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Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the most popular of Colin (the sixth Doctor) Baker's adventures, Vengeance on Varos finds the Doctor and Peri (Nichola Bryant) involved with rebels in a 1984-like world, where televised torture is used to support and enforce an unworkable regime ruling a mining society on the planet Varos. When first broadcast the story aroused condemnation not only over the violence shown--particularly two men falling into a vat of acid--but also over the implied horror and moral corruption. However, these complaints missed the satiric subtext of a world in which the reality TV suffering pacifies the masses while big business carries on exploiting them; and none were more memorably corrupt than the reptilian alien Sil--a love-it-or-hate-it OTT performance from Nabil Shaban. While there is rather too much running about in corridors, the surreal terrors of the Punishment Dome make for good Doctor Who, and the adventure develops ideas from both The Sunmakers (1977) and The Caves of Androzani (1984) with considerable low-budget aplomb. Filled with bizarre touches such as Peri's transformation into a bird creature, the show also marked Jason Connery's TV debut as a rebel leader.
On the DVD: There's 15 minutes worth of deleted and/or extended scenes and four minutes of stage footage, but by far the finest extra is the three way commentary track, with Baker, Bryant and Nabil Shaban. Affectionately sending the show and themselves up, while still demonstrating a great love for Doctor Who, the track sometimes degenerates into trivia, but at its best is simply hilarious. Both original BBC1 trailers and a continuity link are included, as is a photo gallery and the option to listen with the unfinished "production sound", something which is likely to appeal only to die hard fans. Rather more interesting are the optional on-screen production notes, which offer a wealth of behind-the-scenes information. The extras are completed with a small selection of outtakes. The sound is strong, clear mono, the 4:3 transfer has no sign of compression artefacting and is good enough to reveal the weaknesses in the original studio-bound video production. --Gary S Dalkin
Special Features
4:3 Full Frame
DVD 9
English
English
Region 2
Mono English
Mono
Commentary By Colin Baker Also Nicola Bryant And Nabil Shaban
On Screen Production Notes
Behind The Scenes Featurette
Extended Scenes
Deleted Scenes
Photo Gallery
Trailers
DVD 9
English
English
Region 2
Mono English
Mono
Commentary By Colin Baker Also Nicola Bryant And Nabil Shaban
On Screen Production Notes
Behind The Scenes Featurette
Extended Scenes
Deleted Scenes
Photo Gallery
Trailers
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story, excellent monster and an above average DVD,
By
This review is from: Doctor Who - Vengeance on Varos [DVD] [1985] (DVD)
Colin Baker's Doctor really comes into his own here. Playing against a really evil villain brings out the best in Colin's acting and livens up this script no end. Nabil Shaban as Sil clearly takes great joy in playing the character and makes him evil, memorable, and yet humorous at the same time. Ably supported by Martin Jarvis as a baddie who isn't really bad, plus Quillam and The Chief, the story is a bit over-populated and perhaps these latter two characters could have been combined into one. The story is one of the better 1980s stories, with a great deal of thought going into the principles behind it. Basically, the Doctor and Peri enter a world where the two main exports are live-action video nasties and Zeiton Ore. Evil alien Sil is trying to extort the Zeiton from Varos at rock bottom prices since the inhabitants don't know the real value. Although made in 1984, as Colin Baker remarks in the commentary, this is years ahead of its time as the real-life elimination games and viewers' voting systems were prescient of Big Brother and its clones. The DVD features a decent commentary from the literate Baker, entertaining Shaban and gorgeous Nicola Bryant (who played Peri). The other extras are from limited material and feature trailers, outtakes and that's really about it. At least they tried.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ONe of the BEst Colin Baker adventures1,
By A Customer
This review is from: Doctor Who - Vengeance on Varos [DVD] [1985] (DVD)
This has to be one the best Doctor who DVDs that has been or will be released so far. The story puts the doctor and Peri, on the planet varos, where they need to find a vital element, so the TARDIS returns to normal, with an apperance by Sean connerys son, and added value such as deleted and extended scenes, commentry and an unused tardis end seen, this would great for anyone who owns a dvd player!
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Underrated,
By
This review is from: Doctor Who - Vengeance on Varos [DVD] [1985] (DVD)
Watching this DVD, it's difficult to see why the series was in such trouble in the mid-1980s. This is not only great "Doctor Who", it's great television fullstop. A two-part (from the brief era in which the series had 45 minute episodes) stroy, it sees the flummoxed sixth Doctor discover the TARDIS needs more fuel, get embroiled in a political revolution on a mining planet, then watch the long-suffering Peri get turned into a birdwoman by a dastardly torture device.The story really works in the 45 minute time slot. Scenes are allowed to be played out to their full potential and characters are allowed to shine. Though ultimately shorter than most of the 4x25 minute episode stories, there feels like there's more to it. A couple of characters serve only to reflect the feelings of a populace kept in line by televised punishments and never become part of the main storyline, and you just get the impression these would have been cut right out of a traditional length episode, which were always about leading up to the next cliffhanger. In this story, the plot is allowed to develop without needing to get the Doctor into dire straits every 20 minutes. Villain of the piece, Sil, has been described as a love or hate character, and this is possibly true. I found his irate tongue flappings very entertaining. He comes across as the illegitimate child of Jabba the Hutt and Gollum from "Lord Of The Rings". True star of the show, however, is the much underrated Colin Baker. People found his Doctor grumpy and dislikeable, but in this story he's courageous, witty and a little scatterbrained. He really does seem to care about poor old Peri, too. Incidentally, in an extended scene on the DVD (there are over ten minutes of cut material) he's shown to have a blazing row with Peri, which makes it look like they hate each other. I'm glad it was cut. Whilst this story was a comment on the power of the media as a tool of an oppressive regime, I did wonder whilst watching it how Tony Blair and co would respond to a little Varosian democracy - the governor is tortured live on TV whenever the people reject his plans...
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