Doctor Who/Recap/S22/E02 Vengeance on Varos



"When did they last show something worth watching, eh?"

- Arak is a little hard on Season 22

After breaking down in the middle of nowhere, the Doctor and Peri fetch up on Varos, a Crapsack World. Right in the middle of an execution. Timing is everything!

Being executed is Jondak the Rebel, who was trying to lead a fight against Varosian society, whose government is something like mob rule crossed with Bread and Circuses—everyone's television is also a voting device, and society's tastes have gotten ever more bloodthirsty... so public executions are carried out in a Death Course full of nastily fatal traps.

So the Doctor and Peri bogart with Jondar, picking up his wife, fellow rebel Areta, along the way, and make their way through the Deadly Game. They are separated, trapped, recaptured, nearly killed, etc., until finally the governor convenes the Doctor and Jondar to the Gallows Room and threatens to turn Peri into a bird unless the Doctor explains just why he's there.

Over in the transmogrification room, Peri is turning into a bird.

The Doctor is most annoyed that Peri is turning into a bird, even after he's revealed that the Varosians' zeiton ore is much more valuable than they'd been led to believe, but fortunately the process is reversible. Now the group hobbles towards the exits, neatly avoiding the poisonous plants and the cannibals, until they are picked up by the Governor, who is more aware than anyone that Varos' current system of government is unsustainable.

Watch it here

Tropes

 * Agony Beam: used on Jondar.
 * Anti-Villain: The Governor.
 * Bond One-Liner: "Forgive me if I don't join you."
 * Bread and Circuses
 * Crapsack World
 * Deadly Game
 * Death Course
 * Dramatic Unmask
 * Evil Chancellor: The Chief Officer to the Governor. Slightly unusual example, in that it's immediately clear to both that the Chief Officer is both (a) the real power and (b) utterly venal, but unfortunately the Varosian system of government means the Governor's all but powerless.
 * Greek Chorus: Arak and Etta, who are watching from their home.
 * Hobbes Was Right
 * La Résistance
 * Mad Scientist: Quillam, complete with a mask to hide his disfigurement.
 * Non-Indicative Name: the story features just about every negative human motivation except vengefulness.
 * Penal Colony: Varos used to be one of these. It's partly what makes it such a charming and lovely place in the present.
 * Professor Guinea Pig
 * Punch Clock Villain: The Chief Officer.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: The Governor is in many ways a decent, fair and honourable man who genuinely just wants to do right by his people. Unfortunately, he's essentially a figurehead faced with a corrupt and venal Chief Officer, a ruthless and (literally) slimy Corrupt Corporate Executive and a system of government which is basically The X Factor voting system operated by a disengaged and unthinking population which can actually physically torture or even kill the Governor if he receives enough 'no' votes. This tends to make things tough for him.
 * So What Do We Do Now?: Arak and Etta, at the very end
 * Spanner in the Works: The Doctor only lands on Varos in the first place because the TARDIS only has enough power for one flight and it's the nearest source of zeiton-7 he can find. He just happens to arrive during Jondar's execution, which creates a chain of events which ends up bringing down Varos' corrupt government.
 * Strapped to An Operating Table: Peri and Areta, in the transmutation machine
 * Unobtanium: The Zeiton-7.
 * Video Nasties: Sil likes making people watch these.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: Jondar.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: one of the deadly traps.
 * Also basically how the transmutation machine works; it latches on to a thought in the subject's mind (say, "I want to be free!") and mutates the subject into a warped expression of that desire (turning them into a bird-creature so they can 'fly away').