Doctor Who - Carnival Of Monsters (DVD)

...Well, this is the first Doctor Who review I have done, since the BBC announcement of the new TV series being made next year. Hopefully, my endless hopping round the room and silly grin will not detract from this opinion too much ;-)

STORY

Carnival of Monsters was a four-part story featuring the third Doctor – Jon Pertwee – and one of the most popular companions of the ‘70s, Jo Grant (Katy Manning). ...
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The Doctor and Jo materialise on board the SS Bernice in 1926. However, things are not as straight-forward as they seem. Those on the ship appear to be living some kind of Groundhog Day and face attacks from a plesiosaur! Yes, the Doctor and Jo are inside the miniscope and as they manage to escape the ship’s repetitive routine, they encounter the frightening dragon-like monsters – the Drashigs.

As the machine ... more

INTRODUCTION

Well, this is the first Doctor Who review I have done, since the BBC announcement of the new TV series being made next year. Hopefully, my endless hopping round the room and silly grin will not detract from this opinion too much ;-)

STORY

Carnival of Monsters was a four-part story featuring the third Doctor – Jon Pertwee – and one of the most popular companions of the ‘70s, Jo Grant (Katy Manning). It was televised in 1973, reaching audiences of around ten million.

This one is a rather inventive and creative story. Imagine a machine, which is a similar idea to a museum or a zoo. But this machine has taken creatures from various places in time and put them together as a form of entertainment. Cybermen, dinosaurs and Tellurians (that’s humans to me and you) live in their own segment, unaware that they have been captured and are imprisoned, forced to repeat the same segment of time for alien pleasure.

The machine is called a miniscope and is owned by Vorg, who can influence the behaviour of the creatures inside it by regulating the temperature, increasing levels of aggression or even leaving them to die. Vorg and his glamorous assistant Shirna arrive on the planet of Inter Minor to try to woo the inhabitants, but instead they become embroiled in the political intrigue and corruption of the officials there.

The Doctor and Jo materialise on board the SS Bernice in 1926. However, things are not as straight-forward as they seem. Those on the ship appear to be living some kind of Groundhog Day and face attacks from a plesiosaur! Yes, the Doctor and Jo are inside the miniscope and as they manage to escape the ship’s repetitive routine, they encounter the frightening dragon-like monsters – the Drashigs.

As the machine malfunctions, the Drashigs escape from their sector of the scope and could even get out of the machine and onto Inter Minor. Meanwhile, the Doctor has only a few minutes to save Jo…

As well as having a clever idea behind it, this story is a good one for several reasons. The sets are great, especially inside the mechanisms of the scope, which resemble an adventure playground at times with slides and small doors to crawl through. The bright, gaudy costumes and metallic sets fit in very well with the carnival theme. Vorg and Shirna are very interesting characters and make an effective double act.

In contrast, the officials of Inter Minor are – literally and metaphorically – the ‘grey men’ of bureaucracy and political plotting. There are some wonderful camera shots of the three of them, with their heads close together conspiring.

Despite the serious comments made about the morals of owning a miniscope and the serious bureaucratic undercurrent, the story is full of humour, light relief and wonderfully witty lines. The elements of fear and horror are nicely diluted with the warm relationship of the Doctor and Jo, again showing how well Pertwee and Manning worked together in one of the most successful Doctor-Companion pairings of the whole series.

CAST

Carnival of Monsters has an interesting cast. Ian Marter plays Andrews, one of those on the SS Bernice. He was later to become one of Tom Baker’s companions – Harry Sullivan.

Michael Wisher plays one of the ‘grey’ men, Kalik. His most well known role in Doctor Who was as Davros, the evil boss of the Daleks.

Leslie Dwyer (Vorg) achieved a long and distinguished Curriculum Vitae in his eighty years, but is most familiar to me as the grumpy Punch and Judy man, Mr. Partridge in Hi-de-Hi!

Cheryl Hall (Shirna) is also a familiar face with an impressive list of acting credits, but I remember her most as Shirley in Citizen Smith.

EXTRAS

The extras on this DVD are well worth seeing and provide the perfect reason for replacing your video copy. These are reviewed in more detail below. The usual subtitles, episode selection and scene selection are, of course, included as standard.

EXTENDED AND DELETED SCENES

This features two extended and one deleted scene, which were erroneously included in the version of episode two, which was sent to Australia at the time. These are interesting enough - especially for completists - but the finished story loses nothing without them.

DIRECTOR’S AMENDED ENDING

Barry Letts (the producer and director) was unhappy with the final shots of Peter Halliday, as his bald cap was slipping and there were visible creases in it. Although I doubt I would have noticed it, if it hadn’t been pointed out, it irked Letts enough for him to omit 44 seconds when the story was broadcast again in 1981. This is his new version.

FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO

This is the trailer for the special season of repeats in 1981, which featured the first four actors to play Doctor Who. Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee and Tom Baker were represented by the stories of An Unearthly Child, The Krotons, Carnival of Monsters, The Three Doctors and Logopolis. This is quite a long trailer and enjoyable to watch.

DELAWARE OPENING TITLES

This is a variant of the familiar theme tune known as the Delaware, which was used on early versions of an episode of Carnival of Monsters. I definitely prefer the old one and you can see why they opted for the original, but it is interesting to hear something different. The Delaware version is the same tune, just more ‘twangy’ and synthesised.

VISUAL EFFECTS TEST FILM

I usually find these kinds of extras rather dull, but I enjoyed this one – although it did become slightly repetitive after a while. It shows how various effects were achieved then improved on. The Drashigs are especially clever as you can see they are puppets here, but they look more convincing in the final story.

Some of the practice shots are rather funny and show the obvious low budget, but also the resourcefulness of those concerned, as they usually worked well! I found it fascinating to see how the effects were done – using models, puppets, backdrops, sound effects and so on. Oh, and look out for the grinning face to go with the Drashig puppet!

PHOTO GALLERY

This photo gallery is the best I have seen on a Doctor Who DVD! It is very well done, using the miniscope image to display the stills! I liked this, as it was creative, imaginative and kept in with the theme of the story.

The photo gallery itself is in three parts. The first section shows production stills of the cast, monsters, etc. in both colour and black and white. These change automatically and quite fast, so you may want to look at them again afterwards.

The second lot of photos were taken at the Commentary Recording Session, which is a lovely idea and I hope this is repeated on more of the DVDs. There are eight colour stills of Katy Manning and Barry Letts here, which are my favourites of the whole gallery.

Finally, there are four Radio Times Illustrations by Frank Bellamy. There is a lovely one of Jon Pertwee, but I found it hard to be enthusiastic about the others.

BEHIND THE SCENES

This is a fairly short, but interesting ‘behind the scenes’ view of the filming of Carnival of Monsters, from the Looking In programme, which was shown for the BBC’s 50th anniversary celebrations in November 1972. This shows scenes with the Drashigs, Leslie Dwyer as Vorg, the editing going on, a full view of set with lights and cameras, etc. This is all good to see, but I wanted more!

TARDIS-CAM NUMBER 2

This is a short film made in 2002, which demonstrates the modern high quality effects that can now be used to show the TARDIS travelling through time and space. It is definitely very effective and proves that today’s technology will make the new TV series just as up-to-date as any other sci-fi drama out there.

CSO DEMO

This is a three-minute demonstration of how Colour Separation Overlay works, used as an internal training film. Barry Letts shows how there appears to be a woman standing in front of a house, when really the house is a small model and the woman is just standing in front of plain blue set. I found this interesting, although not something you would watch repeatedly. You can see why Barry Letts tended to stay behind the camera though; he’s not the most charismatic of presenters!

INFORMATION TEXT OPTION

This is another option that I find enhances the story I am watching, especially if it is one I know very well, as the on-screen information adds a new aspect to the story. The comments are more factual and less anecdotal than the audio commentary and there is some repetition across the two, but both have their uses and are worth seeing.

As you would expect, the information text mentions the actors’ credits, provides notes on the effects and techniques employed, behind the scenes trivia, filming dates, locations used and so on.

AUDIO OPTIONS - COMMENTARY

My favourite feature on most DVDs is the audio commentary. This one is done by Katy Manning (companion Jo Grant) and Barry Letts (producer/director). Although it’s not the best commentary I’ve ever heard, it is entertaining and very enjoyable.

I have met both Katy and Barry and their personalities seem to come across accurately on this commentary. Katy is vivacious, bubbly, funny and yes, we get a few of her many voices. Barry is rather more serious, but it works well and between them, it is a good balance of factual and anecdotal information.

Katy seems very knowledgeable and has an obvious love for the programme. She says that she hasn’t seen Carnival of Monsters since she recorded it, which means her commentary is fresh and not just a list of rehearsed ‘convention’ stories. She recalls a lot while watching it and has plenty of great anecdotes to share.

Barry is rather more formal, but still very talkative and has lots of interesting information to impart. I was amused to hear the name for the frightening Drashigs came from an anagram of the word ‘dishrags’!

His technical knowledge is displayed well too, as he explains how the special effects and sound effects were achieved. He is very self-critical and seems to be a perfectionist, often commenting how he wishes he could have done things better.

They both spend time chatting about the cast and how the story was filmed. There are also some lovely discussions about working with Jon Pertwee and analysing the character of Jo Grant and how their Doctor-companion relationship worked.

Katy defers to Barry at times, as though he was still her boss, but the fondness in their relationship is always apparent. Their enthusiasm and love for the programme shines through, making it a very warm commentary. Katy is genuinely excited about watching the story and compliments a lot of it. She definitely seems to be enjoying it and one of the highlights of the commentary is the way she gets involved and keeps asking Barry what happens! Charming.

CONCLUSION

Overall, this is a very good example of 1970’s Doctor Who and a fine example of the Pertwee era. Some may find the effects primitive, but as is usually the case, once I am immersed in the story, I am able to pretty much believe everything and rarely notice slipping caps or dodgy model shots.

When my youngest daughter was around four or five years old, this was a story she loved to watch over and over, describing the Drashigs as ‘dirty muddy lions’. Perhaps the BBC has found a new series of merchandise here - all trendy pre-schoolers could have a cuddly Drashig to snuggle up with at night!

INFORMATION

Regions 2 + 4
98 minutes
Rated ‘U’
£11.99 from Play.com
 

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