OK after some posts on some rather heavy dramatic flicks such as the Godfather Trilogy and Shawshank Redemption, I thought I would go back to another look at an old Doctor Who classic story, which is one my favourites from the Jon Pertwee era, Carnival of Monsters, which was originally broadcast back in 1973. So so so let's gie it a look shall we?
The story starts with the Doctor (Pertwee) and his assistant Jo Grant (Katy Manning), who make a trip in the TARDIS to what the Doctor hopes to be Metebelis 3 (this turns out to be their first trip since the Doctor has been given back his freedom by the Time Lords). However when they look around at their surroundings, they appear to be on a large cargo ship, which turns out to be SS Bernice, which as it turned out was a famous ship that went missing in the Indian ocean back in 1926. The Doctor and Jo however keep getting repeteadly caught as stowaways by the crew, and on escaping they get caught again, only to find the crew have no memory of the Doctor or Jo. However the Doctor and Jo soon manage to find a white hatch in the floor of the ship, which none of the crew members can see, which they escape through, only to find themselves inside what appears to be a giant machine circuit board, which they try and navigate their way through to find a way out. On breaking through a part of the wall of the machine, the Doctor and Jo find themselves in a marshland which is populated by deadly creatures called Drashigs, which the two of them have a close call with, but they escape back into the machine's circuit again.
And the Doctor soon twigs what has happened as he realises they are inside a miniscope, which keeps inhabitants in a miniaturised form, within their own habitats. And the miniscope itself belongs to a travelling showman, Vorg (Leslie Dwyer) and his assistant Shirna (Cheryl Hall) who have arrived on the planet Inter Minor, and are looking for a permit to work there, however they are suspected as spies by the planet's tribunal panel members, Pletrac (Peter Halliday), Kalik (Michael Wisher) and Orum (Terence Lodge). Regardless of this though, two of the tribunal members, Kalik and Orum quietly express their discontent at the present power situation on Inter minor with the current president, and on learning about the drashigs, Kalik is intruiged by them, and plans on releasing them from the miniscope to wreak havoc and force the president to resign. Before Kalik can do this however, the Doctor eventually finds his way out of the miniscope and eventually reverts to his full size (as people and object return to their normal size when they are taken out of the miniscope's compression field). The Doctor expresses his disgust and concern about the miniscope and he insists that he try and rescue Jo and the people inside and return them to their proper places in time and space. And as the Doctor goes back inside the miniscope to rescue Jo, Kalik outside opens the panel to let the drashigs out, who soon emerge into Inter Minor to cause chaos and destruction, and its up to the Doctor to rescue Jo and get out of the miniscope before its too late.
This is a nice leisurely Doctor Who story from the Pertwee era, and for me one of the most enjoyable things about it is that its tone is so lighthearted, despite the threats and plottings of Kalik and the dangers of the drashigs (not that they are that menacing!). But the story itself, written by Robert Holmes is also very creative and intelligent, and once again the veteran Doctor Who writer provides some great ideas, the main one being the miniscope itself, and how it allows people to be within their own miniaturised environments. Although the one thing that does at times threaten to bug the narrative is the repetition of the events on board the SS Bernice, as the ship crewmembers keep seeing the Doctor and Jo time and time again, but they have no recollection of them, and each time they lock them up, after they escape again, they forget who they are again. But it also neatly shows that clearly the miniscope environments only last for a short period of time before they repeat themselves again, and that's the whole point after all.
Cast wise by this time, Jon Pertwee had easily grown into his role as the Doctor, as he plays him as well as he could ever, and he get's some great lines of dialogue, especially when he get's out of the miniscope, and Pletrac keeps calling him a hostile creature, to which the Doctor replies "please refrain from calling me the creature, or I will become increasingly hostile!". Katy Manning as Jo Grant also by now has comfortably settled very well into her part, and she and Jon Pertwee always made a great team, and you can see their fondness for each other on screen is apparent. One of Katy's best scenes with Jon in fact is where the Doctor and Jo are trapped inside a storeroom, and the Doctor says "if only we had a key", to which Jo produces a large bunch of keys, which she pick pocketed earlier, "allow me, Doctor!".
The supporting cast are also very good, especially Peter Halliday as the neurotic Pletrac, who is so concerned with procedures and going by the book. I also particularly like his reaction when he asks what Vorg and Shirna do, to which Shirna replies "we put on a show" and she does a little dance, "you see?" she says, and he replies flatly "No!". Michael Wisher is also excellent as Kalik, the conspiratorial tribunal member, who wants to have a revolution in order to overthrow the president of Inter minor. Leslie Dwyer is also a good laugh as the showman Vorg, who wears one of the most garish costumes in the history of the show, which would probably give anyone a migraine just to look at it! Dwyer's funniest moment in the show comes when he is trying to repair the miniscope, and he asks Shirna to touch a wire, and she get's a shock, and he says "yes, that must be positive terminal!".
The story is also notable for the cast of the SS Bernice crew, as we see Ian Marter, make a good impression in his first appearance in the show as Lt Andrews, one of the naval officers onboard the ship (who is not entirely dissimilar to Harry during the Tom Baker era). Tenniel Evans also gives a neat performance as Major Daly, as does Jenny McCracken as his daughter Claire. And they have a nice scene together at the end of the story, once the Doctor has restored all the occupants of the miniscope to their proper places in time, that Claire tries to remember something about the journey, but she can't quite think what it is, and she says "don't you think this has been a really long journey???", before she shrugs it off.
So overall its alot of fun, although there are of course one or two snags here and there, the main one being that the drashigs, as monsters are pretty laughable, as they are just puppets, and Barry Letts, the producer once again shows his over enthusiam for CSO to show how naff they look superimposed over a background. This is especially apparent in the scene where the drashigs break out of the miniscope, leaving Vorg to shoot them with a disintegrator gun. The repetitive nature of the narrative, especially with the crew of the SS Bernice also does threaten to become tiresome pretty quickly, but Robert Holmes just about manages to keep it moving it along well enough so it doesn't too much. And the sub plot about Kalik wanting to overthrow the president by using the drashigs is also pretty silly, especially as Vorg manages to kill them off with the disintregator gun. Its just a pretty naff excuse to release the drashigs out of the miniscope, and you get it doesn't have much relevance or bearing to the proceedings other than that.
But despite all that, Carnival of Monsters remains a very entertaining and light hearted story from the Jon Pertwee era, and one that is worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.
And so with that, that's it!
No comments:
Post a Comment