Doctors Revisited -- Sixth Doctor special, plus Vengeance on Varos

[dbskyler]

Finally got the chance to watch the Doctors Revisited special for the Sixth Doctor. It was fine -- nothing great, but nothing bad, either. Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, and Bonnie Langford were all interviewed, plus Steven Moffat and other people. For the first time, David Tennant wasn't interviewed; I wonder if that's because he was too busy at the time of shooting, or because he didn't have much to say about the Sixth Doctor? (I suspect the former.)

Their chosen episode for Six was Vengeance on Varos, and I realized I'd never seen it! So I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Also, it was again introduced by Steven Moffat, and I am starting to suspect that he is the one choosing which episodes to show. Regardless if it's him or not, the choices have been uniformly good, even if they haven't always been the ones I would personally choose. I was pleasantly surprised by V on V -- it was really an excellent episode, and Colin was in great form as the Doctor. I found myself really appreciating his physicality, and I loved one point in particular where he seemed to be purposefully imitating Peter Davison.

I'd heard talk of the bit with the guards and the acid bath, and I agree with the rest of fandom that it is OOC behavior for the Doctor, especially as those guards were not presented as being anything other than normal people stuck with a slightly distasteful job that was harmful to no one. But other than that, it was well written, and Moffat in his introduction talked about the irony of watching a violent show about people enjoying watching violence. Of course, I would argue that the key difference is watching fiction vs. watching reality -- we know that no one was really thrown into an acid bath! But it was still an interesting conceit.

Only one more "regular" special left -- I wonder which episode they're going to show for Seven? And I wonder what sort of retrospective they'll do for Eight? Do they have the rights to broadcast the TVM? Will they bother to cover him at all?

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

I love Vengeance on Varos! I used it for an A-Level media studies project, so I had to watch it over and over and I still didn't hate it, which says something.

I love the "chorus" device of Etta and Arak and the ending in particular and the self-awareness of - the meta-cliffhanger is great. ("And cut it - now.") And I really appreciate Martin Jarvis and Nabil Shaban as the Governor and Sil (for still being watchable after the nth viewing) - and Forbes Collins, too. Actually, apart from the terrible rebels, it's a strong cast. And it started out criticising video nasties and has wound up being eerily prescient about reality TV, and, while I do have some issues with some of it, I like it a lot. It's by far my favourite Six story. (I may even have written fic about it. :lol:)

I'm very glad you enjoyed it, too! ♥

ETA: They've announced the Seven story, so I know the answer to that one already. (It's what I would have expected. ;-p)