Contains Suggestive Spoilers To The Whole Season
I once had a conversation with a female friend a few years ago . One of her friends had unfortunately lost his house which meant he was staying with her for a few days . The good point was that amongst his meagre possessions were some DOCTOR WHO DVDS and my friend asked what ones were worth watching . I sent her a long email with my recommendations . She enjoyed Tomb Of The Cybermen but felt Carnival Of Monsters was repetitive . This illustrates the differences between DOCTOR WHO in 1967 and 1973
It should be remembered that the plot of Carnival is deliberately repetitive since it involves a mini-scope , a machine that miniaturizes alien lifeforms in what is effectively a time loop so characters continually go through the same routine for all of eternity .Just think - you can live forever but only if you spend forever reliving the same day . And for some reason DOCTOR WHO in the early 1970s was the show at its most episodic - stories weren't structured to be watched in the one go , they were meant to be watched a week apart . Bare this in mind and you'll have one of the more enjoyable adventures from th era . It's probably not a classic but it is great fun
Writer Robert Holmes has written a tale that mixes mystery with camp characters . The doctor and Jo land aboard the SS Bernice a ship that disappeared in the Indian Ocean in 1926 and things aren't what they seem , especially when a giant hand suddenly appears and lifts the Tardis out of the ships hold setting up a stunning cliffhanger to the first episode . That said all the episodes are stunning especially the one in episode two where the doctor and Jo are confronted by Drashigs bursting from the surface of a bleak marshy landscape
Carnival Of Monsters is something of an oddity in season ten . The Three Doctors is a nostalgia piece never before seen in the show . Frontier In Space / Planet Of The Daleks attempts to be an epic whilst The Green Death is a watershed for the Pertwee era so effectively Carnival is merely a filler story but it says something about the classic show in general and the Pertwee era in particular that a filler story is so colourful and entertaining
I once had a conversation with a female friend a few years ago . One of her friends had unfortunately lost his house which meant he was staying with her for a few days . The good point was that amongst his meagre possessions were some DOCTOR WHO DVDS and my friend asked what ones were worth watching . I sent her a long email with my recommendations . She enjoyed Tomb Of The Cybermen but felt Carnival Of Monsters was repetitive . This illustrates the differences between DOCTOR WHO in 1967 and 1973
It should be remembered that the plot of Carnival is deliberately repetitive since it involves a mini-scope , a machine that miniaturizes alien lifeforms in what is effectively a time loop so characters continually go through the same routine for all of eternity .Just think - you can live forever but only if you spend forever reliving the same day . And for some reason DOCTOR WHO in the early 1970s was the show at its most episodic - stories weren't structured to be watched in the one go , they were meant to be watched a week apart . Bare this in mind and you'll have one of the more enjoyable adventures from th era . It's probably not a classic but it is great fun
Writer Robert Holmes has written a tale that mixes mystery with camp characters . The doctor and Jo land aboard the SS Bernice a ship that disappeared in the Indian Ocean in 1926 and things aren't what they seem , especially when a giant hand suddenly appears and lifts the Tardis out of the ships hold setting up a stunning cliffhanger to the first episode . That said all the episodes are stunning especially the one in episode two where the doctor and Jo are confronted by Drashigs bursting from the surface of a bleak marshy landscape
Carnival Of Monsters is something of an oddity in season ten . The Three Doctors is a nostalgia piece never before seen in the show . Frontier In Space / Planet Of The Daleks attempts to be an epic whilst The Green Death is a watershed for the Pertwee era so effectively Carnival is merely a filler story but it says something about the classic show in general and the Pertwee era in particular that a filler story is so colourful and entertaining