Episode Title: "I'm In The Minority" - Vengeance on Varos Review

THE EMPTY TARDIS:

The Missing Guest: Felicity Cousins from The Flop Cast was supposed to join but had to bow out about an hour before recording - her voice has been acting up again. "I don't think she ever really fully recovered from the last time she was sick when she was with us."

THE SEXY DOCTOR ANNOUNCEMENT:

John: "She was going to miss the announcement that we are now dealing with the sexiest Doctor to date!"

Jim: "According to People Magazine? According to the newspapers?"

The Daily Mirror: "In addition to having the sexiest Doctor, we also have a companion with great assets."

Jim's Pun: "You're really keeping abreast of this stuff."

John: "Yes, I am."

THE SEXINESS DEBATE:

Jim: "Honestly, sexier than Jon Pertwee? Come on."

THE BIG QUESTION:

John: "I told you this was one of my two favorite Colin Baker stories, and I would actually rank this up there as some of the best Doctor Who in Classic Who. What are your initial thoughts about Vengeance on Varos?"

PRODUCTION DETAILS:

Production Code: 6V (V for Varos!) Air Dates: January 19-26, 1985 Writer: Philip Martin (first story - will have sequel with Sil next season) Director: Ron Jones Original Titles: "Domain" and "Planet of Fear"

THE PUBLIC RECEPTION:

The Controversy: Episode didn't get very well received by the public. Scenes like:

• Acid bath deaths

• Attempted hangings

• Genetic experiments on women

The Complaints: Widely criticized in Radio Times Letters page and in TV program Points of View.

Unlike Before: "Unlike previous criticisms of the show's violence, this time it was raised by members of the general public. Some of the show's fans were even against this, besides people like Mary Whitehouse."

PART ONE SYNOPSIS:

Desolate planet Varos - citizen workers make up strange society of viewers who watch public torture and executions and vote on whether or not their Governor will be punished on camera for his actions. Official currently negotiating over price of Varos's precious Zeiton (Zeiton or Zyton?) with Sil, contentious representative of Galatron Mining Concern. Dealings going poorly for Varos. Sil has inside man - Governor's Chief Officer on his payroll advising him to oust current leader. Doctor and Peri arrive seeking Zeiton to repair ailing TARDIS, find themselves freeing rebel named Jondar from televised execution. As Governor, Sil, and everyone on planet watch, Doctor and Peri escape with Jondar and his wife Areta, only to wander into Purple Zone - tunnels haunted by fantastic illusions. Getting through them, Doctor discovers TARDIS has been captured, then loses Peri and others to guards chasing them. He himself walks into arid desert illusion. While citizenry watch, he seemingly succumbs to great heat and perishes.

THE META COMMENTARY:

Jim: "It's very meta what we would call meta today. It strikes you immediately that he's commenting about violence on television."

The American Target: "I personally felt a little targeted because I feel like in extension they - or he was - pointing that a lot at us here in the United States."

John: "I'd say that's fair."

THE PENAL COLONY:

Jim: "Weirdly enough, we're also going back to the old Australia thing. But as in good Doctor Who form, we get something like that dropped and then it's not picked up on again."

The Discovery: "The whole thing about 'I discovered that this is a penal colony' - or it grew out of a penal colony. I said 'Oh, all right, we've kind of had that a lot recently.' But then I remembered that it wasn't brought up again."

THE TIME CRAFT MYSTERY - AGAIN:

Jim: "Another thing that's used here - I'm sure you noticed it, and I don't get it unless it's something we're going to be rewarded with at some point - there's another mention of another space-time craft. So why do we get two of these mentions now? Or is that just coincidence?"

John's Explanation: "This particular season, without I don't know if they realize it, if it was done on purpose - we deal a lot with other alien cultures trying their hand in time travel. Including we're going to have, if I'm not mistaken, humans soon."

JIM'S OPINION:

"Piss or get off the pot. That's an interesting aspect, although as Homer Simpson's father said, 'I ain't for it, I'm agin it' because I think it does take the Mickey out of the Time Lords. But if you're going to go down that road, then tell us that story - what will the Time Lords do about making sure they're the only ones that get to do that?"

WHAT JOHN LOVES:

JOHN'S LIST:

The Music: "I love the music. I think the music is very inspired for this."

The Twin Dilemma Doctor: "This is more of the Doctor from Twin Dilemma - as he so callously says to Peri 'Oh well, you'll just live out the few years you got left, you'll die and that's it. But I'm stuck here forever in the...' That was actually an interesting moment. There was a little thread of Tom Baker's 'I am the walker in eternity' or whatever the hell he said in Pyramids of Mars."

The Torture Scene: "I thought it interesting that right off the bat we get a torture scene as Jason Connery's character Jondar is chained up. That's one of the first things that was called out - 'Oh look at this, we just start the show and this guy's being brutalized?' I guess they wanted to hit people with it right off the bat. 'This isn't your typical Doctor Who.'"

Jim: "It definitely isn't."

THE GREEK CHORUS:

John: "I was shocked - I didn't really realize it until watching it this time. We've got our two folks there sitting and watching. They represent us, the audience, the rest of Varos. How casual they talk about those being tortured as though they were fictional. You'd sit there go 'Oh no, that was the guy who got killed last week' - say that casually because it's all fiction. But these are real people and they're saying it the same way."

Jim: "I mean, I think that's part of the message - violence on television is numbing us to the fact that there is real violence in the world."

THE APPRECIATION:

Jim: "I'll admit that part is kind of interesting because those two are totally in that room the entire time. They're kind of like a Greek chorus. They're off to one side, commenting on everything going on. Then they themselves have a little struggle between them."

The Uniqueness: "That was an interesting thing to do because I don't really remember anything else like that - two characters who don't have any interaction whatsoever with all the other characters. And they're in one set the entire time."

GUEST STARS:

The Governor - Martin Jarvis: One of those rare people to have appeared in all three decades of Doctor Who:

• 1965's The Web Planet as one of the Menoptera

• Invasion of the Dinosaurs in 1974

Jim: "We wouldn't recognize him from that. But that's cool."

John: "See, point to me - I recognize that you recognize him. I went 'This dude has totally been in Doctor Who before.'"

Areta - Stephen Yardley: Previously played Severin in Genesis of the Daleks (1975)

Owen Teale (Maldak): Going to appear later in Torchwood episode "Countrycide"

Etta - Sheila Reid: "I was today years old when I discovered that Etta is Clara Oswald's grandmother in Doctor Who, appearing in both a Peter Capaldi and a Matt Smith story. And she's wonderful as the grandmother."

John: "She's adorable as Clara's grandmother. Still with us. Still acting. Last credit was just last year."

SIL - NABIL SHABAN:

The Condition: Born with osteogenesis imperfecta which left his bones brittle.

Recent Passing: "Only passed away this past October at the age of 72. We'll see him again next season in Trial of a Time Lord, one of the stories there."

Jim's Memory: "I did look him up because I couldn't shake the feeling he was in Time Bandits, but he wasn't. He really seemed like one of the - and pardon the term - dwarves, the little people. But he's not. He's not one of them. Kenny Baker is from Star Wars."

The Background: "He's Jordanian British."

PART TWO SYNOPSIS:

Doctor revives on gurney just before being put into acid bath and escapes. Governor tries to wring answers out of Peri but her truth falls on deaf ears. When Doctor is recaptured, Governor stages old-fashioned hanging to trick Doctor into talking, but instead makes Sil reveal his treachery against Varos. Peri and Areta put into transmogrifier and begin to change into animals. Doctor pulls the plug and together with Jondar they escape further into dome. There they come across more illusions and near death, while Chief Officer makes his own play to oust Governor with another public vote. Peri and Governor escape with help of guard and meet up with Doctor and others. Quillam and Chief Officer perish by poison vines. Back at Governor's chambers, Sil discovers his invasion has been stopped and he is ordered by his own people to negotiate for Zeiton at any price at all. A win for people of Varos, especially when Governor ceases all public tortures and executions.

HOT TAKE:

Jim: "What the heck? Well, where's the vengeance? Where's the vengeance? Why? I mean, just because it's a cool alliteration? The Doctor's never met any of the bad guys before. There's no vengeance that I'm aware of, so I didn't get that."

PART TWO FALLS APART:

Jim: "Part two - for me, it falls apart. I think it's kind of sort of everything but the kitchen sink."

The Purple Zone: "Especially at the end when they get further into dome and they've dropped the term 'the Purple Zone' - which is unfortunate because I kind of liked that. When we get to the point where all of a sudden there's like this flora and it's poison vines..."

Quillam and the Chief Officer: "And that's how they get rid of Quillam and the Chief Officer who doesn't ever have a name in this - he's just the Chief Officer. But he looks like a bad guy at least."

John: "All the guys, right?"

PART TWO WEAKNESSES:

Jim: "Part two is definitely weaker than part one. Then we go back to Sil, and everything's been taken care of for some reason. His company, his people, whatever - they just sort of change their mind and he's out on his tail."

The Other Source: "There was something to the effect that they found another source, so there was no point in... just abandon these people, we don't need them."

Jim's Problem: "I wasn't really buying it. I think it just really whimpers out at the end. We needed like an explosion. I really didn't care for the ending, especially since the Doctor is not the instrument of vengeance."

ANOTHER AVENUE TO NOWHERE:

Jim: "It is interesting, I'm with you. That said, it is another avenue that this story goes down with little to no reason for it to be there. You have the old trope of the valuable mineral - it's being mined, it's the MacGuffin, whatever, everybody wants it. But then you throw in this Quillam character and the transmogrifier and the thing about the animals and all of that, and then they're cured almost immediately."

The Missed Opportunity: "Would it have been interesting to let them stay like that for rest of story and then get cured at the end? I think yes, if you're going to go down that road."

The Empty Feeling: "This is another symptom of that 'feeling a little empty' at the beginning. There's a lot of stuff thrown into this part two that are just bridges to nowhere in a way. Sorry. I agreed and then quickly had to throw in a caveat there. But I am who I am."

NEXT TIME:

Monday (Patreon #155): Music, Voyager Part 3, Memory TARDIS spin ("hopefully not Terror of the Zygons, although I think that's gone")

Sophie Aldred's Podcast: "I want to talk briefly about Sophie Aldred's podcast again. I finally caught up with most of the episodes including their little Christmas episode they did that has basically ties up a lot of the plot points they've been doing throughout their show. Remember I told you it's part interview, part story? Well, they did like a 20-minute audio drama with Russell T. Davies and Forde Colin Baker and Nicholas Briggs."

John's Assessment: "We'll talk briefly about it - what worked and what didn't work. Because there were some things that I was kind of like 'Yeah, this is just too weird for me.'"

Next Friday (Patreon) then Saturday (Main Feed): The Mark of the Rani! Another two-parter.

Jim: "Uh-oh, are we up to that point?"

John: "Yeah, we're up to that point."

Jim: "Rah-rah Rani!"

"The Doctor's Beard Podcast - a novel way to spend your day, somewhere in time and space!"

Support at patreon.com/thedoctorsbeardpodcast for $3/month!

Subscribe on all platforms. Email [email protected] or join our Facebook community.

Hashtags: #DoctorWho #VengeanceOnVaros #ImInTheMinority #Season22 #ColinBaker #SixthDoctor #SexiestDoctor #JonPertwee #TheBickersons #PhilipMartin #RonJones #MetaCommentary #ViolenceOnTelevision #Varos #Sil #NabilShaban #RIP #JasonConnery #SeanConnerySon #Quillam #MaskedVillain #TheGloveSlap #NicolaBryant #Peri #GreekChorus #EttaAndAreta #SheilaReid #ClaraOswaldGrandmother #MartinJarvis #ThreeDecadesOfWho #AcidBath #TheHanging #Transmogrifier #AnimalConversion #PurpleZone #PoisonVines #ChiefOfficer #Tigerman #BuckRogers #BillGirard #RIP #TheGovernor #Zeiton #GalatronMining #ThePenalColony #TimeTravel #WebOfTime #VictorianReligion #ThePriests #HughMartin #TerrorOfTheZygons #Zygons #TheDoctorKills #BondQuips #WhereAreTheTimeLords #6OutOf15 #13OutOf15 #9point5Average #RegeneratingEcclestonToTennant #FantasticAndSoWasI #NewTeeth #Barcelona #Shane #Jameson #JamieGirl #ListenerMail #ILoveTheCoat #TheBlueCoat #BigFinish #CybermanContinuity #TheKryons #ClassicWho #DoctorWhoPodcast #TheDoctorsBeardPodcast #Whovian #PodcastCommunity #TheMarkOfTheRani #SophieAldredPodcast #RussellTDavies #21DayWritingStreak #DocJones #NovelaProgress