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Serial: 6V  Episode Nos. 637 and 638.  Title: Vengeance on Varos Special Edition

The people of the planet Varos toil in misery and despair and are given back nothing in return

but the spectacle of death on their television screens at home.  They have a precious mineral

resource essential to time/space travel, but are unaware of their luck thanks to payoffs to their

top officials from the alien Sil who buys their products.  Unaware, that is, until the Doctor arrives

on Varos needing the mineral to repair the TARDIS, however the powers that be will stop at

nothing to ensure that their power remains intact...

This story sees the debut of Nabil Shaban as Sil.

starring Colin Baker as the Doctor, Nicola Bryant as Peri, and Nabil Shaban as Sil.

Written by Philip Martin, Produced by John Nathan-Turner, and Directed by Ron Jones.

Originally transmitted from 19 January 1985 to 26 January 1985 on BBC1.

DVD Features:

Features listed in normal type were present in the original DVD release in 2002.

Features listed in italics are new to the Special Edition.

2 Discs. On Disc 1:

- The two episodes of the story, 45 minutes each, digitally remastered and restored.

- Graphical menus, episode and scene selection features.

- Optional commentary by actors Colin Baker (the Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), and Nabil Shaban (Sil)

- Optional 5.1 channel soundtrack

- Optional Isolated Score: plays the story with only the music track playing. Also available in 5.1

- Optional Mono Production Audio. Plays the story with only the studio sound playing, no music or

post-production sound effects.

- Information Text. Displays pop-up trivia information about the production throughout the

story. This was an option on the original DVD as well, but the notes have been completely

rewritten here to include new information.

On Disc 2:

- Nice or Nasty. A new making-of documentary presented by Matthew Sweet. 30 minutes.

Features interviews with writer Philip Martin, script editor Eric Saward, incidental musician

Jonathan Gibbs, and actors Nabil Shaban (Sil) and Sheila Reed (Etta).

- The Idiot's Lantern. An 8-minute featurette that looks at how Doctor Who has used the

medium of television within its own narrative, in all its eras.

- Extended and Deleted Scenes. An 18-minute package of scenes cut from the finished show,

The original DVD had 10 of these scenes. An additional 8 have been added here, for a total

of 18.

- Acid Bath Scene with Alternative Music. An attempt to show the infamous acid bath

sequence in a better light with a different music track on it.

- Two BBC1 broadcast trailers. 1 minute.

- Behind-The-Scenes. A 5 minute featurette that shows “wild” footage of several of the cast making a few

different attempts at a scene as they try to improve the scene.

- Continuities. (The BBC’s announcer giving the time and a brief description of the upcoming show.)

- Photo gallery. 7 minutes of production stills taken throughout the story.

- Outtakes. The cast try to perform a few scenes and various things go wrong each time. 3 minutes.

- Tomorrow's Times - The Sixth Doctor. Sarah Sutton presents a 13-minute featurette looking at the

press reaction to the series at this time, to the cancellation crisis of 1985, and the death of Second

Doctor Patrick Troughton.

- News. A 1-minute news item about Colin Baker's casting in the role.

- Breakfast Time. A 6-minute interview with Colin Baker on the BBC's Breakfast Time morning show

immediately after he'd been cast in the part.

- Saturday Superstore. A 15-minute segment from an appearance by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant

on this show in 1984. Also features the Master calling in on the phone to talk to them.

- French and Saunders. An 8-minute comedy sketch shot on the set of The Trial of a Time Lord

from the French and Saunders show of the time. (Unused on the show itself.)

- Coming Soon. A 1-minute trailer for the forthcoming DVD of The Ambassadors of Death.

- PDF Materials. Place this DVD into the optical drive of a computer and you can access the

Radio Times TV listings from the original broadcast in 1985 and the BBC Enterprises Sales Sheet

that advertised this story to potential overseas customers.

The Who's Who actors biographies texts present on the original DVD release are not present on

this edition.