By Roy Mathur, on 2025-02-21, at 23:02:30 to 23:57:39 GMT, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
The last time we did one of these was four months ago. Four months! But at least we are back again.
Notable Cast: Sixth Doctor: Colin Baker, Peri Brown: Nicola Bryant, Jondar: Jason Connery (2nd Robin of Sherwood in 1986, taking over from Michael Praed), Governor: Martin Jarvis (insectoid Hilio in The Web Planet: pod 40, Butler in Invasion of the Dinosaurs: pods 314--315), Sil: Nabil Shaban (Ivar the Boneless in The Strangest Viking), Arak: Stephen Yardley (Sevrin in Genesis of the Daleks Investigator Reeve in Blake's 7: Sand, The Day of the Triffids, Ken in Howards' Way)
Director: Ron Jones (Black Orchid, Time-Flight, Arc of Infinity, Frontios, Mindwarp)
Writer: Philip Martin (Star Cops, Virtual Murder, The Trial of a Time Lord, Mindwarp, Mission to Magnus unmade Doctor Who script with Sil, Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who: Invasion of the Ormazoids gamebook, Reeltime's Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor)
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Location: BBC Television Centre, Shepherd's Bush, 1984
Broadcast: Story 138, season 22, serial 2, following Attack of the Cybermen (pods 557, 560), 2 x c. 45 min, Sat 19 Jan 17:21pm to 26 1985
Media: Target novelization by Philip Martin (1988), BBC audio book read by Colin Baker 1997, VHS 1993, DVDs releases 2001, 2011, 2012, 2013, Blu-ray 2022, BBC iPlayer since 1 November 2023
I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner is the UK no. 1.
Guardian headlines: Lawson lands sterling deal, Thatcher, Kohl avert VE-Day war, and Don't split union Scargill pleads.
BBC One 23:50 Canadian sci-fi eco-thriller Deadly Harvest, starring Clint Walker.
A mine worker and his wife on Varos enjoy the spectacle of the public torture of rebel leader Jondar on their viewscreen. They argue about the voting later. The man says that he'd rather sleep and that she should vote on his behalf, but she tells him she'd inform on him if he misses the vote.
Peri is dubious about the Doctor's shoddy repairs to the TARDIS. The TARDIS shakes, then runs out of power, stranding them in space.
The Governor of Varos negotiates a price for zeiton-7 fuel ore with Sil of the Galatron Mining Corporation. Sil also suggests they could sell their public tortures and executions for profit off-world.
Back on the TARDIS, Peri tries to encourage the depressed Doctor, but he says, "It's all right for you, Peri...You'll age here in the Tardis and then die. Me, I shall go on regenerating until all my lives are spent."
On Varos, Sil negotiates secretly with the real power, the Chief of Security. They predict the Governor will die, should his next public referendum fail, and they'll have a better deal with his successor.
Peri gives the Doctor the TARDIS manual to read, eventually leading them to use the last of their power to travel to Varos in search of zeiton-7. They arrive in the execution chamber, free Jondar, escape the guards, then snag Jondar's wife, but are eventually captured.
Almost being killed by hallucinatory trap, that convinces him he's in a desert, the Doctor and Jondar and are taken to the gallows and Peri and Areta subjected to genetic transformation. Luckily, the hanging is a fake execution intended force the Doctor to reveal to the truth of the exploitation of Varos by Galatron. The Doctor and Jondar find their companions in the midst of transformation, strapped down to the scientist Quillam's devices, but manage to destroy the machine before the process is complete.
The Governor's death is interrupted by a sympathetic guard.
Sil's secret invasion planes are cancelled by his corporation after zeiton-7 is found elsewhere, thus forcing him to offer any price to the Varosians. The Doctor are rewarded with some zeiton-7 and the Governor announces that injustice has ended.
The couple we see at the beginning are not sure what to do with their newfound freedom.
The sadomasochistic torture of Jason Connery, his oiled body writhing, for the pleasure of the masses, is very camp and surprisingly fetishistic. It brings to mind Turlough's handling by sadistic pirate Captain Wrack in Enlightenment (pod 505). There are other adult scenes in both Old and New Who, e.g. the Doctor's sexually charged conversation with Tasha Lem (Orla Brady) in New Who's The Time of the Doctor, but they seem more prevalent in Old Who. They don't generally make scenes like these in children's programmes anymore.
The sheer fiendishness of the various ways one can die; hallucinations, poison plants, cannibals, torture by laser, induced cell death, transformation on a genetic level, hanging, acid baths, the unpleasant bickering proles, the crazy political system, and the flash uniforms of this blood-thirsty culture bring to mind any number of violent and corrupt tin-pot South American regimes. The constant referendums reminded me of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's Bedazzled (1967). Everything is so over-the-top unpleasant that you can't help but laugh in this clearly satirical story.
The body count is high. Even the Doctor gets his hands dirty. A couple of notable examples are when he sabotages the execution laser killing a guard and later fights another two, who plunge screaming into an acid bath.
Nabil Shaban really sinks his teeth into the role of Sil, the gloating, sadistic, psychopathic representative of Galatron, chewing the scenery in a way I've seen him do before as bloody-thirsty Viking chieftain Ivar the Boneless. In both roles, the characters have limited use of lower limbs. I suppose that's his way of reclaiming his disability. Were the roles both written for him specifically? I appreciated the way Sil mutates the sound of words, e.g. warping "governor" into an onomatopoeic "governeer", the last syllable rhyming with "sneer". There is also his startling tongue-flickering gurgling. Were both ad libs?
Masked, maniacal Quillam, the sadistic scientist, is so obviously a cheap Sharez Jek knock-off.
Jondar is ineffectual fluff, a pretty boy with bugger-all to do and thus, very underwritten as the rebel leader.
I found the creature design to be satisfactory. Peri does indeed look like she's changing into an avian; the feather quills are quite disturbing. Though Jondar's wife's forehead ridges make her look like a Star Trek: TNG Klingon. I found the FX, sets, props, and costumes similarly adequate, though nothing special. Sil, of course, is the star as a slimy, wet, frilled and finned pelagic reptilian with a writhing maggot-like tail.
Twice the Doctor goes into meta mode with acting jokes, verging on breaking the Fourth Wall, whilst no actually looking into the camera. First, on the way to the gallows, he asks a priest, "Do you always get the priest parts?" Later, threatened with horrible and publicly televised death, he says, "An excellent scenario. Not mad about the part."The revelation that the planet started as a prison for the criminally insane and that the elite are descendants of the original guards paints a particularly grim picture of Varos. However nasty the repression of any form of descent or rebellion, where is the actual "Vengeance"? Is it vengeance against Sil, when his deal falls through? In the end, none of the top bad guys dies, so it is unclear to me.
Public voting where, if the leader loses he is put to death, strapped into his very chair of office, would certainly have made James Cameron think twice about the Brexit referendum.
The ending, with the plebeian couple wondering what to do with their freedom, was a very elitist, middle-class view of a stupid proletariat who need orders to function. On the other hand, if we take into account some of my fellow great unwashed contemporaries; the perennial poppy wearers and Daily Mail readers... Maybe it's not so far off the mark after all.
Despite the richly thematic, often comedic, content; corporate greed, capitalism gone mad, kleptocracy, corruption, violent repression, and (for the UK) a fairly star-studded cast, the story dragged for me. I enjoyed the interplay between the Doctor and Peri in the TARDIS far more. Oh, I do love to be inside the TARDIS, etc.
Eric Saward complained about the quality of directing in a Starburst magazine years later. He went on to say that, due to JNT's unpleasant demeanour, they couldn't get decent or repeat directors. While this story might be weak, Ron Jones also directed Black Orchid, Time-Flight, Arc of Infinity, Frontios, and Mindwarp for JNT, so it makes Saward's allegations ring suspect.
Referring to my copy of Howe, walker, and Stammer's Handbook, Colin Baker is quoted as saying, "Vengeance on Varos is one of my favourite shows...a ripping good story...But at the same time...an underlying theme...: violence corrupts."