66: Carnival of Monsters

Before Watching

So, the Doctor is free! He can now go where and when he pleases, not having to go as the Time Lord’s favourite errand boy, and not having to look over his shoulder in case they catch him. So surely the first story we’re going to get now is going to be a huge, wide ranging space epic? Well, as it happens that is on the way, but not yet.

“Carnival of Monsters” is a quirky, at times almost whimsical Robert Holmes piece, and the thing about quirky, at times almost whimsical stories is when they work, they can be extremely memorable and enjoyable. This was the story chosen to represent the Jon Pertwee era in the “Five Faces of Doctor Who” series of repeats in late 1981/early 1982. On the surface it’s a rather odd choice, since there are far more representative stories from either the pre Three Doctors , UNIT –era, or from the post Three Doctors era. Yet it’s an inspired choice really, and one which maybe shows the influence that fandom had over the Producer of the series at this time, John Nathan-Turner.

After Watching

You know, sometimes you can forget just how good Doctor Who can be, and just how good an individual story this one is. I’m pretty sure that I really do have nothing new to say about “Carnival of Monsters”, but what the hell, let’s go for it any way.

There’s many clever things about this story. The only expectation you have at the start is that the Doctor won’t be on contemporary Earth, and that much is fulfilled right from the start. We quickly learn that the TARDIS has materialised on board HMS Berenice, a cargo ship which is also carrying passengers to India, somewhere in the Indian Ocean. The passengers and crew are notably suspicious of them. Oh and there’s a sea monster menacing the ship, which appears to be a plesiosaur. Now, so far we seem to be in recognisable Doctor Who territory. So things need to start getting very strange indeed. And they do.

I don’t remember a Doctor Who story prior to this where there are two seemingly unconnected storylines which run parallel for so long. The action switches to the planet of Inter Minor where the humanoid showman Vorg is trying to prove to some grey skinned and white haired bureaucrats that he should be allowed in, with his assistant Shirna, and his miniscope. The miniscope, you see is the key. It is an entertainment device, in which creatures caught within its miniaturisation field are placed, together with a sample environment, and forced to act out the same actions over and over again for the benefit of the viewers. This machine had been banned by the Time Lords – it turns out that the Doctor had been instrumental in getting them banned – and the great irony is that his TARDIS has materialised inside one.

This isn’t actually the most promising of material, but it works brilliantly. Why?

It works brilliantly because Vorg isn’t evil. Vorg is a rogue, one of a type in which Robert Holmes came increasingly to specialise in, and more than that, he is a funny rogue, and a lovable rogue. He’s one of the ways in which Robert Holmes plays with our concept of what a Doctor Who story actually is, and what we expect from it. We know that a lot of the time there will be monsters. And indeed, there are monsters in this story. But they’re not the problem nor the point of the story. Yes, they provide the necessary scary bits, and the necessary danger, but this is obviously not what the Doctor is here to sort out. We also know that most of the time there will be a villain. Hence in a story like “The Mutants”, which follows a lot of the conventions of Doctor Who in the early 70s, you don’t need more than a few seconds to identify the Marshal as a villain, and you know exactly how he is going to act for the whole of the story, and be fair, he never lets you down. Say what you like about Vorg, but even though he has caused the situation that the Doctor has to deal with, he isn’t a villain. And one of the reasons why this story works so brilliantly is that it trusts its viewers a) to be able understand the difference, and b) to be able to cope with this difference from what they would have expected.

So, Vorg not being a villain means he can be developed as a comic turn, and his comic turn then provides the counterpoint to what goes on in the miniscope, which becomes increasingly serious and frightening. Which brings me to the Drashigs.

“Carnival of Monsters” works brilliantly because the Drashigs are one of the best realised pure monsters of the Pertwee era. You don’t have to be a crossword nut to work out that Robert Holmes used an anagram of the word ‘dishrag’ for this story’s stand out monsters, but there’s nothing wet or limp about these. A combination of puppetry, model work, CSO and good sound effects meant that Producer Barry Letts, wearing his director’s hat for this story, made the Drashigs one of the more convincing and frightening monsters of the whole of Pertwee’s tenure. I kind of think that the Drashigs work because they are no more than they have to be, which is ravening, unstoppable monsters. Because there is so much else going on with the script, it doesn’t need to be making points through the monsters. They are there to provide the danger, which they do perfectly.

“Carnival of Monsters” works brilliantly because every named character is more than just a repository for lines of the script. On the S.S. Bernice, you’ve got the kindly old buffer, Major Daly, who is played by the fine welsh actor Tenniel Evans. Worthy of note also is the late Ian Marter, who plays Lt. Andrews. It’s not a huge part, but he must have made an impression, for in just over a year’s time he would return as Season 12 companion Lt. Harry Sullivan. Shirna’s world weary cynicism makes her a perfect foil to Vorg, and she’s played by Cheryl Hall. I haven’t seen her on television for quite a while, but in the 70s and 80s she appeared in many shows, in particular the first three series of popular sitcom “Citizen Smith”, which showcased her talents as a comedienne. Then there’s the Inter Minorians. In less sure hands these three would just be boring cyphers. But Robert Holmes never wasted an opportunity to mock a bureaucrat. Kalik, Orum and Pletrac all stand out as individuals, although they are clearly of a sort, and that’s clever. Their plan to launch a coup d’etat is laughable, and that’s the point – it’s supposed to be. Oh, and Kalik is played by Davros-to-be Michael Wisher. What more could you want?

Here’s a thing worth noting. Vorg is a rogue, and he’s caused the trouble in the first place by using an illegal miniscope, and yet it’s Vorg’s actions which save the day. Once again, it’s playing with our expectations. At the risk of sounding pseudo-intellectual, there’s something quite Dickensian about salvation coming through the intervention of show people. Dickens loved the world of the theatre and the circus he even inveigled some of his literary friends into appearing in a comic melodrama “Not So Bad As We Seem” scripted by the now forgotten, yet then extremely popular Edward Bulwer-Lytton. In many of his novels the theatre and the circus, the world of the itinerant showman and woman represents salvation from the trials and tribulations of contemporary life that many of his heroes and heroines often find themselves having to endure.   

The last word, then, on “Carnival of Monsters”. It’s a terrifically watchable 4 parter. You can accuse seasons 8 and 9 of ‘playing it safe’  - that’s merely an opinion, and as always, feel free to disagree. You can say, well, even if that is the case, look at what they achieved. Both seasons were highly enjoyable on the whole, and when you consider that the biggest criticism you can make of stories like “Colony in Space” and “The Mutants” is that they’re a bit dull, then the show is in pretty decent fettle. But a story like “Carnival of Monsters” which plays with the conventions and discards or twists many of them, shows that the series is still capable of taking risks, and delivering something out of left field. And that’s a valuable thing indeed.

What have we learned?

Miniscopes are banned, and frankly nothing like as entertaining as a Nintendo.