6.3: Vengeance on Varos

In which Doctor Who does video nasties.

Broadcast: January 1985

Watched: January 2021

Vengeance on Varos, Part One

“This system of referendum, how much longer can I survive?” Good question, political allegory.

Anyway. I actually like this one, even if the punishment dome is clearly not up to much and the golf buggies are hilarious, so I’m pleased to find it stands up. The writing, despite a few big faults, really does feel a lot more sophisticated than... well, most of the last season, really. The story is about stuff, but it’s not a simple allegory: it’s gone down in fan lore as the video nasty one, but it’s just as much about politics. We’re in a paranoid, corporate state that we’re told, in passing, started as a prison planet, where people spy on their families for the government.

It’s interesting that politics isn’t treated cynically. Martin Jarvis’ quiet decency as governor sort of balances the horrors a bit: he’s honest about the hard choices facing the colony, but the electorate punishes him for it, just as it punished his predecessors. The leaders are as much a victim of the system as the people – which raises the question of why the chief officer and co are so happy to conspire to keep Varos down.

All the TARDIS-breaks-down business goes on for the entire length of an old school part one. At first I thought this was plot relevant because the Doctor needs zyton 7, but of course that’s just a maguffin, you could easily find another way into the story. Nice that they’ve finally got a chair in the Console Room, at least.

Is the Doctor still unstable? We sort of treat everything after Twin, or possibly Attack, as just what the sixth Doctor is like. But since Colin originally hoped to do a long tenure I wonder if this entire season is meant to be a sort of unstable Doctor: it’s weird that he descends into hopelessness almost immediately, and Peri assumes that he will. Also, she’s still managing his feelings and reactions in a way that feels unhealthy. I like the suggestion that he cooks for her, though.

After they arrive on Varos, Colin is suddenly the Doctor for the first time (“I like that one! The one in the funny clothes!”). The moments when he tells the guard (a young Owen Teale!) he’s an illusion, and saying “One way to find out” before jumping into danger, are properly doctorish: also, Peri laughing at the former in a way that suggests she likes and isn’t terrified of him.

Less good things: the casting of Sil’s bodyguards is massively racist. There’s some awkward exposition (“You have your anti-hallucination helmet? We wouldn’t wish for one of my guards to succumb to the phantoms of the Punishment Dome”). Sil announces *to nobody* that zyton is incredibly valuable the moment the governor passes out – is this meant to be a soliloquy?

Also, at one point the Doctor tells Peri, “Pull him away from the wall”; Peri then does something that isn’t remotely pulling him away from a wall, but which is apparently the right thing. And it’s odd to keep showing the giant, hallucinated fly after everyone has their eyes closed. Okay, it’s a real fly, but who is seeing it as massive?

On the flipside: the Greek chorus element, Arak and Etta commenting on everything, is fantastic. I like the way we learn that Rondel helped Areta (is there a name shortage on Varos?) escape by showing not telling. And the cliffhanger (“And cut it... there”) is amazing.

Vengeance on Varos, Part Two

“Do you always get the priest parts?” In the Doctor’s utter refusal to take any of this seriously, Colin is actually pretty good. The bit where he puts a mask on and, despite his coat, Quillam can’t recognise him any more is hilarious.

He’s still a dick though – mocking Quillim’s deformity as a form of distraction, not exactly violent himself but happy to facilitate other’s violence (the poison vines, etc), and seeming entirely unconcerned when innocent people fall into an acid bath (this is an odd fit with the reminders, elsewhere in the story, that many of the guards are decent and that they’re all victims of the system too). Basically he’s suddenly written as Bond without the gun; but it almost works if he’s got a good enough story.

I like the way the governor gains Peri’s trust by mocking Sil to her. Also, the way he is willing to screw her over at least a bit – he’s decent, but not weak. How exactly does Peri know what century she’s in?

I’m not entirely sold on the ending. For much of the story the message is “It’s not the people, it’s the system”, but the solution is “Kill a few people and you’re sorted”. Also, the governor has been voted out but just grabs power again at the end.

There are a few dead ends I’m confused by. The brief mention that it was a penal planet. The references to “end game” and safe routes – why would there be a way through the punishment dome? Are these relics of an earlier draft with more game elements? It’s weird how the same guard played by Owen Teale keeps being present at key moments. We saw him hit Areta earlier; now he’s saving the day.

The Greek chorus bits are basically Gogglebox. Never noticed the way Etta is desperate for water after watching the Doctor “die” of thirst – that’s great.

“I think he needs more than water, Peri, eh?” may be the most aggravating joke in all of Doctor Who.

Last question – why on earth is this story called Vengeance on Varos? Who exactly is taking vengeance?

Continuing to count in old money – there are 76 episodes to go to the cancellation.