and the script gives him room enough to be evil as well as good, yet another example of dramatically realistic characterizations prevalent in Doctor Who despite it being a low-budget sci-fi show. With the subject matter, one probably shouldn't be surprised that media supporters of the status quo were hostile to it. Yet, despite the bad press, it was apparently one of Colin Baker's most popular serials.
Though I tend to think the British public just got tired of ever changing doctors and same old ideas continuously repackaged, perhaps it was episodes like these that got the series cancelled. After all, media moguls and politicians alike suddenly become sensitive to the needs of those voices, however few, that call for what the moguls and politicos wanted to do anyway. That's listening to "the People". If you don't believe me, just turn on the TV. They wouldn't lie to you, would they?
DVD Review: Vengenance
Summary: 5 Stars
This Who story is a must see before the trial of a time lord, it will help with the stury line.DVD Review: The Other Baker Meets Bonds' Son
Summary: 4 Stars
"Vengeance on Varos" opens up with a couple watching the torture of a young man (Jason Connery). I guess you could say that they are watching the ultimate reality television show. They're on the planet Varos, which just happens to be the only place where the good Doctor (Colin Baker) can find Zeiton-7, a rare mineral that's key to much needed repairs on the Doctor's TARDIS. When the Doctor and Peri (the always lovely Nicola Bryant) arrive, they immediately fall into a big bit of trouble. They free the young man who's being tortured for Varos' viewing pleasure and get tangled up in a bargaining war between the governor of Varos and Sil, a nasty little thing representing a company (or so it seems) that's interested in buying Zeiton-7 at a bargain rate. Of course, the pricing argument is only a cover-up for Sil's true intentions: taking over Varos. In a world where death equals ratings and negative votes prove painful, can the Doctor and Peri free Varos from Sil's dirty plans?
This tale is considered by many to be one of the best Colin Baker storylines. It has a lot of action, a decent amount of gore, and some brilliant one-liners from Baker and Bryant. We get to see Jason Connery, Sean Connery's son, who plays Jandar, a rebel leader trying to overthrow the ancient ruling families of Varos. We also get our first look at Sil (Nabil Shaban), who is quite possibly one of the vilest, funniest enemies the Doctor ever faced. "Water me!" and Shaban's tongue-flicking laughter entrench Sil into your mind long after the story is completed. The rest of the enemies in this tale are some of the best during Doctor #6's run. This tale visits the idea of "reality" TV and just how far it can go. Today, many people argue over having the opportunity to pay-per-view executions. Could this tale have been a harbinger of things to come?
The special features are pretty light. This DVD comes with the standard "Who's Who," outtakes, production notes, trailers, a photo gallery and a decent featurette. The best special feature on this disc has to be the running commentary provided by Baker, Bryant and Shaban. Of special interest is Shaban's tale of how he came up with Sil's twisted little laugh.
I have to agree with the majority that this is one of Colin Baker's best outings as the Doctor. I always felt that he, along with Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy, were cheated out of excellent storylines for the bulk of their respective runs as the Doctor. If you are unfamiliar with Colin Baker's work as the Doctor, pick this DVD up as well as the "Trial of a Time Lord" DVD. It's some of his best work.
DVD Review: "Nah, he's not hurt. He's only acting."
Summary: 5 Stars
Maybe the medium is the message, maybe it's just a case of mixed messages, but there's something very odd about this "Doctor Who" storyline. On the one hand, "Vengeance on Varos" presents us with a deeply thoughtful and bitingly harsh satire of televised violence and viewer desensitization. On the other hand, it's exhibit A of that very tendency! As a sophisticated science fiction adventure then it's at once enormously entertaining and yet naggingly unsettling.
What is it about "Vengeance on Varos" that's so disturbing? Surely it can't only be the dystopian setting, although Varos paints a grim and forbidding picture of the future indeed: an economically backwards colony planet where, with not a lot of bread to go around, the powers that be rely overly on circuses to keep the populace mollified--the televised torture and execution of criminals, rebels, and dissidents for purposes of entertainment and edification, to be exact. Meanwhile the government itself is hemmed in by a strictly draconian constitution and a sadistic system of referendum, making meaningful change all but impossible--and this includes changing the way an intergalactic corporation represented by the delightfully slimy and evil Sil exploits them for Varos' one mineral export of value. Still, we've seen this kind of thing before on "Doctor Who", most recently in "Caves of Androzani" but way back in "Underworld" as well. This is just the stuff of good science fiction.
Is there more violence in this storyline? Maybe, but compared say to the Daleks blasting everyone in sight elsewhere in the show's history, much of the violence here is only suggested or else is bloodlessly abstract (inducing hallucinations that trick the mind that one is dying of dehydration). Of course there is an incredibly gruesome scene where two prison guards trying to kill the Doctor slip and fall into the acid bath they meant for him; this elicited a collective gasp from even such jaded viewers as my wife and me, granted, but is it really so much worse than the flesh-disintegrating nerve gas in "Resurrection of the Daleks"? Maybe it's the Doctor's blas? nonchalance in the face of their deaths, but we've seen the Doctor at his most popular and beloved exhibit this trait before, in "Pyramids of Mars" to be exact, and it didn't really faze us (and it was "good guys" rather than "bad guys" who bit the dust there). So what is it then? Maybe it's just the total overall effect, but I suspect maybe it's the way the mechanics of the story make the viewer complicit with the citizens of Varos--when the Doctor in almost James Bond style quips to the dying guards "you'll pardon me if I don't join you" I laughed out loud in spite of myself, this just moments after my horrified gasp.
Only Colin Baker could really pull this off, though. This is but the third storyline featuring the sixth Doctor and (as of this writing) the earliest of his storylines to make it to DVD. So what are we to make of this incarnation? Well, if the fifth Doctor was bland and beige and goody-two-shoes likable, the sixth Doctor was clearly designed to be a startling contrast to his predecessor on all fronts. Intense, vivid, and a bit of a jerk--maybe even an arrogant cold-(doubly)-hearted son of a [you know what] in a way we haven't seen since the very most earliest stories with William Hartnell. And yet for all that and for all his disturbing nonchalance when people trying to kill him are hoisted on their own petards, his moral gyroscope is much intact as ever, alloyed with a refreshing spontaneity and a bitingly sharp wit. He's inapproachably alien in ways you might expect from a centuries-old space-time traveler from a distant planet, but eccentric and likeably imperfect and ultimately a fine version of the Doctor indeed.
Incidentally, just who was getting their revenge, and on whom, on Varos? Never quite figured that out...
Description of Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos (Story 139)
On the planet Varos, prisoners and guards alike are subject to severest forms of punishment, which are then broadcast to the masses as entertainment. For the Doctor, Varos is the only hope for him to locate the rare mineral Zeiton-7 to power his ailing TARDIS. Arriving on Varos, he and Peri are soon caught up in events beyond their control.DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Actors Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Nabil Shaban (who played the slithery villain Sil)
Featurette:Behind the scenes
One of the most popular of Colin (the sixth Doctor) Baker's adventures, "Vengeance on Varos" finds the Doctor and Peri (Nicola Bryant) involved with rebels on a 1984-like planet, Varos, where televised torture is used to support and enforce the ruling regime. When first broadcast, the episode aroused condemnation over the violence shown--particularly two men falling into a vat of acid--as well as the implied horror and moral corruption. However, these complaints missed the satiric subtext of a world in which reality-TV suffering pacifies the masses while big business exploits them. While there is too much running about in corridors, the surreal terrors of the Punishment Dome make for good Doctor Who, and the adventure develops ideas from both "The Sun Makers" (1977) and "The Caves of Androzani" (1984) with considerable low-budget aplomb. Filled with bizarre touches, such as Peri's transformation into a bird creature, the show also marked Jason Connery's TV debut as a rebel leader. --Gary S. Dalkin
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