 With The Doctor's freedom returned to him, by the Time Lords in the previous story ("The Three Doctors"), this story marked the return of regular travelling in space and time for the show. Although for the previous two seasons The Doctor was often sent around the cosmos on Time Lord business, this adventure constitutes for the first time, since 1969 Second Doctor "The War Games", that The Doctor has been truly free to wander again.
This story features a guest appearance by Ian Marter, who had auditioned originally to play the part of Captain Mike Yates. Ian Marter would later join the program as the Fourth Doctor’s companion Harry Sullivan.
This story also featured a guest appearance by Tenniel Evans as Major Daly. Tenniel Evans was an old friend and also co-starred alongside Jon Pertwee in The Navy Lark.
Vorg and Shirna were played by Leslie Dwyer and Cheryl Hall respectively, both of whom found greater fame in separate BBC sitcoms: Cheryl Hall as Shirley in Citizen Smith and Leslie Dwyer as Mr Partridge, the child hating Punch and Judy Man, in Hi-De-Hi.
Michael Wisher, who plays Kalik, would later play Davros, the creator of the Daleks, in "Genesis of the Daleks".
This was the final story for which Brian Hodgson was to handle the special sound effects; they would later be supplied by Dick Mills.
During this story we are introduced to three alien races, the bureaucratic Minorians from Inter Minor, the Lurmans (Vorg and Shirna), and the Drashigs, terrifying carnivores from a swampy satellite of Grundle.
This story includes the first mention of Metebelis 3, 'the famous blue planet of the Acteon group' (Metebelis 3 was to appear in "The Green Death" and also play an important part in "Planet of the Spiders".
Another new use for The Doctor’ sonic screwdriver is seen when he uses it to ignite and explode the marsh gas.
Believing The Doctor to be a showman like himself, Vorg attempts to speak to The Doctor in Polari, a language common in theatrical and gay subculture in Britain of the 1950s and 1960s, and popularised in the BBC Radio programme Round the Horne. Strangely The Doctor appears unable to understand Vorg, despite his usual ability with languages and the TARDIS's translation capabilities.
It is revealed that Vorg's miniscope, which he won at the Great Wallarian Exhibition in a game of chance (involving three magum pods and a yarrow seed), is one of a few still in existence. Despite The Doctor in the past ensuring that the Time Lord High Council had the scopes banned.
Some of the aliens on display in Vorg's Miniscope include: Drashigs, Ogrons and Cybermen. This is only one of two times that the Cybermen appear during the Third Doctor's era (a hallucination of one appears in "The Mind of Evil"). It is not until the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary Special "The Five Doctors" that he eventually meets the Cybermen proper.
Vorg also mentions the Daleks and Tellurians (the passengers aboard the SS Bernice and so may be a galactic corruption of 'Terran', the normal alien name for humans). The term ‘Tellurian’ is also used by Shockeye, an Androgum, in the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "The Two Doctors".
The Doctor compares the disappearance of the SS Bernice crew to that of the Marie Celeste. Which race actually took them from the Indian Ocean, two days from Bombay on 4 June 1926, and placed them in the Miniscope is never revealed. Vorg however, states that the Miniscope was built by Eternity Perpetual Company.
Interestingly the 1926 calendar that is in the wall of cabin is wrong (the date structure is that of 1925).
The cycle of time that the SS Bernice is locked into includes a Plesiosaurus, which had been extinct for 130 million years.
For the scenes aboard the SS Bernice the decommissioned Royal Fleet Auxiliary RFA Robert Dundas was used. This ship was scrapped very shortly after filming.
A similar device to the Miniscope also appears in the 1979 Fourth Doctor story "Nightmare of Eden". The Doctor's involvement in the banning of the Miniscopes is also mentioned in Virgin Books' The Missing Adventures "The Empire of Glass".
This story was recorded as part of the production block for the previous season but deliberately held over for Season Ten: this was to enable Producer Barry Letts to direct the production, since his role as producer would have made it difficult to do so at the start of a production block (as he had found out earlier with "Terror of the Autons"). As BBC regulations at the time prevented any person from being credited for more than one production role, Barry Letts was credited as directing this story and not as its producer.
The titles for this story were made, like "Frontier in Space" with a new arrangement of the theme music performed by Paddy Kingsland using a synthesizer. Known as the "Delaware" arrangement (the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was based on Delaware Road), it however, proved unpopular with BBC executives and so the original Delia Derbyshire theme was restored for the transmitted version. The "Delaware" arrangement only appears on an uncorrected version of episode two that was shipped to Australia in error.
Two versions of both episodes two and four exist. The second episode, as seen on the 1995 BBC VHS video release of this story, is about four minutes longer than the one originally transmitted and features the abandoned Delaware synthesiser arrangement of the theme music. This version was a rough cut that was made during the original editing of the story and was never intended, at the time, for public viewing. Its’ current existence is only due to the BBC Enterprises inadvertently including it in a package of episodes that were supplied to the Australian Broadcasting Company. The BBC intended to include this version on the VHS video release.
When this story was repeated on BBC2 in November 1981, as part of "The Five Faces of Doctor Who", a 45 seconds section was cut from the closing scene. This was done in response to a request from Barry Letts (then the shows' Executive Producer) to remove a shot where actor Peter Halliday's baldcap had slipped. This version of episode four was also used on the 1995 BBC VHS video release of this story.
The 2002 DVD release has the originally transmitted versions of episodes two and four. While the extras include the additional scenes from the early edit of the second episode and the "Delaware" version of the theme tune.
The 1977 Target novelisation of this story, written by Terrance Dicks, was also released on audio by the RNIB. It was narrated by Gabriel Woolf.
"Carnival of Monsters" was also used as the title of a 1999 BBC documentary looking at some of the adversaries that The Doctor had faced in the programme.
| |
|
The Firsts:
The first time, since the beginning of the Third Doctor's era, that The Doctor has been able to use his TARDIS to travel in space and time.
The first appearance of Ian Marter, in the role of John Andrews, before he played the Fourth Doctor’s companion Harry Sullivan.
The first appearance in the show for Michael Wisher, in the role of Kalik, before he played Davros - the creator of the Daleks.
The first mention of Metebelis 3.
The first use of the "Delaware" arrangement of the theme music.
|
|
(Position = 60 out of 159)
(Position = 62 out of 200)
