The turbulent 1980s for Doctor Who reached its lowest and most fraught period during the reign of Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, when the BBC's antagonism towards the show was at its most intense and the then 22-year-old series was even temporarily cancelled between Baker's first and second seasons. In the midst of much behind-the-scenes chaos, the show's on-screen quality wavered more than ever, despite consistently strong work from Baker himself. At least one true diamond-in-the-rough can be found in this era, and it's the story we're discussing today: "Vengeance on Varos," the Sixth Doctor's third story and one of Doctor Who's darkest and most overtly political hours. The story itself, and the tale of the series' desperate fight for survival during these years, makes for one of our most interesting bonus podcasts to date.

Oh, and we also talk about "Doctor in Distress," a megagroup-style charity single designed to rally public support for the series after its first cancellation. It is an absolute trip and you're going to want to watch it before listening to this episode (https://youtu.be/NnTSbFeWwro).

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman