A LOOK AT CARNIVAL

-

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with Carnival of Monsters. Tomorrow I’m recording an episode of A Hamster With a Blunt Knife where I’ll be talking about this third Doctor classic. So naturally, I also wanted to check out the props to see if I could find anything of interest. But sadly, I completely drew a blank! Luckily friend of the blog Zoe’s Feather Boa was on hand to point a couple things out. 

CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS, 1973

The opening of Carnival features this model shot. A space ship carrying Vorg and Shrina arrives on Inter Minor. And that space ship is none other than…

THE SPACE PIRATES, 1969

…. LIZ 79!

*******************************************

CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS, 1973

Beyond that space ship model, there isn’t a great deal of stuff that reappears elsewhere. The cloak worn by Plectrac (Peter Halliday) is probably the most well travelled item. Below are a couple of classic who appearances. I’m told it also pops up in Blakes 7 and other shows so this one might get a part 2 if I can find more appearances.
MEGLOS, 1980
DRAGONFIRE, 1987

********************************************

CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS, 1973

One last prop. It’s not one I have matched elsewhere but I thought it was of interest. Vorg’s ‘micrographed document’ is just a cassette tape.
PLANET OF THE DALEKS, 1973

It’s not the same but another story from season 10 also features a cassette tape. Or rather the case of a tape.  As I say, it’s not the same prop but I thought it was interesting. 

















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#totp

-
Image
This is not the post I had planned at all! I’ve been working on something else for a while. In fact I’m a bit late with that as the research has taken longer than normal. But in the meantime something popped up and I just had to share it. Friday evenings on our house are filled with the BBC4 repeats of Top of the Pops. One of the episodes this week, from May 1984, featured something that made me point at my telly like Leonardo DiCarprio. It was this trio of consoles. But what Doctor Who stories feature these props and why were they on Top of the Pops? First let’s look at their Doctor Who appearances. The unit with the circular screen can be seen in The Twin Dilemma. Designer Valerie Warrender made sure to give it a suitably glittery finish. THE TWIN DILEMMA, 1984 Here is a closer look at the console screen.  The consoles next appearance is the very next story, Attack of the Cybermen. This story features several variations on the same prop. Some featuring the circular screen and oth...
Read more

HEXAGONS!

-
Image
Nothing quite says ‘science fiction’ more than putting hexagons all over your walls. This design, first seen in The Mutants, pops up throughout the 70s and 80s. In this post I tried to catalogue all of its appearances in classic Doctor Who. Next week for part 2 I will cover the other shows it appears in.  THE MUTANTS, 1972 As mentioned, this story is widely considered to be the origin of this prop. I have checked to see if I can find an earlier appearance but have drawn a blank. THE MUTANTS ORIGINAL DESIGN DRAWING BY JEREMY BEAR As you can see in this original production drawing, the hexagons were always part of the design. THE STONES OF BLOOD, 1978 Rather surprisingly the hexagons don’t appear again for another six years. NIGHTMARE OF EDEN, 1979 Once they did return in the late seventies they were back for good. This one is quite subtle but it’s the first of two appearances in this season. THE HORNS OF NIMON, 1979 And here is the other. MEGLOS, 1980 For Meglos, Designer Philip Lin...
Read more

HEXAGONS! Part 2

-
Image
Last week I looked at the hexagon wall pattern that first appeared in The Mutants and all its subsequent classic Who appearances. This week I’m looking at some of the other shows that used this same set decoration. BLAKE’S 7, 1978-81 Probably the most obvious place to start is the show that is frequently viewed as a sort of Sister programme to Doctor Who - Blake’s7. The hexagons are featured throughout B7’s four seasons but perhaps the most visible use is in Servalan’s office as pictured above. THE ADVENTURE GAME, 1980-86 The hexagons proved to be popular on Children’s shows of the Eighties. As you can see it featured in the early seasons of the proto escape room sci-fi themed game show - The Adventure Game. CAPTAIN ZEP - SPACE DETECTIVE, 1983-84 Another BBC children’s sci-fi game show. And a firm favourite from when I was a nipper.  STAR COPS, 1987 The short lived galactic police procedural from Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 Writer, Chris Boucher. ASTRONAUTS, 1981 Another short lived ...
Read more