66) CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS

​For the entirety of episode one, Carnival of Monsters successfully fools the audience into thinking The Doctor and Jo have landed on Earth again, until the surreal and almost avant-garde cliffhanger puts everything into its proper place. The scripts are incredibly strong and juggle two totally unrelated storylines for the first three episodes, and successfully mesh them together for the final instalment. However, that doesn’t mean they’re both interesting: the intergalactic political proceedings of the Inter Minorians provide some good satire, and the dialogue is well-written. But the whole Brother vs. Brother storyline is not as creative as some of the other bizarre moments within the Miniscope, and the character of President Zarb is reduced to that of an unseen character -  a clever idea, but this leads to several expositional moments. The writing is first-class, incorporating groundhog-day shenanigans which provide some clever and unpredictable material when the same events are repeated for the umpteenth time. The production is met with high levels of energy from the cast and crew alike, and outstanding CSO and puppets shots of the Drashigs, which all accumulate to make Carnival of Monsters one of the most colourful and energetic productions of the 1970s.*****