Review [DW]: “Time and the Rani”

24×1. Time and the Rani
Writers: Pip and Jane Baker
Script Editor: Andrew Cartmel
Director: Andrew Morgan
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: The Rani diverts the TARDIS to Lakertya, where she has kidnapped prominent scientists to force them to collaborate in creating a time manipulator that would give her universal power. The Doctor, who has regenerated during the attack on the TARDIS, and Mel collaborate with members of the local population to end her control over the planet.

Review: The Sylvester McCoy era gets off to a disappointingly mediocre start with “Time and the Rani.” This isn’t as bad as, say, “Timelash,” nor is it as frustrating as “The Ultimate Foe” or “The Two Doctors,” and the return of the Rani as an enemy who can hold her own with the Doctor intellectually is a plus, but otherwise it just seems to be going through the motions. There’s some mild interest in the character of Beyus, a prominent Lakertyan who seems to have concluded that collaborating with the Rani is the best option for his people, but it’s undercut by the fact that we never learn how the Rani arrived on Lakertya or gained the upper hand over its native population in the first place. I also have to take issue with the scene at the end when, after the Doctor has devised an antidote to the venom of some killer insects that have plagued the Lakertyans, another Lakertyan named Ikona promptly pours it on the ground in the name of self-reliance – the implied message here seems bizarrely short-sighted and at odds with almost every other serial in which the Doctor somehow aids a beleaguered population. As for the new Doctor, we see some typical post-regenerative confusion for the first couple of episodes, and McCoy’s performance is competent enough, but his habit of misquoting famous aphorisms quickly grows tiresome, and I certainly hope that we’ll see less of it in the coming serials.

Rating: ** (out of four)

Review [DW]: “The Ultimate Foe”

23×4. The Ultimate Foe
Writers: Robert Holmes, Pip and Jane Baker
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Director: Chris Clough
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: The Doctor’s trial concludes with the revelation of a conspiracy within the High Council of the Time Lords and the unmasking of the Valeyard as the Doctor’s evil side, leading to a confrontation within the Time Lord Matrix while the Master, Melanie, and Sabalom Glitz join the fray.

Review: With “The Ultimate Foe,” the whole “Trial of a Time Lord” saga ends in a bit of a muddle. There are a few promising ideas here – the Valeyard as the distillation of the Doctor’s darker side could work in theory, the corruption of the High Council dovetails with some of the fragility and venality that we’ve seen from the Gallifreyan political establishment in previous serials, and the Doctor gets a chance to deliver a memorable denunciation of the Time Lords in court. But too much of the logic just doesn’t hold up. Take, for example, the notion that the whole trial was an attempt to scapegoat the Doctor and cover up the Time Lords’ interference in Earth’s history – as far as I could tell, nobody was aware of their interference in the first place, so why risk calling attention to it through a bogus trial? Why exactly does the Master see the Valeyard as such a threat to his interests that he sides temporarily with the Doctor? Why does the Doctor ask the thoroughly untrustworthy Glitz to follow him into the Matrix? Speaking of which, the problem with settings like the Matrix, i.e. alternate realities where illusions abound and anything can happen, is that, well, anything can happen, such that the circumstances can change simply by writer fiat and the characters’ choices don’t really mean much.

In addition to these lapses in logic, many of the more compelling ideas are left underdeveloped. The Valeyard is explained as having emerged from the Doctor’s final regeneration, but nothing about his behavior really marks him as the Doctor’s dark side in particular rather than just a generic scheming villain – while the Doctor’s character doesn’t lend itself to the same kind of analysis and exploration as a more conventional dramatic protagonist, this still seems like something of a missed opportunity. And even if you put aside the questionable nature of the Time Lords’ conspiracy, something as dramatic as the collapse of the High Council feels like the sort of thing we should actually see on-screen rather than having it reported via expository dialogue in the trial chamber. And while I was somewhat pleased to learn that Peri had survived the events of “Mindwarp,” I can’t muster much to say about the idea that she’s now a “warrior queen” alongside Yrcanos other than “uh…no.” It was implied at least once that she intended to return to her life on Earth eventually, and nothing in her personality suggested that she’d be especially happy alongisde Yrcanos.

“The Trial of a Time Lord” is at least an improvement over the frequently cynical and disjointed efforts of Season 22, but it needed a better ending than the rushed, confusing, and underdeveloped effort that is “The Ultimate Foe.”

Rating: ** (out of four)

Review [DW]: “Terror of the Vervoids”

23×3. Terror of the Vervoids
Writers: Pip and Jane Baker
Director: Chris Clough
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: The Doctor mounts his defense by displaying an adventure from the future, in which he and new companion Mel Bush arrive on board the space liner Hyperion, only to become involved in a murder mystery as they discover that the scientist Doland is scheming to sell a plant-race known as Vervoids into slavery.

Review: At the level of a whodunit in space, “Terror of the Vervoids” mostly works, though it does get a bit overcomplicated in the final episode. The writers assemble a worthwhile cast of characters and slowly increase the stakes as the body count rises and the Doctor and Mel discover that some of the passengers are keeping secrets. The Vervoids don’t have much personality, but they are still portrayed with something of a tragic air, attacking based on their instinctively hostile view of animal life, and the Doctor clearly regrets that he wasn’t able to find a nonlethal way to stop their attacks. This is also Mel’s first serial, and while her fixation on physical fitness can feel gimmicky, she’s also appealingly proactive, even entering the fray without the Doctor on occasion. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work as well in the context of the trial setup. For starters, I have to object to the entire notion of the Doctor using evidence from the future. Do the Time Lords normally access information on their own futures using the Matrix, and shouldn’t that have some pretty major effects on their civilization if they do? Wouldn’t the fact that the Doctor *has* a future point towards an acquittal or at least a more lenient sentence, given that the Valeyard has been pressing for execution? Will the Doctor remember having seen this when it actually happens in the future, and wouldn’t that potentially alter the course of events? In general, this seems like a misguided “wouldn’t it be cool if…” idea that should have been nixed before the script even got off the ground. Second, the Doctor suggests that the evidence will show that he “improves” and makes a point of the fact that he was explicitly asked for help by the Hyperion’s crew. The implication here would seem to be (though I suspect it won’t be borne out in future serials) that the Doctor will actually be taking a more reticent and conservative approach in the future, whereas I’d have preferred to see him defend a more proactive approach and argue that the Time Lords’ standards are too restrictive. As a “defense” to the metatextual trial taking place, this is actually a pretty weak and uninspiring argument.

Rating: **1/2 (out of four)

Review [DW]: “Mindwarp”

23×2. Mindwarp
Writer: Philip Martin
Director: Ron Jones
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: The second part of the prosecution’s case against the Doctor concerns a visit to Thoros-Beta, where he and Peri discover their adversary Sil and one of his kinsmen, Kiv, who is attempting to have his mind transferred into a new body by the scientist Crozier. The Doctor challenges the legitimacy of the evidence when it seems to show him behaving in a self-serving and cruel manner while the boisterous King Yrcanos and Peri attempt to lead a rebellion.

Review: I’m wondering now if perhaps it was the wrong decision to review the four segments of “The Trial of a Time Lord” as if they were separate serials. While “The Mysterious Planet” could have stood on its own without the context of the trial, I’m not sure “Mindwarp” can. We’ve seen the Sixth Doctor behave in a callous manner in the past, but here he more or less allies himself with Sil, Kiv, and Crozier for the greater part of the proceedings, and it’s not entirely clear why. He appears disoriented after initially being subjected to Crozier’s machine, and there are hints that the whole thing is a ploy, but the script never establishes exactly what he might have feared would happen if he didn’t pretend to collaborate or what he hoped to achieve with this ploy that he couldn’t have by simply aiding the rebels from the start. Instead, we get numerous scenes of him interrupting the trial proceedings and suggesting that the evidence may have been fabricated. This is effective in building up the sense that there is something sinister underlying this trial, and Colin Baker ably portrays the Doctor’s own shock and dismay at what he’s seeing, especially at Peri’s apparent death, but it leaves the actual narrative of the events on Thoros-Beta somewhat incomplete because we’re left uncertain what did or didn’t actually happen. Speaking of which, this is a particularly bitter swan song for Peri, who doesn’t even get a heroic sacrifice along the lines of Adric and instead goes to her death with Kiv having taken over her body and believing that the Doctor has betrayed her (though for me, the impact is somewhat undermined by the fact that I know what’s going to be revealed by the end of “Trial”).

All that aside, “Mindwarp” has some problems that would preclude a full recommendation anyway. A fair amount of time is spent watching characters wander around and/or chase each other in caves, in scenes that never come off as much more than obligatory Doctor Who formula. As for characterization, Sil and Kiv are notable for being motivated more by money and profit than by a desire for power or grand megalomaniacal schemes, but Crozier is a surprisingly blank slate for such a key figure. It’s implied that he might have been brought to Thoros-Beta against his will, but if he has any ethical misgivings about his work, any intellectual curiosity about its outcome, or even any feelings towards Sil and Kiv in general, it certainly doesn’t come across in the writing or in Patrick Ryecart’s performance. On the topic of performances, I’d be neglectful not to mention that of BRIAN BLESSED as Yrcanos, about which not much needs to be said other than that, well, it’s BRIAN BLESSED – certainly memorable, and perhaps appropriate for the character, but a bit excessive in terms of the scenery-chewing at times, and his discussion with Peri about the nature of love borders on the cringey and isn’t helped by some melodramatic background music.

“Mindwarp” has some good ideas, and it’s important in moving the overall trial narrative along, but as a story it feels somewhat frustrating and incomplete. Whether it was reasonable to expect it to be otherwise, I’ll do my best to suspend judgment for the moment.

Rating: **1/2 (out of four)

Review [DW]: “The Mysterious Planet”

23×1. The Mysterious Planet
Writer: Robert Holmes
Director: Nicholas Mallett
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: The Doctor is summoned to Time Lord space station where he faces an investigation – which soon becomes a trial – over his alleged habit of interfering in the business of other species, with a Time Lord known only as the Valeyard serving as prosecutor. The first piece of evidence concerns a recent trip to Ravalox, where he and Peri encounter a small group of humans undeground under the rule of the robot Drathro and another above-ground living a relatively primitive existence – and discover that Ravalox is actually Earth.

Review: The twenty-third season of Doctor Who, aired entirely under the title of “The Trial of a Time Lord,” seems to have a checkered reputation, but it actually gets off to a solid start with “The Mysterious Planet” (for clarity’s sake, I’m going to be referring to each set of episodes by their informal titles). After the somewhat labored setup of many a Season 22 serial, we get some creative worldbuilding here, with the underground humans believing that the surface is still dangerous and honoring three randomly preserved texts as sacred scriptures, while treating Drathro as an “Immortal.” The mercenaries Sabalom Glitz and his somewhat simple-minded accomplice Dibber add an element of danger and unpredictability to the proceedings, their presence also hinting that the serial’s events are part of some larger conspiracy that the Valeyard does not want discussed in court. Meanwhile, the creative team have mercifully toned down the bickering that characterized much of last season’s interactions between the Doctor and Peri, with the Doctor himself playing a more conventionally heroic role. (The script also turns cleverly self-referential when the Inquisitor asks the Valeyard if it’s necessary to see the more violent scenes in court, and the whole notion of the Doctor standing trial dovetails with the fact that Doctor Who was itself on thin ice with the BBC at the time.) If there’s one drawback, it’s that the Doctor’s courtroom outbursts and namecalling towards the Valeyard (whom he calls “Barnyard” and “Scrapyard,” among other things) do start to seem a bit childish and petulant after a while. But overall, this is a nice return to form after a flawed and uneven preceding season.

Rating: *** (out of four)

Review [DW]: “Revelation of the Daleks”

22×6. Revelation of the Daleks
Writer: Eric Saward
Director: Graeme Harper
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: The Doctor and Peri arrive on the planet Necros, where Davros has been exploiting an operation known as Tranquil Repose – ostensibly providing funeral services as well as cryogenic suspension – to create new Daleks and gain control over galactic food supplies, just as local businesswoman Kara has dispatched an assassin to kill Davros and rebel Daleks attempt to capture him.

Review: I’ll say this much: “Revelation of the Daleks” is not predictable. Whether that’s because it’s creative or because it’s just a mess, I’m still not entirely sure (actually, I think it’s probably both). I can’t off the top of my head recall another Doctor Who serial where a flamboyant DJ blows up Daleks by blasting rock-and-roll at them with a sonic transmitter, where said flamboyant DJ seems to have better surveillance capabilities than whatever passes for a security force, where a subplot revolves around a somewhat simple-minded assistant’s crush on her womanizing boss, where Davros has dialogue concerning financial fraud and deceives assassins with an illusion of his own head suspended in a vat, or where we discover that people have apparently been ground up for protein and secretly marketed as food. As you might expect from such a description, this one is all over the place tonally, veering from dark comedy to action/adventure to horror, while the various characters and their subplots randomly crash into each other and/or stick around just long enough to get killed (yes, this is yet another mid-’80s Doctor Who bloodbath). In fact, the Doctor and Peri take the entire first 45-minute episode meandering their way to where most of the action is taking place, and they don’t really drive the plot so much as just get carried along by it. Speaking of the plot, I should also mention that the Daleks are having some sort of civil war, and that Tranquil Repose can’t fulfill its promise because of overpopulation and scarce resources for would-be revivals, and that two other gun-toting renegades have broken into Tranquil Repose because one of them is looking for her father’s body, and that the Doctor becomes worried that he’ll never regenerate again when he finds a statute of himself with his current incarnation’s face…and that none of this really coheres into a satisfying whole as the script jumps around from one thing to another. While this is certainly an improvement over “The Two Doctors” and “Timelash,” it’s just too disjointed and contrived for me to give it a full recommendation.

Rating: **1/2 (out of four)

Review [DW]: “Timelash”

22×5. Timelash
Writer: Glen McCoy
Director: Pennant Roberts
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: The Doctor and Peri are drawn to the planet Karfel through a time anomaly, where the reclusive Borad rules as a dictator through a subservient “Maylin” and plans to depopulate the world by provoking a war with a species known as the Bandrils.

Review: You know that a Doctor Who serial has a bad reputation when an online commenter suggests – as one recently did regarding “Timelash” – forcing British politicians to watch it on a loop until they come up with a solution for Brexit. While I’m not sure if even that would manage to break the Brexit impasse, I’m obliged to report that, yes, “Timelash” is a pretty poor effort. In terms of worldbuilding, there is no context supplied for how the Borad came to power, why the population is so subservient to his dictates, or the history between Karfel and the Bandrils. The characters are a similarly thinly drawn bunch: Maylin Tekker (played by Paul Darrow of Blakes 7 fame) is just a run-of-the-mill sadistic autocrat whose about-face when he learns of the Borad’s real plans does not register as anything but writer fiat, the rebels are stock caricatures, and the involvement of a young H.G. Wells feels like the script trying too hard to to be clever. The serial’s conclusion is especially weak: first the Doctor appears to sacrifice himself by materializing the TARDIS in the path of an incoming missile, but survives through what he describes only as a “neat trick” that he promises to explain to Peri later, and then the apparently dead Borad is revealed to have cloned himself and tries to abduct Peri, at which point the Doctor literally resorts to taunting him about his physical appearance. There just isn’t much here that functions at any but the most superficial and perfunctory level, and in the context of an already mediocre season, “Timelash” is a misstep that the program really couldn’t afford at the time.

Rating: *1/2 (out of four)

Review: [DW] “The Two Doctors”

22×4. The Two Doctors
Writer: Robert Holmes
Director: Peter Moffatt
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: The Second Doctor and Jamie travel at the Time Lords’ behest to the scientific research station Camera, where the corrupt scientist Dastari, the augmented androgum Chessene, and the murderous Shockeye are collaborating with Sontarans to unlock the secrets of time travel technology. The Second Doctor is kidnapped and brought to Seville, with his Sixth incarnation and Peri, having rescued Jamie from Camera, in pursuit, while Chessene and Dastari prepare to harvest the symbiotic nuclei from the Second Doctor that make time travel possible.

Review: Unlike in the first two multi-Doctor serials, the Second and Sixth incarnations encounter each other mostly by chance rather than because someone is purposely trying to bring them together (as did the Time Lords in “The Three Doctors” and Borusa in “The Five Doctors”). I’d like to praise the script for finding a new way to involve more than one Doctor in the same story, but unfortunately it doesn’t hold up as a whole.

The Sixth Doctor is drawn into the story because he senses telepathically that the Second Doctor has been executed, passing out in the TARDIS and then heading to Camera to consult Dastari for medical advice. At first, it seems that perhaps a time paradox is in play as a result of the time travel experiments on board Camera, and that the logical contradiction of the Doctor being alive despite a previous incarnation’s death represents the beginning of the universe’s unraveling. Unfortunately, the script does not continue down this path (though I’ll admit I have no idea how it could have done that and still gotten back to business-as-usual by the end), instead explaining that the Second Doctor was just stunned and kidnapped and relying on a series of contrivances to move the narrative along. For example, is the Second Doctor being stunned really enough to make the Sixth Doctor think that he’s been killed and then pass out in the TARDIS? Isn’t it a little too convenient that he happens to go seeking medical advice from the same scientist that the Second Doctor was visiting when all this started? Is there any point to making Jamie so panicked and disoriented that he literally acts like a growling monster and assaults Peri, other than that the first episode needed a cliffhanger? And finally, since when does the Second Doctor run errands for the Time Lords? When he sent for them in “The War Games,” I got the distinct impression that he’d been entirely out of contact with them since the beginning of the series.

The behavior of the villains also doesn’t withstand much scrutiny. Dastari passes out when the Sontaran attack begins, apparently because Shockeye had drugged all the scientists’ food in order to subdue them – but why drug Dastari if he’s in on the plot with Chessene and Shockeye all along? At first I actually thought he might have changed sides off-screen, perhaps after awakening to find Chessene and Shockeye in control, and I’m still wondering if that might be the case, given that he does have an off-screen about-face near the end when he seems to have reconciled with the Second Doctor by the time Chessene returns to the hacienda basement. Chessene also has an abrupt change of mind when she gives up on the plan to harvest the symbiotic nuclei from the Second Doctor, instead resolving to turn him into an Androgum. Why? Apparently because the Time Lords may intervene before the harvesting operation can be completed, but are we supposed to believe that changing someone into a different species is somehow quick and efficient by comparison? This strikes me as a case of what at least one Star Trek reviewer derisively described as “Fun with DNA,” and it’s no more plausible here than the time that most of the Enterprise crew turned into deranged animals and Picard and Data managed to “cure” them with some technobabble.

All this comes across, meanwhile, with a distinctly cynical and pessimistic tone, though the relatively small cast does at least preclude a bloodbath along the lines of, say, “Resurrection of the Daleks” or “Attack of the Cybermen.” Another contrivance brings most of the characters to the restaurant run by Oscar and Anita, the couple who initially put the TARDIS crew onto the villains’ trail, leading to a bad-tempered Shockeye assaulting Oscar, who then dies while lamenting the Hamlet performance that he’ll never give – in a scene that nearly becomes farcical for how the other patrons just go on with their meals as if they hadn’t just witnessed a murder. The Sixth Doctor brutally kills Shockeye with cyanide at the end, delivering a mean-spirited quip over his dead body, and both Doctors seem to embrace a sort of biological determinism in the way they talk about Androgums, discounting the idea that any member of the species could rise above their baser urges. This also undercuts the script’s apparent support for vegetarianism (something I’d like to get behind, as a vegetarian myself) – the only one who’s consistent in showing concern for animal suffering is Peri, and the Doctor doesn’t seem to be learning much of a “lesson” given his attitude to Androgums and his sarcastic humor about Shockeye’s death.

(On a related note, I think I’ve officially reached the point of finding the bickering between the Sixth Doctor and Peri annoying, even though I agreed with her distaste for the Doctor’s fishing expedition at the start. At times, it feels like the script is reaching for any possible reason for them to disagree, and not for the first time, I found myself questioning why she stays with him. As far as I can tell, “The Two Doctors” is set in the present day once they get to Earth, so why doesn’t she just go home?)

There is nothing wrong with bleak or violent content per se in science fiction – as I mentioned before, I’m a Blakes 7 fan too, and I consider “The Caves of Androzani” a high point of Doctor Who. But I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to undermine the Doctor’s own moral probity, which is something we’ve seen more of than usual in the past two seasons. Part of what makes the Doctor such a unique character is his relative distance from the audience (and from his companions) – in fact, I’m not sure I can even talk about his “character development” in the way I would for, say, the Blakes 7 cast, because his mind sometimes seems to function on an entirely different level. Part of what keeps him likeable and relatable, then, is the idea that however alien he may be, he will stand up for the “good guys” and refrain from resorting to violence too quickly. Take that away, and Doctor Who becomes a different kind of show – perhaps a sci-fi canvass that mostly rises or falls with the concepts and guest characters of each individual story. But even if that’s the intent, “The Two Doctors” would have to count as a fall.

Rating: ** (out of four)

Review [DW]: “The Mark of the Rani”

22×3. The Mark of the Rani
Writers: Pip and Jane Baker
Director: Sarah Hellings
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: Seeking revenge against the Doctor, the Master hijacks the TARDIS to 19th-century England where the exiled Time Lady known as the Rani has been extracting brain fluid from humans, turning mine workers violent and threatening to inflame an already tense situation against the backdrop of the emerging Industrial Revolution.

Review: The main merits of “The Mark of the Rani” are the portrayals of its Time Lord characters and the historical setting. After the sometimes disturbing violence in the previous two installments, “The Mark of the Rani” finds the Doctor operating with a more familiar moral center, expressing outrage at the behavior of the Master and the Rani and resolving the situation without resorting to physical violence. The Master is sometimes slightly campy, but in a way that’s consistent with his character, while the more practical but equally ruthless Rani gets to poke fun at his Bond-villain-esque tendencies. The concept behind the plot is clever, with the Rani choosing a location and era where the violence exhibited by her victims would draw less suspicion, and the pseudoscience underlying her scheme is portrayed plausibly enough. I’m less comfortable with the sociopolitical implications, however – while the miners only turn violent under the influence of the Rani’s interference, their understandable concern for their jobs never receives a particularly deep examination, and I can’t help but wonder what the British miners who had been involved in the then-recent industrial disputes of the ’70s and ’80s would have thought of this (though the scripts were reportedly commissioned before the pivotal 1984-85 Miners’ Strike). I was also less than impressed with the way the serial ends. The Doctor corrals the Master and the Rani into the Rani’s TARDIS, which he has programmed to take them into exile outside the galaxy, only for them to find themselves menaced by an escaped baby dinosaur (of which the Rani has several in her control room for no reason that’s ever stated) that’s growing rapidly due to some temporal thingamajiggy. Meanwhile, in what’s easily the serial’s lowest moment, three men have run afoul of traps that the Rani placed in the woods and been transformed into trees – yes, trees – and nothing is ever said about trying to restore them to human form or even disarming the rest of the traps.

Rating: **1/2 (out of four)

Review [DW]: “Vengeance on Varos”

22×2. Vengeance on Varos
Writer: Phillip Martin
Director: Ron Jones
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Synopsis: The Doctor and Peri become involved in political turmoil on Varos, a planet where citizens languish in poverty and are force-fed sadistic entertainment, in the midst of a dispute between the planet’s compromised Governor and Sil, a representative of the predatory Galatron Mining Corporation looking to obtain Varos’s supply of the mineral Zeiton-7.

Review: Stop me if you’ve heard any of this before – the Doctor and Peri find themselves in a dystopian society where cynical corporate maneuverings have relegated the value of human life almost to an afterthought, while numerous violent confrontations ensue and the new Doctor seems unsettlingly at ease amidst all the mayhem and bloodshed. If that sounds to you like “The Caves of Androzani” meets “Attack of the Cybermen,” you’re not far off. If you think that sounds like something of a mixed bag, you’re not far off either.

Varos may not be quite as compelling a setup as Androzani, but I’d say it comes close, both in the way it humanizes a character who could have easily come across as one-dimensionally villainous (Sharaz Jek in “Caves” and the Governor in “Varos”) and in its portrayal of a situation where corruption and cold-heartedness have simply become second nature. The Governor can sound just as callous and opportunistic as his counterparts when he discusses the profits to be made in selling videos of prisoners suffering in the “Punishment Dome” or plays the role of a film director, ordering close-ups on what he believes to be the Doctor’s death throes. But he also genuinely tries his best to improve his people’s standing and doesn’t take sadistic pleasure in the atrocities the way someone like Sil or Quillam would, and we learn towards the end that he did not assume his position by choice and is perhaps simply the product of a brutal society. When Peri, awaiting execution alongside him, exclaims that the situation is horrible, he glumly replies, “it’s Varos,” with the resignation of a man who must have known that this was how his time in office – and his life – would eventually come to an end. If he’s not exactly sympathetic, he does seem likely to take a more humane approach in the future once Sil’s position is undercut and the planet is able to obtain a fairer price for the Zeiton-7.

The most inventive aspect of the serial, and what makes it more than just a remix of “Caves” and “Attack,” is the ubiquity of the cameras and the way the live broadcasts have become an integral part of Varosian society and a reinforcement of the populace’s hopelessnes and cynicism. The script frequently cuts away to Arak and Etta, a couple who seem to have only slightly more regard for each other than for those whose whom they witness being tortured or killed on their viewscreen, which is to say not a lot. They are the Everyman and Everywoman of a morally bankrupt world, where the travails of the Punishment Dome and the sufferings of the Governor (who is subjected to live broadcast torture whenever the voters reject one of his proposals) have been reduced to what we’d think of as a particularly depraved and cruel reality television show. Neither of them seem to care much about the outcome of the conflicts set in motion by the Doctor’s arrival – Etta views his involvement and collaboration with the rebel Jondar primarily as great entertainment, and when the broadcasts stop after the Governor’s announcement of a new era of peace, they mostly just react to the fact that there’s nothing to watch any more. The Doctor quickly catches onto the dynamic at work, cleverly deducing that his own apparent impending execution is a hoax because the cameras aren’t running.

This is Colin Baker’s third serial as the Doctor, and I can’t say I’m finding this incarnation much more agreeable to my tastes than when he first arrived on the TARDIS floor and promptly insulted Peri (though I certainly don’t fault Baker himself – he’s doing what is asked of him by the scripts). There’s some implication that he’s still suffering post-regenerative instability when Peri recounts the various fiascoes he’s recently caused in the TARDIS, but past that, there isn’t much to make him a very appealing protagonist or one that I’d be eager to keep following if I knew nothing of the show’s history. In fact, his actions serve to undercut the point that the script seeks to make about desensitization to violence. The first thing he does after arriving on Varos is to run away and redirect a lethal laser beam to block pursuit, with a hapless guard walking right into it shortly afterwards, and when he’s trapped by Quillam and the corrupt Chief Officer, he directs Jondar to kill them (and two more nameless guards) with a poison vine. You can argue that he didn’t actually mean for the guard to die in the first instance and/or that his hand was forced in the second instance, but either way, it’s disappointing to see him resort so quickly to brute force rather than trying to talk or think his way out. And while I can comfortably acquit him of responsibility for the “acid bath” deaths, his quip at the end of the scene is unnecessary and the whole thing is almost staged like “Three Stooges”-style slapstick.

Doctor Who is by nature a stylistically malleable show, and there’s a certain built-in distance between the audience and its primary protagonist that’s somewhat atypical for a dramatic science fiction series. Could the show work in the absence of a likeable Doctor? I don’t know, possibly – “Vengeance on Varos” would be evidence for the argument that it could – but I’m not sure I really want to see the attempt made in the first place.

Rating: *** (out of four)