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Carnival of Monsters is a rather charming story and very nicely acted by the cast of accomplished actors. It is noted for the first appearance of Ian Marter, who would later appear as Harry Sullivan, but this time playing the part of a dashing merchant navy officer in the 1920s. The scope with the miniaturised specimens inside, including The Doctor, Jo and TARDIS was a brilliantly realised dramatic vehicle. This story works very well, even despite the limited special effects of the time. 9/10
Commentary Commentary is by Katy Manning, Jo Grant, and Barry Letts. Both are firm favourites with fans and this ought to have been enjoyable. A lot of the time it was. Katy is good for anecdotes and Barry Letts is a very experienced director who can talk about his craft competently. But occasionally both of them seem like a pair of old fogies moaning about how easy it is to do the effects with CSO now and how the limited budgets and all the other problems faced in the good old days made everyone work with more passion and dedication. I fully believe this is true. But so many people say it over and over again on these classic Doctor Who commentaries that I am getting bored hearing it. 8/10
Extras Deleted and Extended Scenes Scene One is an extended discussion between the three Inter Minor officials and discussion with Vorg about the Scope and whether it is defined as a machine or not. Scene Two is an extended confrontation between Andrews and The Doctor interspersed with Vorg and Shirna debating whether the Tellurians were breeding. Scene Three is a longer piece of dialogue between the SS Bernice passengers. 8/10 Directors Amended Ending is nothing special. It is actually shorter than the original because Peter Halliday’s bald cap slips in the original and Barry Letts wanted to hide that in the 1981 repeat broadcast. 5/10
7/10 Delaware Opening Titles is an alternative version of the theme music that was going to be used on this story which coincided with the tenth anniversary of Doctor Who. But it was not liked and the Delaware version was abandoned. I can quite see why they didn’t like it. It sounds like some of the odd stuff cooked up on the internet by enthusiastic amateurs. 6/10 Visual Effects test sequences show the Muppet style Drashig bursting through a paper wall. The stage manager’s fingers are clearly visible at the side. Thank heavens for CSO. 8/10
8/10 Behind the Scenes – Looking In – This is a section of a programme made in 1972 to celebrate the BBC’s 50th anniversary. A sequence behind the scenes of the making of Carnival of Monsters was included in it. Again, after all those Confidentials, it’s a little bit slow. 8/10 TARDIS Cam no.2 is apparently a feature from BBCi. This leaves us none the wiser! 6/10
6/10 Photo Gallery is slightly different from usual. It includes production stills that aren’t much special, really, but also photographs of Barry Letts and Katy Manning at the commentary recording and a series of ink illustrations from the Radio Times for Carnival of Monsters. 8/10 There is no ‘making of’ documentary on this DVD, which feels like an omission. The deleted scenes are mildly interesting, but only just. A disappointing bunch of Extras, really. And since it is the Extras that make a Doctor Who DVD worth buying, it does seem slightly disappointing.
7 out of 10 |
Five
Faces of Doctor Who is a trailer for the 1981 series of repeats. Curiously
the chosen episodes only have four Doctors featured. It’s quite
a dull, overlong trailer, really.
CSO
Demo is a BBC training film using CSO. Barry Letts demonstrates the
use of the technique especially as used in Doctor Who. He and an assistant,
Margot, appear in CSO within a model shot. It’s a little slow
and after four years of Doctor Who Confidential with green screen
filming seen almost every week it’s all a bit basic. But it’s
obvious that this was brand new in 1973.
Easter
Egg – a hypnotic version of the opening credits can be found
on the special features screen.
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