‘Are they very disturbing, these videos you sell?’
In 1985, with video nasties in the headlines and Orwell’s predictions fresh in audiences’ minds, Doctor Who presented a dystopia where videos of torture and execution are sold. A tale of capitalism’s dehumanising effects when neo-liberalism was cementing its grip on the world, it also commented on the nature of television itself. Vengeance on Varos remains one of the most controversial, yet topical, stories in Doctor Who‘s history.
