Carnival of Monsters Episode Four

The one where the Drashigs break out of the miniscope...

I love the look of disgust on Shirna's face when the Doctor emerges from the miniscope and begins to grow. Everybody seems to view the Tellurians (ie, Earth people) as a lesser species, despite the fact they look just like Lurmans. Shirna shows the disorientated Doctor some compassion when he's coming round, like a nanny might a child!

I also love how the Doctor completely takes over the situation the moment he arrives, questioning the Inter Minorian tribunal, reprimanding the Lurmans for operating the scope illegally, and blaming Pletrac for allowing its importation. Pertwee is on fire in this scene, commanding the set and putting every character in their place.

Vorg believes the fancily-dressed Doctor to be a showman like himself, and expects him to understand the Tellurian carnival lingo, Polari, which is actually a real form of slang used by actors, showmen, wrestlers, sailors, criminals, sex workers, and within gay subculture, to communicate between the like-minded, without "outsiders" cottoning on. The Doctor appears not to know the lingo, although I'm pretty sure Jon Pertwee would have (what with him being an actor, showman and sailor!).

Vorg says he won the miniscope in a gambling session with a Wallarian, which reminds me of how Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon in a game of sabacc in Star Wars! However, the Wallarians, as well as being great gamblers, were also great sportsmen it seems, and have popped up in Doctor Who's wider universe a couple of times, such as when they get a mention in The Sarah Jane Adventures story Revenge of the Slitheen, or are namedropped in books like Mission: Impractical and the novelisation of the SJA story The Last Sontaran. However, the Wallarians have yet to physically appear in Doctor Who fiction, as of 2019...

The Doctor decides to go back into the scope to rescue Jo before the entire machine overheats and overloads. It's curious that he should disappear into the scope while standing up, but appear inside flat on his back though. Within, he is reunited with Jo, and the two of them manage to finally escape the scope thanks to Vorg, who throws the phase two switch just in time.

The Drashigs also escape from the scope and briefly wreak havoc, seemingly killing Kalik, who probably deserves his comeuppance. The hero of the entire story is actually Vorg, who not only rescues the Doctor and Jo by getting them out of the scope, but also manages to fix the disintegrator and destroy the escaped Drashigs, thus saving Inter Minor! It's a nice change that a guest character is allowed so much influence over the resolution of the plot. Vorg is a fantastic creation, in the great Robert Holmes tradition of characters like Milo Clancy, Garron and Sabalom Glitz, although Shirna isn't quite as richly written as other Holmesian sidekicks like Unstoffe and Dibber. Vorg is a character I'd like to see back though, perhaps becoming a recurring character against numerous Doctors, like River Song. Sadly, the duo have yet to be revisited in Doctor Who fiction.

Finally, all of the captured "specimens" in the scope are returned to their correct times and places (including the random Ogron and Cyberman), and we see a happy ending for the Dalys aboard the SS Bernice. What puzzles me though, is what was the point of the plesiosaurus in episode 1? It formed part of the endless loop the characters are trapped in, but I don't understand the need or relevance of its presence? Was it ever explained?

Reading the TARDIS Wiki page for the SS Bernice, I'm none the wiser. It claims that the crew of the SS Bernice were taken for display aboard a replica SS Bernice within the miniscope. In the real world it is said that the SS Bernice was found abandoned and adrift in the Indian Ocean on June 4th, 1926, and the disappearance of the crew likened to the mystery of the Mary Celeste. But if the Doctor manages to return the crew to their original time and place, that means the vessel is never found abandoned and adrift, and it actually manages to dock in Bombay after all. So the mystery of the SS Bernice is erased, and it never happened?

I'm confused. I reckon the plesiosaurus was too.

Carnival of Monsters is a real hotch-potch of ideas, the product of a fierce imagination, which is a key ingredient in what makes Doctor Who so special. The scenes set inside the miniscope are superior to those on Inter Minor, however, largely because of how cheap everything looks, especially Roger Liminton's sets and some of Angela Seyfang's make-up and wigs. Director Barry Letts re-edited the final scene for the story's 1981 repeat because he was essentially embarrassed about the blatantly obvious hair piece on Peter Halliday (Pletrac), but to be honest the credibility of the wigs was lost much earlier than that. While I love this story's ambition and scale, I do think the Inter Minor scenes let it down terribly, despite some nice turns from Leslie Dwyer and Michael Wisher, and some corking monsters. A qualified success, then.

By the way... I'm going to give honorary credits to the numerous extras who played the crew of the SS Bernice, because some of them did actually speak, but were not credited for it. So, a belated hello to Mohamed Shamsi, Albert Moses, Jagdesh Kumar, Bob Babenia, Norman Commis and Rudolph Ramil.

First broadcast: February 17th, 1973

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Doctor taking complete control as soon as he arrives on Inter Minor.
The Bad: I don't understand the whole plesiosaur/ SS Bernice disappearance thing. Am I being dense?
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (story average: 7.5 out of 10)

"Now listen to me" tally: 22 - The Doctor tells Vorg to listen to him when explaining how his contraption works.
Neck-rub tally: 13

NEXT TIME: Frontier in Space...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Three

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/05/carnival-of-monsters.html

The Carnival of Monsters Special Edition is available on BBC DVD as part of the Revisitations 2 box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Revisitations-Carnival-Monsters-Resurrection/dp/B004FV4R9A/