Trivia / Doctor Who S22 E2 "Vengeance on Varos"

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• Cast the Runner-Up: Stephen Yardley was considered for the Chief Officer before being cast as Arak.
• Creator Backlash: While Eric Saward liked the script, he felt it was poorly directed and that Peri's role in the action was not sufficiently prominent.
• Creator's Favourite Episode: Nicola Bryant named this story as a favourite, while Colin Baker said it contained his favourite cliffhanger.
• Deleted Scene: The scene of the Doctor and Peri in the TARDIS was originally longer, having her complain about the poor state of the ship and mentioning an offscreen adventure where they ended up on top of an alien pyramid.
• Edited for Syndication: This story, like the rest of Season 22, was produced in forty-five minute episodes, but sold elsewhere as the standard twenty-five-minute episodes. The cliffhangers for parts one and three were the Doctor and Peri arriving on Varos and the Doctor and Jondar's rescue of Peri and Arreta from the rehabilitators, respectively.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: In an era before widespread home video releases, frequent repeats or on-demand streaming, and when having a VCR was still seen as a luxury, many fans "remembered" the notorious acid bath scene as depicting the Doctor intentionally throwing the two mooks into it, when in fact the first mook fell in because he was startled by the seemingly dead Doctor suddenly speaking to him, and the second when his desperate colleague ended up pull him in when he tried grabbing on to his leg.
• Throw It In!: Colin Baker ad-libbed the "Perrier Water" gag.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The story was first written for the 1982 season, but was repeatedly pushed back and re-written. In its final draft, the story had a number of comedic sequences, most of which wound up being cut, and one of which, the acid bath sequence, was played seriously. The result was that the final story was much darker than originally intended.
  • Sil was originally a minor role, while the Governor was the main villain. Eric Saward suggested making him the main villain and the Governor a victim of circumstances.
  • Julian Glover, John Hurt, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, and David Warner were considered for the Governor. The latter four would later appear decades later in the Revival series, while the former had had roles in the two preceding decades.
  • John Hollis and Patrick Stewart were considered for the Chief Officer.
  • Jim Broadbent and Paul Darrow were considered for Arak.
  • Donald Sumpter was considered for the Chief Officer and Arak.
• Working Title: Domain and Planet of Fear (the latter being vetoed for being too similar to the previous season's "Planet of Fire").
• You Look Familiar:
  • Martin Jarvis (The Governor) was also Hilio and Butler.
  • Stephen Yardley (Arak) was Sevrin.

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