One of the most tightly-plotted and yet purely fun stories of Jon Pertwee's era, Carnival Of Monsters is an obvious choice for the DVD treatment that has been lavished on quite a few Doctor Who stories. Previously available on commercially-released VHS video with a few odd quirks (i.e. one of the four episodes was somehow replaced by the version of that episode modified for export to Australia, with some unusual alterations), Carnival is given the royal treatment here, with deleted scenes, an unusual abundance of behind-the-scenes footage for an early 1970s adventure, and a jovial commentary from producer/director Barry Letts and Katy Manning, who co-starred as Jo Grant for most of the Pertwee era.

As usual, it's that commentary which is the centerpiece of the DVD package, with Letts offering up numerous tidbits of trivia about the making of this show (some of which are well-worn sea stories about star Pertwee, and others which I haven't heard before), and Katy Manning - who hasn't seen Carnival in its entirety since the original broadcast - sharing her memories and her surprise at how good the story is. And it is good - but viewing it with the commentary turned on is loads of fun, as Manning unleashes gasps of surprise or a "wow" when appropriate, because she really is wowed by it. It's like watching Doctor Who for the first time with your kid sister. Assuming you have a kid sister.

The text trivia subtitle feature, a mainstay of this series' DVD releases, is present once more, as are a 1969 CSO training film - prepared to show the potential of doing effects with Color Separation Overlay, or as the rest of the world knows it, chromakey or blue screen - and the "Delaware" version of the opening titles. One of the odd quirks mentioned earlier about the Australian export edition of this story was that this became one of the few places in the world ever to hear a specially commissioned new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme broadcast in an actual episode. The "Delaware" version of the Doctor Who signature tune, so named for the model of synthesizer that was used to play it, was scrapped at a late stage because the producers decided they didn't like the new arrangement after all. For the BBC's purposes, the original theme was edited onto the master tapes prior to air, but those tapes already shipped to Australia couldn't be fixed. A clean, title-free version of the standard Pertwee titles, complete with this bizarre version of the theme music, is featured here.

Overall, Carnival Of Monsters is a magical episode, really stretching the envelope of Doctor Who's then-tendency toward relatively hard science fiction and edging really close to what could be considered fantasy, but it's that air of suspended disbelief which makes it such a memorable romp. With a nice suite of bonus extras along for the ride, it's also one of the better Doctor Who DVDs. I could not, in fact, fault you for making this one your first purchase in the series.

Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com webmaster / editor-in-chief