Carnival Of Monsters (1973) Review

Carnival Of Monsters is a splendid romp with a very creative idea about it.

PLOT

The TARDIS materializes inside a Miniscope, a miniature fishbowl-zoo where various members of alien races are kept and toyed with. It's up to the Doctor and Jo to uncover the mystery and save themselves and the others before the officials in the outside world find a way to destroy the Miniscope!

Although let down by a lack of locations(the only places we see are the circuitry of the Miniscope, the 1920s ship and the Drashig swamp), the idea and writing keeps the story fresh and exciting. The CSO has never been used better and the characters are very entertaining, constantly winding each other up, so to speak. I also like the clever way that Robert Holmes sets up the alien planet by simply having the three officials talk to one another.
One would say it's a great writing effort.

CHARACTERS

One must admit it's downright bizarre seeing Jon Pertwee's Doctor as free as a bird, but not bad at all. He is pretty strong here(but then again, he very rarely lets you down and never because of his own failings) and his rapport with Manning has only improved.

Speaking of Katy, she's actually got a lot of good material. I loved the comedy scenes with her stuck in a time loop. Her enthusiasm frequently makes up for her over-acting.

The officials(one of whom looked and spoke uncannily like Ambassador Soval from Star Trek: Enterprise) were really funny and added loads of texture to the story. Same goes for the two entertainers who visit the planet. They are... colorful to say the least.

The Drashigs were excellent. That scene were they rose from the swamp certainly looked terrific.

NOTES

*One of the deleted scenes they should've kept in was the 1920s lot going through the loop one last time.

*The costume worn by the lead entertainer, whatshisname, makes Colin Baker's Coat Of Awesome look subdued.

*The fingernails of the lead entertainer are criminally filthy and long. It's not the worst I've seen(that would be some Russian guy in a shop whose hands looked like the wicked witch's), but I seriously wouldn't have let a camera shoot my hands when they looked like that.

*Cybermen! Why couldn't we have seen more of them?!

*I finally realised what the Miniscope joke from Robot Of Sherwood was all about. It just shows that putting in random references like that is stupid.

*Speaking of Capaldi's days though, has anyone else noticed the titles of the Series 9 episodes? I think it's gonna be a magical season, don't you?

*Why does the lead entertainer think the TARDIS is a blockage, when it's inside one of the contained areas(the 1920s ship)?

*How and why does the TARDIS materialize inside a Miniscope? And before you say that the Miniscope turned the TARDIS little and she takes the Doctor where he needs to go, the TARDIS couldn't have been shrinked while it was still in the Vortex and that explanation was conceived 38 years after this story aired.

CONCLUSION

It's a bit overrated, but still very good.