Carnival of Monsters

Dear Gary—

Carnival of Monsters is a delightfully refreshing story that reminds me of the first Doctor’s adventure Planet of Giants, both serials dealing with a miniaturized TARDIS and occupants as well as an outside storyline that is independent of the Doctor. It also has certain similarities to the later Tom Baker adventure Nightmare of Eden.

What I love about Carnival of Monsters is that it is pure TARDIS adventure, or misadventure. There is no alien threat to Earth; there is no ominous plot against the galaxy; there is no heinous crime against a defenseless populace; there is no wrong to right. The TARDIS has simply landed the Doctor and Jo in a predicament and he has to first figure out what is going on and then figure out how they can escape.

This is the first Doctor Who story after the Time Lords have returned the secrets of time travel to the Doctor, and he has taken the TARDIS out for a spin.

 “Are you sure you can steer that TARDIS properly?” Jo asks in true skeptical companion form.

“Jo,” the Doctor corrects, “I don’t steer the TARDIS I program it.”

He must be a bit rusty, though, as he misses his destination of Metebelis Three entirely and lands on a ship in the Indian Ocean, or so it would appear.  “There’s something wrong here.”

 The Doctor and Jo soon realize that the passengers of this ship are stuck in a time loop of sorts—destined to live out the same few hours of the same day over and over. This turns out to be a break for the Doctor and Jo; captured as stowaways, the crew and passengers soon forget about their prisoners when the loop comes full circle.

After making their getaway through a strange hatchway, the Doctor realizes that they are inside of a Miniscope, a machine that miniaturizes and entraps creatures and their surroundings within it, a machine that has been banned by the Time Lords as an “offense against the dignity of sentient lifeforms.”

This Miniscope is the property of the flamboyant Vorg, a showman who has arrived on the planet Inter Minor with his colorfully dressed assistant Shirna only to find himself caught up in some political red tape.

The Doctor and Jo running around inside the circuitry of the Miniscope, popping in and out of various entrapped environments, being chased by Drashigs that have escaped out of their own Miniscope quadrant, is interesting enough. However it is the independent storyline unfolding outside of the machine that makes Carnival of Monsters truly memorable.

One has to laugh at the peripheral plotting and wrangling and bickering of the three stooges like tribunal of Kalik, Orum, and Pletrac as they indecisively consider what to do with the suspicious Vorg and his possibly dangerous machine. One gets caught up in the double dealing, treason, and sabotage attempted by these three jesters; even though one knows that these schemes are unconnected with the main narrative of the Doctor and Jo. One can’t help one’s self.

The inept Vorg, meanwhile, is unable to aid the trapped Doctor or stop his machine from shutting down due to the Drashig’s running amok inside of it.

“This is a time for lateral thinking.” Lateral thinking is the Doctor’s specialty, and he finds his way outside of the Miniscope where he is returned to normal size; but not for long. He has yet to save Jo and the other creatures still inside.

Hooking the TARDIS up to the Miniscope, the Doctor reenters the machine leaving careful instructions behind for Vorg as to how to extract him once again when the time is right.

This is where our tribunal of fools fumble themselves into the plot with some half-baked idea on the part of two of them to allow the rampaging Drashigs to exit the machine and wreak havoc on the planet, thus somehow allowing for a rebellion to overthrow the reigning president.

“One has no wish to be devoured by alien monstrosities, even in the cause of political progress.” One should have listened to one’s own fears.

The Drashigs do escape, but Vorg of all people manages to kill them by using the one-time sabotaged Eradicator that he has managed to fix; and he manages to recall the Doctor and Jo from the machine despite the switch having been shot by one of our trio of tricksters. The Miniscope is destroyed in the process, but the creatures inside have been returned to their own time and space by the TARDIS.

Carnival of Monsters is short and sweet at four episodes long. It has just the right amount of comedy (carnival) blended with the perfect amount of peril (monsters). It has some nice Doctor/companion moments (“They not only look like chickens; they are chickens;” cluck, cluck, cluck; “Don’t you ever admit that you’re wrong?” “No; that’s impossible too.”). It has some name dropping by the Doctor (“I took lessons from John L Sullivan himself.”).

 And it has some great support. In particular I want to mention Peter Halliday as Pletrac. All three of the actors portraying the tribunal are exceptional, but I want to single out Peter Halliday on the strength of not only this role but his prior outstanding stint in The Invasion as Packer. It is also nice to see Ian Marter in an early role before his taking on the character of Harry later in the series.

Time travel has been restored to Doctor Who; the TARDIS is back in the picture; I’m looking forward to the rest of the third Doctor’s run.

As ever, Gary . . .