Carnival of Monsters is the second serial of the tenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 27 January to 17 February 1973.
In the serial, set on the planet Inter Minor, the alien time traveller known as "The Doctor" (in his third incarnation, played by Jon Pertwee) and his travelling companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) are trapped inside a miniscope, a device used by the showman Vorg (Leslie Dwyer) to shrink life forms and put them on display for entertainment.
Two of the tribunal members, Kalik and Orum, dissatisfied with the leadership of their planet, plot to let the Drashigs escape from the machine and allow them to wreak havoc, causing a crisis and the president's resignation.
After he goes back into the Scope, which is now overheating and losing its life support due to the Drashigs' damage, the device he attached is shot by a tribunal member and ceases to function, leaving the Doctor stranded.
This was to enable Barry Letts to direct, 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 with Terror of the Autons).
The titles for Carnival of Monsters were prepared, alongside the next serial, Frontier in Space, with a new arrangement of the theme music performed by Paddy Kingsland on a synthesizer.
As the ship was actually in transit on its final voyage down the River Medway in Kent, all external shots had to be filmed at a low angle or the banks of the estuary would have been visible.
[9] DVD Talk's John Sinnott gave the serial three and a half out of five stars, describing it as "light and fun" and praising the Miniscope and guest actor Leslie Dwyer.
[10] Neela Debnath of The Independent wrote that Carnival of Monsters had a "well-crafted plot that keeps the audience guessing for quite a while and this suspense serves as the driving force behind the serial".
[11] On the other hand, IGN reviewer Arnold T. Blumburg named the serial one of the worst of the Pertwee tenure, stating that it had "the most appalling character, set, and costume design in the era's history" and that some of the guest actors were wasted.
[12] In 2013, Den of Geek's Andrew Blair selected Carnival of Monsters as one of the ten Doctor Who stories that would make great musicals.