Episode #138 : Vengeance on Varos

"Oh, I thought you were my mirror image — Until I realised I wasn't the one holding a gun."

Episode 138:     Vengeance on Varos.
Companions:     6th Doctor and Peri.
Air Date:           19th to 26th January 1985.

Seeking the rare mineral Zeiton-7 to repair his TARDIS, the Doctor arrives on Varos, a world where political prisoners and their guards are all subjected to sadistic tortures and executions which the colony's inhabitants view and vote on through interactive television. Accused of being alien infiltrators helping the colony's rebel factions, the Doctor and Peri find themselves the latest unwilling subjects in this most extreme form of reality TV.

Vengeance on Varos is an exceedingly dull story that appears at first glance to be a satire on politics, reality TV and the TV generation as the 1980's saw them. We are presented with a culture where politics is decided by a live or die approach that ensures that while the population are given political control they are also keep poor, hungry and addicted to some disturbing television. By itself now a bad back story but then we find a second plot that deals with mining concerns and corporate manipulations. There is too much and not enough time to do an adequate job with it.

This story tends to get some fan grief because of the Doctor's somewhat violent and uncaring approach. Guards are vaporised without knowing the situation and two others are dissolved by acid with just a sarcastic joke from the Doctor. Personally I find this all rather good as Colin Baker is playing a very different persona to what has gone before. A darker Doctor has been long in coming. This time he really is the anti-hero.

Sil, as the overall villain, is quite a nice addition to the foes that the Doctor has overcome. Played by excellently by Nabil Shaban, Sil is a slimy, uncaring and quite repulsive character. The evil gurgling laugh he gives the character is just inspired. Sil doesn't do much in the story but he is remembered where as Vengeance on Varos is best forgotten.

Episode #109 : The Leisure Hive

Brock: His scarf killed Stimson.

The Doctor: Arrest the scarf then.

Episode 109:    The Leisure Hive.
Companions:    4th Doctor, K9 and Romana.
Air Date:          Four episodes.30th August to 20th September 1980.

The Doctor and Romana visit the Leisure Hive on the planet Argolis, the surface of which is uninhabitable following a twenty minute nuclear war between the Argolins and their enemies the Foamasi. The Argolins themselves are now sterile. Pangol, the youngest, was created by the Tachyon Recreation Generator, a machine that runs games in the Hive.

The Leisure Hive sees our time travellers going on holiday after the K9 goes pop in the sea water at Brighton. They go to Argolis where the survivors of a war have build a huge holiday resort as a means of promoting peaceful relations between races. Unfortunately some criminal elements from their old enemies the Foamasi, have taken the opportunity to buy it cheaply, but also a rogue element within the Argolins has plans of his own.

This story started the 1980 season and sets the tone for the show throughout the remaining years of the classic show. The production values stabilise and become what I think most people think of when they think of the classic show.

The story does suffer from men in suits syndrome where the Foamasi are concerned and they do look ludicrous. The Argolins however look quite good and seem thought out as a people a little more than most alien species in the show.

This story is ok but nothing special. Like many of the later Tom Baker stories there isn't anything to really grasp as being strong or weak elements. It's the sort of story that needed a bit extra to make it as good as it could have been.