*** Welcome to piglix ***

Vengeance on Varos

138 – Vengeance on Varos
Doctor Who serial
Vengance on Varos.jpg
The Doctor becomes involved in a television show where people are killed for entertainment
Cast
Others
Production
Directed by Ron Jones
Written by Philip Martin
Script editor Eric Saward
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s) None
Incidental music composer Jonathan Gibbs
Production code 6V
Series Season 22
Length 2 episodes, 45 minutes each
Originally broadcast 19–26 January 1985
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
Attack of the Cybermen The Mark of the Rani
Vengeance on Varos
Doctor Who Vengeance on Varos.jpg
Author Philip Martin
Cover artist David McAllister
Series Doctor Who book:
Target novelisations
Release number
106
Publisher Target Books
Publication date

21 January 1988 (Hardback)

16 June 1988 (Paperback)
ISBN

Vengeance on Varos is the second serial of the 22nd season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 19–26 January 1985. This story featured the first appearance of Sil who would return for the second segment of The Trial of a Timelord.

While repairing the TARDIS console, as Peri complains over the freak accidents he caused since they left Telos (Attack of the Cybermen), the Doctor finds that the TARDIS has unexpectedly stopped in deep space and he can do nothing to fix it. Peri locates the TARDIS manual and presents it to the Doctor who dismisses it, as he knows perfectly well that transitional elements within the TARDIS have stopped producing orbital energy only Zeiton-7 ore can realign the power systems. But as the Doctor explains, Zeiton-7 is exceptionally rare and only comes from one planet in the Cetes constellation: Varos.

On Varos, originally a prison planet that now functions as a government system where voting is mandatory and torture and executions are televised, the Galatron Mining Corporation's swindling Mentor representative Sil is negotiating with Varos's Governor over the price of Zeiton-7 ore. Wanting a fair price for his people, and unaware that his Chief Officer is in league with Sil, the governor addresses his people to vote if they should hold out longer for a fair price. However, the popular vote is against the Governor, and as a consequence, he is subjected to exposure to potentially lethal Human Cell Disintegration Bombardment. As losing a subsequent vote will almost surely kill him, the Governor is forced to please the citizens by ordering the execution of a rebel leader named Jondar. By this time, the Doctor has managed to repair the TARDIS sufficiently and arrives at Varos's Punishment Dome close to where Jondar is to be executed.

The guard stationed at the execution believes the TARDIS and its occupants are a hallucination resulting from the psychological effects of the Dome, which allows the Doctor and Peri to incapacitate the guard and free Jondar. But with their way back to the TARDIS blocked by more guards, the three flee, meeting up with Jondar's wife Areta. Venturing through the Punishment Dome to find another route to the TARDIS, the Doctor is separated from the others, who are arrested. With his attempt to escape now being broadcast as entertainment to all of Varos, he enters a corridor that appears in his mind as a desert, and due to its psychological effects, begins to die from thirst. By this time, Peri has been brought to the control centre in the company of the Governor, Sil and the other officers.


...
Wikipedia

...