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Saturday, August 23, 2014

Doctor Who - Carnival Of Monsters




Drashigs, huge swamp-dwelling carnivores, time repeating itself, and a strange landscape of circuits and transisters. This ain't Metebelis Three?

If you came to this story not knowing the plot, you may get a pain in the head trying to work out what the hell is going on.

On the one hand we have the flash showman Vorg and his assistant Shirma arriving at the planet Inter Minor. They are refused entry as they are suspected of being spies and bring with them a strange mysterious box called a mini scope.

On the other hand we have the Doctor and Jo land on a ocean liner called SS Bernice, a ship that suddenly disappeared while travelling the Indian Ocean. They get caught in a time loop that keeps repeating the same sequence if events, ending in a giant sea monster attacking the ship.

They eventually realise they are trapped in a strange world inhabited by all kinds of different creatures, who roam about in quite different habitats. The Doctor realises that these habitats are in fact different draws inside the mini scope, and that he, and everyone else are caught inside this carnival machine.

Chased and hunted by ghastly creatures, the Doctor and Jo venture from land to land, trying tirelessly to find a way out of the machine, and back to some semblance of normality.

Meanwhile Vorg is trying his best to sweet talk the three members of the tribunal to let him and the machine onto the planet so that he can start making some money from it.

This is a highly original story, and says a lot about the whole business of obtaining entertainment and pleasure from other creatures captivity and suffering. It's that zoo mentality, and the morality of keeping a creative locked inside a false reality away from its own home.

The scenes in the machine itself, the circuitry and computer type electronics look great to look at too. This is the kind of story that Doctor Who does really well.

Next time on Doctor Who Rewind, the Doctor gets caught up in a war between two rival races.

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