Review of Carnival of Monsters: SE (#66)
DVD Release Date:  13 Mar 12
Original Air Date:  27 Jan – 17 Feb 1973
Doctor/Companion:  Three, Jo Grant
Stars:  Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning
Preceding Story:  The Three Doctors (Three, Jo, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story:  Frontier in Space (Three, Jo)

I have to admit, I was not really looking forward to this one. It had only been a few months since I last watched it for the Marathon, and it’s never really struck me as a particularly engaging story.

Whether it was my mood on this day, my evolving tastes in pre-Hiatus Who, or something else, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it this time around. It seemed like there was just the right balance of random political intrigue and technobabble-based s.f.-hijinks in the interior and exterior plot lines.

On the down side, I have to wholeheartedly concur that “Doctor Who should be banned from using dinosaurs.” Both the plesiosaur and the Drashigs are utter rubbish (seriously – the Drashigs have six eyes, and they still can’t see worth beans?). Bless Katy Manning, she can look terrified at any non-existent horror you can dream up, but I’m afraid I can’t muster the same emotion here (unless it refers to the effects). I know, I know… The show is about so much more than the effects, but the Drashigs always make me want to giggle. Or cringe. Or giggle while cringing. Regardless, it’s not the impact they were intended to have on tots in the viewing audience, I’m sure.

Another thing that irritated me was the scaling for the miniscope. For example, since the scope itself is between waist and chest height, the “livestock” inside must necessarily be miniaturized to roughly a centimeter or less in height in order to fit (along with their habitats). Yet the TARDIS comes out roughly 8-10 cm tall (at a guess). Worse, the Doctor himself stumbles out of the machine at one point, clearly several inches tall (maybe 20 cm? – regardless, even larger than the TARDIS had been) before beginning to de-miniaturize.

But in the grand scheme of things, these are pretty minor details. The story is entertaining, presenting a rather clever take on a classic disappearance (though, umm… what happened to the ship after everything got “set right” at the end, if Earth history says it disappeared?) and throwing in some social outrage and random alien politics for good measure. And it really is lovely to see Harry before he’s Harry. (Actor Ian Marter, I mean. Do you suppose this story informed the decision to make Harry a navy man?)

We’re also treated to some more details on the functionality of the good ol’ sonic screwdriver. To wit, we’re told it “only works on electronic locks” (before Jo pulls out her convenient set of skeleton keys), and later get to see it ignite a marsh full of methane to slow the Drashigs’ advance. Personally, I love it, but it’s no wonder they had to start finding ways to keep it from being a huge Deus Ex Sonic.

Mostly, though, it’s another lovely example of the avuncular relationship the Doctor has with Jo. (Leave it to her to play on that in a pinch, and actually call him “Uncle.”) There’s more of concern there than of putting her in her pretty little feminine place, which makes the relationship a bit more palatable here than elsewhere, too.

DVD Extras (highlights)

Destroy All Monsters!

The one unique part of the ubiquitous “making of” for this disk is the monster-movie-esque titles and voiceover. Stylistically, it’s fairly amusing. The content is par for the course, including stories from shooting on location on shipboard and in a marsh; discussions of model design, costume design, and sound design; and even a mention of how the Delaware theme was commissioned and rejected.

On Target with Ian Marter

Marter was not only an actor, portraying Companion Harry Sullivan, but a writer. He novelized several Doctor Who serials for the Target range, and most of his books are generally considered among the better novelizations. This retrospective includes interview material with Tom Baker (Four), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane), Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier), Terrance Dicks (script editor) and Gary Russell (modern script editor). It’s a lovely piece, and I especially loved listening to Sladen, Courtney and actor Nigel Plashitt (who played Unstoffe in The Ribos Operation) reading from Marter’s versions of stories they’d portrayed on screen.

A-Z of Gadgets and Gizmos

A bit on the “why did they do this?” side, this 11-minute piece is nonetheless diverting. It’s really just a random list of 26 objects (or classes of object) that have appeared in Doctor Who, like Artificial Intelligence, the Key to Time, an Organic Matter Detection Surveillance System, or the Visualizer.

Mary Celeste

Again only peripherally related to the story, as the Bernice was a lost ship, this extra gives a historical context of maritime disappearances as a backdrop before explaining each loss (five or so). The popular theories that developed always reflected the concerns of the time, but the likely scenarios are usually much more mundane.

For a jolly romp, Carnival is a good choice of viewing. There are little bits that anchor similarly small moments in later Doctors’ stories, too, so that’s always a win. I love that the Doctor claims to have made a nuisance of himself with the Time Lords to make them ban the miniscopes (laying the groundwork for much future interference) and that he stops to say hello to a batch of chickens. I couldn’t help but think of Seven tipping his hat to a statue in Paradise Towers. It’s those little threads running through the whole series that make this show so wonderful.