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Vengeance on Varos Format Reviewed: DVD Review Vengeance on Varos is generally held in very high regard by fans, and is seen as one of the best stories in the Colin Baker era. This story came in the middle of a turbulent time for Doctor Who where the show was receiving massive criticism for the violence contained within. Many scenes in Vengeance on Varos are often misconstrued to be overly violent from the Doctors perspective when in fact he is being defensive rather than aggressive. This violence though may have been more of an exuse for the BBC to try to decommission the show to funnel funds elsewhere though. Vengeance on Varos starts with a bizarre scene where the TARDIS appears stranded in space without power. The Doctor eventually realises this isn't actually the case and takes the TARDIS to Varos where some rare mineral can be used to rapair damaged circuits. Varos is a backward mining community where outside influence from galactic conglomerates and their greedy employees have stifled the economic and social development of the planet. Things come to a head when the Varosian leader hears the Doctor say that Sil, a representative of the Galatron Mining Corporation, is artificially stifling the price of the zeiton 7 ore that Vars has in abundance. The Doctor eventually manages to win over the important figures and a negition is concluded successfully for the Varosians. The story is quite analagous to struggles in contemporary Human society. Large multi-national companies are sometimes viewed to be exploiting cheap labour in developing nations for their own gains. This is much of what Sil and his company are doing to the Varosians, although it is largely for the financial gain of Sil and his local cohort, the Cheif Officer. It is a bold and brave story line that is very good in my opinion. There is some problem with the execution though in my opinion. The watchers of the goings on is another great idea for me, but seems to be largely played for laughs whether intentionally or not. When the rest of the show is very bleakly portrayed, it seems strange to have these cut-away segments for humour. There is also little explanation or point to the experimentation of the local scientist, Quillam. This is one plot line that seems to have been half cut from the show, but not completely so seems disjointed. The cast fares quite well overall. Colin Baker, despite a patchy start to his reign as the Doctor gives a good account of himself, and despite the voice Nicola Bryant is fairly strong as Peri. In the guest cast there are some good and bad performances. Jason Connery as Jondar (yes, it's Sean Connerys son) is truly awful and wooden whereas Nabil Shaban as Sil is magnificent. Martin Jarvis playing the Governer is a little lacklustre but Nicholas Chagrin is excellent playing Quillan. The inconsistency in the casts performances and plot is pretty much what I think about the story in general. It has some really strong elements, but very weak ones to balance it out. This is a shame as it is in essence rightly seen as a beacon amongst some rather less bright storys in this era. There are some other good storys around this one but none with such good ideas at the heart. That is probably the major issue I have with Vengeance on Varos, not that that it is bad really, but that I think it could have been so much more. Having said that, what we do have a very watchable story though that does genuinely stand up to repeated viewing. Overall, Vengeance on Varos flatters to deceive somewhat in that a magnificent story is slightly let down by other aspects of the production. Some of the cast are lacklustre or just plain bad, whereas some are excellent. Some plot lines are truly memorable whereas some are abortive. Vengeance on Varos is a great story for the era though, and is rightly held in very high regard by Doctor Who fans. Certainly one for all the 80's children to enjoy! Rating:  |