PPP4 - Carnival of Monsters 4

A delightful end to a delightful story in which no one dies (apart from some poor marauding Drashigs), the villain, Kalik, gets his comeuppance, but without any undue malice, The Doctor gets his wish in sending all the Miniscope occupants back home (including himself and Jo), and Vorg saves the day with his timely intervention using the eradicator.

And isn't Cheryl Hall just lovely and delightful as Shirna? Although one does wonder how Vorg will be able to make a go of it, long term, relying on three card monte to fool the bulk of the population of Inter Minor. Mind you, if Pletrac is so eager and willing to drop credit bars left and right, then one suspects that the Functionaries will be just as gullible.

The only slightly disappointing aspect of this episode is that the long awaited meeting between Vorg and The Doctor failed to produce sparks. I was kind of hoping for a sequel to the Odd Couple-esque relationship between the Pertwee and Troughton Doctors, but after Vorg's failing to pin The Doctor as a showman with his use of the carnival language Polare, and The Doctor completely failing to play along with it, all bets were off for a fun romp of an onscreen pairing between the two.

Carnival of Monsters is one of the cleverest stories ever made, and made with such a cheeky tone that would seldom be seen again.