Doctor Who:
Vengeance On Varos
By Philip Martin
DOCTOR: My death will
prevent Varos from ever progressing out of the reach of extortion of such as
the Galatron Mining Company. Our deaths will send any hope for this planet back
into the pit of fear and misery, which has for so long been the lot of its
people.
SIL: Pull the lever!
Stretch them out of this life!
DOCTOR: Wait! I came to
this planet because I needed a new source of energy supply. My Tardis depends
for its function upon a rare and precious mineral of Varos. Zeiton-7. I can
show you new prosperity.
SIL: Destroy them now!
The Doctor is trying to
repair the TARDIS when all of a sudden it just stops moving. The Doctor realizes what the problem is and
the TARDIS transitional elements have stopped producing orbital energy and they
need to get Zeiton – 7 to fix it. The
Doctor has accepted defeat and resound to his fate of living life out in the
TARDIS going nowhere. The TARDIS all of a sudden shows a bit of life
and The Doctor hopes it has enough power to get them to Varos which is the only
place to get Zeiton – 7.
The TARDIS lands in the
Punishment Dome just in time to save Jondar from execution. It appears that The Doctor and Peri have now become
involved in the local politics on Varos.
The slimy sales person Sil from the Galatron Mining Corporation has been
taking advantage of Varos for years over the Zeiton – 7 ore. It appears that The Doctor’s appearance and
intervention has caused him some grief as the governor is starting to think
about a way to take control of the ore.
Sil will not let this happen as he will do anything to keep the ore and
the high profits for the company.
Vengeance on Varos is the
one story that the BBC pointed the fingers at as the story that was to violent
and demanded that the production crew make amends while putting the show on
hiatus. If you actually watch Vengeance
on Varos it actually isn’t all that violent at all. Yes there were a few scenes that could be
deemed questionable like the guards falling in the acid pit while in a struggle
with The Doctor but stuff like that has happened before. In The Seeds of Doon
Gabriel Chase tried pulling the Doctor into the giant compost crusher while the
Doctor was trying to save him thus ended up with him getting shredded to
bits. Stuff like that has happened in
Doctor Who before and the BBC just had a hair across its ass and was just
looking for an excuse to put the show away.
In fact Vengeance on Varos
is a pretty good story that is a satire of everyday life. You have the couple where one is totally obedient
to the government and will do whatever her brainwashed logic will tell her to
do because the government told her it was right and then you have the
disgruntled worker who is fed up with the way things are and is looking for a
change. You can easily fit this couple
into everyday life as everyone knows someone who is like that. Plus you have the invention of reality
TV. That’s right Varos entertained their
populace with TV from the Punishment Dome with the inhabitants fighting for
their lives. Kind of like a deadly version of Survival where you win by
literally surviving the traps.
Vengeance on Varos is a
pretty good story in which they tried something different and for the most part
it worked pretty well. I liked how Colin Baker was a bit more grounded and not
overly the top as he was in the previous two stories. You can now see he has the role of The Doctor
as he wants it to be and he has the confidence in the role to portray him
extremely well and is now the Sixth Doctor we all know and love.
Varos also gives us Sil.
He is a slug like alien that is extremely bloodthirsty and greedy. He would sell his mother for a profit and
then turn that profit into more of a gain.
I always found him annoying and not one of my favorite villains in the
show. I just find the way he talks to be
like listening to finger nails on a chalkboard.
Varos also has Jason Connery in it also. He is the son of Sean Connery
and his claim to fame was being the second Robin in Robin of Sherwood.
Vengeance on Varos is a clever story that is more a dig at
governments and big business and makes for a nice story to watch from time to
time from the Sixth Doctor’s era.
Grade B +
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