Earth Station Who Episode 92: Carnival of Monsters

I can’t even tell you guys how relieved I am to be talking about classic Doctor Who again. It was with great joy that I put the “Carnival of Monsters” disc into my player and settled in to watch some Jon Pertwee.

This story is a favorite of mine from the first time I watched Pertwee’s entire run, which I bought as a set from a guy at Dragon*Con (it still had the asterisk then). Prior to owning that set I had seen very little Pertwee – mostly just “The Five Doctors”. I also saw some bits and pieces from when PBS started airing older stories after “Survival” aired here.

Unless I’m mistaken, my local PBS station aired “Survival”, then went back to Tom Baker stories for a bit, then went to Pertwee. I was disappointed at losing Baker for a second time and took a hiatus that likely lasted until the Paul McGann movie. So I really didn’t give Pertwee a chance back then.

I thoroughly enjoyed his run when I revisited it a few years ago. I was enchanted by the idea of the Doctor as a James Bond-type. And the stories tended to be very good coming from the likes of Malcolm Hulke and the writer of this story, Robert Holmes. Every once in a while there would be an overly-long clunker (“The Green Death”), but I burned through Pertwee’s entire run in a little over a week.

“Carnival of Monsters” is one that stood out to me. It’s a story with Jo, it has a great supporting cast, and the monsters look awesome. I mean, for the time they look great. Heck, the Drashig still looks good. It’s one of my favorite monster designs from Doctor Who.

Settle in, wrap your inverness cloak around you, and listen in as me, the Mikes, and Jennifer discuss “Carnival of Monsters”!:

Earth Station Who Episode 92