Vengeance on Varos by Philip Martin
19 - 26 January 1985
I love television, don't you? To tell you the
truth, I'm more the sort to only follow a few series, but obsessively. A
habit I am now trying to break, but given the fact that I am still here
posting about Doctor Who, you can probably conclude that my success has
been limited.
Doctor Who has always been pretty self-aware of its status as a TV show,
whether in its limitations or its possibilities. The TV screen as a
portal or doorway to a fantastical world is a motif that is common all
across television, but seems especially prevalent in Who - here I'm
thinking of The Mind Robber and Carnival of Monsters, but also the TARDIS scanner itself, which has been compared to a television often enough. As Rosa pointed out in Loups-Garoux, the TARDIS may very well run on imagination.
That the same means of accessing the realm of imagination could also
carry with it unseen dangers is something which the program has not yet
broached, with Vengeance on Varos perhaps the first story to do
it explicitly. I wasn't alive for them, but I'm given to understand that
the Eighties were a period where violence on television, and especially
home media, was becoming more and more of a hot-button issue. The
anxieties of this period are reflected in this story, in Varos' major
export of televisual torture "entertainment".
This is played out across what is a delightfully grotesque and dark story. Although Robert Holmes' name isn't on it, Vengeance on Varos still feels like it has inherited a lot of its DNA from stories like The Sun Makers. Colin Baker's Doctor seems particularly well-suited to stories of this type, so it's good to see him in this setting.
The way it starts is just electric, immediately establishing the sort of
society they have on Varos by way of the commentary between Arak and
Etta (Clara's grandma! I almost didn't recognize her). Keeping these two
in something like the role of the ancient Greek chorus, commenting on
the action but never a part of it, was an inspired choice, and made
their scenes very entertaining.
The whole guest cast is on point for this one. Quillam (delectably
evil), the Chief Officer (quite good), and of course Sil (the little
freak!) all make for some memorable characters. The Governor is also
quite good, dignified but sad. His voice was familiar, but I had to look
him up to find that Martin Jarvis also voiced the propaganda reel in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. I think it's pretty funny that he is in more or less the same line of work in this one!
Ironically, despite showing to us the face of a society rendered
insensate to violence, the story is fairly violent itself. Less so than Resurrection in
the previous season, of course, but still notably so. Much is made of
the Doctor's struggle with the two guards at the acid bathing chamber;
for the record, I think the Doctor is off the hook for that one, the
first guy tripped and then pulled in the second himself. This irony
feels intentional, however, and the violence feels more tongue-in-cheek
this time, rather than existing solely for shock value.
I quite liked this one. I hope to see more of its like before this Doctor has gone.
For the first time in a while, we'll be headed to the literary realm next time with Grave Matter.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 10 May 2024.)
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