Vengeance on Varos - DVD

When the Sixth Doctor and Peri arrive on Varos they discover a planet playing the ultimate reality TV show, where life or death is literally put to the public vote...

The main reason to revisit 'Vengeance on Varos' was to move towards completing the task started in the 'Revisitations' boxsets of remastering any colour episodes that hadn't been put through the Transform Decoder. The Transform Decoder had been used routinely from 'Resurrection of the Daleks' onwards (see that article for more background on this groundbreaking technique) and 'Varos' and 'The Ark in Space' remain the only DVD releases not to have utilised it at this point.

However, it also gave us a great opportunity to add features such as a 'Making of' which were not part of the original package and to expand greatly on the extended and deleted scenes package as requested by fans over the years. Mark was also able to remix both the main soundtrack and the isolated music score in 5.1 surround for an immersive listening experience.

Disc 1

• 2 x 45 mins approx colour episodes with mono programme audio, with the option of Dolby Digital 5.1 programme audio or mono production sound.

• Commentary with actors Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Nabil Shaban.

• Isolated Music – option to view the story with isolated music soundtrack in either original mono or remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1.

Disc 2

• Nice or Nasty? (dur. 29’ 38”) – cast and crew talk to presenter Matthew Sweet about the making of Vengeance on Varos. With actors Nabil Shaban and Sheila Reid, writer Philip Martin, script editor Eric Saward and composer Jonathan Gibbs.

• The Idiot’s Lantern (dur. 7’ 30”) – presenter Samira Ahmed looks at the way Doctor Who stories have used the medium of television within the narrative over the years.

• Extended and Deleted Scenes (dur. 17’ 43”) – scenes cut from story before transmission, taken from timecoded production tapes.

• Acid Bath Scene with Alternative Music (dur. 1’ 36”) - the infamous acid bath scene featuring a different music cue from the one finally used in the programme.

• Behind the Scenes (dur. 4’ 42”) – a glimpse inside the studio during recording of the story.

• Outtakes (dur. 3’ 06”) – outtakes from the studio recording session.

• Trailers (dur. 0’ 22” and 0’ 18”) – BBC1 trailers for both episodes.

• Continuities (dur. 0’ 35”) – BBC1 continuity announcements from the story’s original transmission.

• Tomorrow’s Times – The Sixth Doctor (dur. 12’ 54”) – the latest instalment in our series looking at the way newspapers reviewed and reported on the programme reaches the Colin Baker era. Presented by Sarah Sutton.

• News (dur. 1’ 07”) – BBC News reports on Colin Baker’s casting as the Doctor.

• Breakfast Time (dur. 5’ 41”) – Frank Bough interviews Colin Baker just after the announcement of his casting.

• Saturday Superstore (dur. 15’ 05”) – Mike Read interviews Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant on the BBC’s Saturday morning kids show and the pair take phone calls from their audience – and from an old adversary!

• French & Saunders (dur. 7’ 32”) – an unused Doctor Who spoof shot on the set of one of Colin Baker’s other stories.

• Plus of course the usual PDF materials (including the BBC Enterprises sales sheet), Coming Soon trailer, Programme Subtitles, Subtitle Production Notes and Photo Gallery.