N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
The Sixth Doctor’s character — in Vengeance on Varos glum and defeatist to begin with, and later in the story careless and almost uncaring at times — is certainly a contrast with his predecessors. Watching Doctor Who in 1985 must have been an unusual experience for long-term fans.
As mentioned previously I was not around to see any of the Sixth Doctor’s adventures first time around and, because of this, his stories seem easier to watch with the benefit of hindsight — knowing that this was just a phase and that a mellowing of character was indeed intended (even if such plans did not come to fruition).
“As long as things appear truthful, that’s all that matters.”
The Doctor, Vengeance on Varos: Part Two
Vengeance on Varos might well be a satire on the public consumption of violence as entertainment, but for me it is the cliffhanger to Part One that is perhaps its most prophetic moment.
The governor’s editing of supposedly real-life events for maximum impact, even down to showing him directing the action from the production gallery and calling out ‘Cut!’ at the Doctor’s moment of apparent death, seems to me very much the kind of thing we might expect from the orchestrated “reality” TV that has been prevalent throughout the 21st century (albeit a bit bleaker than the usual hyperreal melodrama viewers have come to hate-like).
Add to this the idea of the public actually voting on onscreen events (and thus determining the outcome) and the Varosian chorus of Arak and Etta passing mordant judgment on the Governor’s proposals becomes a grim forebear to the Noughties’ Big Brother eviction night.
“This is the most wonderful entertainment.”
Sil, Vengeance on Varos: Part One
With its general themes of violence, torture and execution as entertainment, Vengeance on Varos is perhaps, not the most child-friendly of Saturday teatime fare, although The A-Team — popular at the same time and, with its sanitised, consequence-free violence — is in a way far more unsuitable.
The sub-plot involving Quillam’s scientific research neatly echoes the theme that television often provides a disturbing form of escapism — the transmogrification brought on by his experiments a physical manifestation of the subject’s desire to escape. Left unchecked, it’s disconcerting to speculate where Quillam’s experiments might have led if the Varosians ever decided to have tied his research into producing their television output. Such a release of ‘all the power latent in the recipient’s mind’ is something you might have seen in a early 80’s David Cronenberg movie.
Oddly, the infamous example of the Doctor’s acid wit — what I like to think of this story’s Lytton moment in terms of its standout gruesomeness — whilst Bond-like and fairly out-of-character in the general scheme of things, seems pretty much in tone with the action here.
Even in its happy(-ish) ending, Arak and Etta lament as to what they are going to do now that they don’t have 24-hour access to violence and torture on television. Cheery stuff indeed!
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention just how wonderful Nabil Shaban as Sil is in this story. Slimy and gurgling his way gleefully through every line, he is the first great new villain of the Sixth Doctor’s tenure.
Vengeance on Varos is by no means perfect, and you wouldn’t want all Doctor Who to be this grim, but nonetheless it is very good.
