Review: Doctor Who Classic: Vengeance on Varos

Sil (Nabil Shaban) makes an unfair deal.

The Sixth Doctor wasn't liked. Simple as that; he's consistantly one of the lesser popular Doctors and his reign saw a number of problems that eventually led to the series' end. These issues are too often blamed on Colin Baker, when in reality the character's portrayal was because of the writing and was a product of his production team. However. The same team that brought Warriors of the Deep and Caves of Androzani in the same season take us from the relatively mediocre Attack of the Cybermen (which is my favourite story) to today's story, Vengeance on Varos - a Doctor Who Classic if I ever saw one.
     The main themes surround "video nasties", a concept emerging in the 80s due to the invention of the Video Tape that allowed more scenes of violence directly into people's homes. The people of Varos, a former prison colony, live under constant surveillance and spend their time working and watching television. They're shown the results of the former prison's death traps and executions, as well as a series of governor elections whereby the incumbent is hit with a death ray if disapproved of. In a way, Doctor Who criticised Video Nasties by becoming one itself, or at least highlighting such - death and destruction are abound, from the infamous acid bath scene to a corridor filled with deadly vines.
     The Doctor and Peri stumble in on this deathtrap while looking for Zeiton-7 ore, a substance designed for fueling time-space travel. The colony is being priced out of its mind by the Galatron Mining Corporation, whose representative, Sil (we've met him before! Or is it after. Regardless) is a sickly green slug, played by Nabil Shaban. His performance is simply wonderful; the power-mad grotesque with the spine-tingling giggle in the face of barbarity.

Arak and Etta watch Torture on TV.

     The episode is punctuated with scenes with two average viewers; Arak and Etta. They never interact with any of the other cast, and their Greek-chorus style dialogue allows a lot of brilliant satire to come to fore. ("This is a repeat!") And while it's obvious that they're really not necessary in the story, they act as a point of idnetification for the view - what better to demonstrate the point against graphic violence on television than to have to realisticly written people do exactly the same? Arak and Etta get their point across in the subtle things - the adherance to strict rules despite the chaos of the torturing chambers, the utter dismissal of every govenor regardless of policy. This wasn't very subtle, perhaps, but it was a great commentary on the mid-80s.
     Ironically, this serial has had issues in the past regarding violence within itself. There's a scene in the second half of the story that has been long used as an example of Six's violent tendencies - where, it would appear, he throws two guards into an acid bath and then makes a Bond-esque quip. The scene isn't as vindictive as described; the guards end up killing themselves, but Phillip Martin's debut script (followed up by Mindwarp) doesn't do him any favours. The Sixth Doctor is still in his "evil" phase of character development, a cruel mimic of the First Doctor's initial character - and this doesn't help to advance towards a likeable Doctor.
     There's also the unfortunate continuation of Peri's characterisation, which suggests that everyone in the universe has either fallen in love with her or wants to use her for medical experimentation. In Androzani she was Jek's obsession; in Attack of the Cybermen she was abducted by a race of space-lesbians. Here she's... turned into a bird. When I think about Vengeance, I try to ignoe this subplot, as it doesn't make much sense and demonstrates that at this stage in the series' history there were still a lot of problems with episode length. Really, this should be three episodes 25 minutes in length - shaving off that waste 15 minutes taken up by a few of the episode's less powerful subplots.

Stumbling into trouble. Again.

     Vengeance on Varos is a brilliant satire on the nature of 80s television, and predicted the burdgeoning nature of reality TV in the turn of the millenium. With a strong cast of excellent performances, the episode's only faults like in a little but of fluff to be trimmed around the edges. Varos isn't at all perfect, but it's the standout story of Colin's era and a great end to this triplet of reviews.

Thanks.

IN TWO WEEKS: We begin our look at the Beginning of Doctor Who...