I think this story is one of those little gems which is up against some tough opposition in this Season. Following The Three Doctors, with a mammoth 12 part story of sorts to follow and The popular Green Death to finish of the Season, Carnival Of Monsters really holds it own against those stories.

What I like about this is that it is one of the few stories where the Third Doctor lightens up a bit, the presence of Pertwee's old working partner, Tenniel Evans(Major Daly) making the scenes between the two really enjoyable. Katy Manning really goes hyper in this(as I've mentioned previously it feels as if she's been drinking loads of Red Bull) and off course it the Doctor Who debut of one Ian Marter, who plays Captain Andrews very differently from the bumbling Harry Sullivan.

As for the story itself, it was great seeing the TARDIS back to it's old ways, heading towards Metebelis Three and ending up somewhere different. (I also liked the theme of Metebelis Three theme which ran all the way through to the end of the Third Doctor's Era) I also like how the two seemingly separate storylines of the ship and Inter Minor comes together gradually. I love Vorg and Shirna, their costumes a neat contrast to the population they have visited.

It's a usual Robert Holmes scripts with double acts seemingly everywhere. However, it is let down by some dodgy CSO and the Drashigs aren't exactly that convincing. You do wish sometime CGI had been invented thirty years earlier!

That's just a mere quibble though as it is still a very good story.

wasn't to keen on this one when I first saw it back during the 5 Faces season but grew to love it when the video was released. The TARDIS getting caught up in a machine is a lovely idea and the huge hand coming down to pick up the TARDIS, is possibally one of the best cliff hangers of the Pertwee era.

I like it because the Doctor and companion actually spend a lot of the story together, instead of being separated for large parts. So you get the interaction between the two.
For a Pertwee it's not overlong with being a four-parter.
The idea or polt revolving around the miniscope is interesting, and has it's Big Brother angle of it being an entertainment medium.
Production values are okay, the actors involved are decent which include Ian Marter. Some interesting outfits (Vorg and Shirna!!!).
The Inter Minor politics plotline and characters are my least favourite part, but it keeps things moving on reflection.
All in all one of favourite stories from this time of the show.

A lovely first trip in the Tardis. A fun story too. The planet and the aliens were a bit cheap-looking (but I could disregard that!). The scenes on the boat were very good, Drashigs a bit meh! Although the filmed ones were quite OK!
I loved that line that Vorg said to Shirna - "Put your finger on that will you?"
"OWWW!"
"Oh good - that must be the Live one!"

Just wonderfully silly. The Drashigs are SO rubbish. And that moment when the giant hand picks up the toy TARDIS . . . Oh, I miss the 70s.

Possibly my favourite Pertwee story (though to be fair I've only seen about half of his).

I love the concept, and it's executed really well too. Vorg and Shirna are great, and I like the grey-faced aliens too.

I'd love to have Shirna as my assistant, and in that costume

Watched this again over the weekend and it still is a very good story, okay not one of my favourites but for me is quite an atypical Pertwee story being a 4-parter set on another planet without any reoccurring monsters, barring the odd Ogron and Cyberman whom of the latter makes it's only appearance during the Pertwee Years.

The tribunal is a very funny set up at times, like how the constant decision making goes in Kalik's(was that a subtle Dalek joke name?!) favour due to Orum's constant siding with him with Pletrac. the bald caps are quite obvious at times too.

All in all it a very light-hearted bit of fun and as Mullett as sort of said, it is very 70's. Worth a watch for that alone.

I would say it is definitely one of my favourites. And the Drashigs are some of the best monsters ever. Kalik is, I'm sure, just co-incidence, it was a couple of years before Kaleds.

Much as I like stuff like Inferno and Ambassadors of Death, and although I am not always a fan of this sort of high concept stuff, this is possibly my favourite Who story of the Pertwee era. The whole story is just so inventive and, unlike Invasion of Time, it more or less hangs together within the parameters set. The cast on board the ship are all really good fun too.

Carnival Of Monsters is, above everything else, damn good fun.

Holmes' script is genuinely funny, but clever, thought provoking and a little bit scary too. The shipboard filming is effective, and makes for a sharp contrast with the Spaceport (although, as it was filmed last as part of season 9 and held over until season 10, you can see where some of the cost cutting has occurred).

But I love the whole idea of the story. It's a very neat commentary on what we are actually doing - watching a small machine which contains people and creatures running about and fighting and doing silly things for our entertainment. I can't remember if Vorg bangs the top of the Scope to get a better picture, but he ought to, as grumpy old Dads, the length and breadth of the country did exactly that to get a better picture on their tellies.

And all that stuff with the Doctor clambering around inside the workings of the Scope is terrific - big perspex shapes, kind of valves and transistors - sort of what you'd see if you took the back off an early 70s telly. And this only reinforces the wonderful childlike feeling that the Doctor is actually exploring the inside of your TV!

At times it looks like Pertwee has stumbled into the Top Of The Pops studio; it wouldn't look wrong if he found Roxy Music somewhere in there, but this also adds to the feeling that various TV programmes have all got jumbled up.

I reckon Carnival Of Monsters is one of the most solidly entertaining Who adventures ever. It's just good fun - fun with creatures from one set breaking into another one, fun with Vorg and Shirna, fun with the Officials, and fun with the absolutely topping 1920s setting. Just like the Scope itself, Carnival Of Monsters is a mash up of genres and styles. Only Doctor Who could ever make such a programme.
Which is why Doctor Who is such a brilliant show!

I wish the Inter Minor had been given a bit better look and execution, even for the 1970s some of the attention to detail is a bit amateurish they are so dull.
It is very 70s as mentioned and entertaining though.


The Drashigs are done reasonably enough, at least they seem threatening particulary when the Doctor and Jo are stuck in the middle of a few of them and are forced to flee.


These are excellent passages of the story decently realised I thought, I liked all the SS Bernice scenes the most in the story, with the repeating of being discovered in the Major's cabin

Having read so much positive stuff about Carnival of Monsters I was really looking forward to this story. Honestly my initial reaction is I feel a bit mixed about the story overall..

I really liked all the mystery around the SS Bernice and the repeating scenarios.Didn't realise ian Marter was in it so that was a surprise and I liked his tough officer type as against the bumbling but sweet Harry and the boxing match with the Doctor ' is entertaining. Queensbury rules ? ' 'Obviously ' and the Doctor then biffs him one ! . Katy Manning is good in this story bringing a bit of drama to the unintentionally funny bits with the Drashigs and you can see how comfortable her and Jon Pertwee are together.

There is a nice mirroring of the stuffy colonial Colonel bossing around of the natives ( when searching for Jo and the Doctor) with Vorg and Shirna who consider the Inter Minorians a bit stupid and that they can make some money off.Aside from the pretty hideous costumes they are a good double-act.
It was a very clever idea questioning the idea of watching a box/ cage with live specimens like a zoo and I did like all the scenes inside the mechanism of the mini scope.

Although it was well acted not so keen on all the plot on Inter Minor. The actors seemed stuck in the one set, which was so brightly lit, that it didn't flow easily into the scenes on the ship or the landscape of the Drashigs. Its gives a jolt going from one scene to another but that's more a technical issue. I wish the lighting had been lowered a bit.
Curiously for Robert Holmes who is a master story teller ( I love Pyramids, Ribos, and Caves) I felt there wasn't enough story for a four parter here as there seemed to be endless escape, capture, escape for Jo and the Doctor. Dont know if its the pacing of the story. Not a dud by any means but feels a bit of an oddity and but not quite what I expected. I would watch it again though

It was one of the rare 'fun' stories of Jon's era in my eyes! Most of his stories were earthbound, miserable and "end of the Earth as we know it" - type stories. PLUS it was only 4-parts long - the perfect length for a story, not a wheezing long 6/7 part story with lots of padding!!
The effects were a bit iffy at times - but the filmed ones were quite good! (that's where they went wrong in the late 80's - doing it all on cheap video!!!)
I give Carnival a good 7/10 !

Yep I agree about the filmed bits they work so much better. Its such a shame they couldn't afford to film all of it. The studio parts of the planet look so cheap and nasty but maybe that was deliberate.A statement about the planet inhabitants!

Wolfie's girlfriend in Citizen Smith (she was married to Robert Lindsay at the time).

...and Vorg went on to be a Punch & Judy man in Hi De Hi....who HATED kids!

She went into politics and served as leader of the Labour group on Kent County Council.

In the '97 election she stood for Labour in the Canterbury constitency but came second with 3964 fewer votes than the incumbent MP Julian Brazier

Can't even find the old references: weren't the Drashigs an anagram of dishrags and their roaring a flushing loo slowed down.... or something similar?

I thought the flushing loo slowed down was the Yeti roar. Or am I getting muddled with the 'yeti on the loo in Tooting Bec' that Pertwee was fond of mentioning?