Trivia / Doctor Who S10 E2 "Carnival of Monsters"

---

• Acting for Two: Katy Manning provided the noises of the chickens seen in Episode One herself.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Both Cheryl Hall and Jenny McCracken were earlier considered for Jo Grant. According to the DVD Commentary for the Special Edition of the story, they were on the final shortlist of six actresses seen for the role. Barry Letts promised both actresses he'd use them in the future after Katy Manning was cast.
  • Ian Marter's casting as Lt. Andrews was a case of this as well — he was the favoured pick to play Capt. Mike Yates, but had to decline as he already had other commitments he couldn't get out of.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • The scene in which the Doctor and Jo explored the hold gave Katy Manning a chance to perform her chicken impression, which she had taught herself as a child.
  • Jon Pertwee and Leslie Dwyer delighted in showing off their extensive knowledge of the carny lingo.
• Creator's Favourite Episode: Barry Letts named this as his favourite of Robert Holmes' contributions for the show. He particuarly felt that the Drashigs were one of the best monsters in the series.
• Development Gag: Who would want to see the Cybermen? A reference to the fact that Terrance Dicks didn't like them at all.
• Permanent Placeholder: Some international broadcasts played an early edit of Episode Two which overran by a few minutes and used the rejected "Delaware" version of the theme music. The UK VHS release would use this cut too, but later releases reverted to the broadcast version.^note The extended footage was included as a stand-alone compilation on the first DVD release, but the Special Edition and Blu-ray include the early edit in full as an extra.
• Recast as a Regular: Ian Marter (Lt. Andrews) would later play the Fourth Doctor's companion Harry Sullivan.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A new set of opening titles and a new version of the title theme were put together for both this story and "Frontier in Space", but the production team opted not to use them due to their dislike of the new theme. The latter, commonly known as the "Delaware theme" after the synthesizer it was performed on (a modified EMS Synthi 100 that the BBC Radiophonic Workshop owned) would end up on the Australian airing of this serial and on early home media releases of both it and "Frontier in Space" (the latter of which only used it for Episode Five). The footage for the Delaware titles was kept despite this, and consequently it was included on the DVD release of "Carnival of Monsters" as an extra (the full-length version of the Delaware theme, meanwhile, was wiped).
  • Several names were changed during the making of the story. For example, the Inter Minor was named Odron and was supposed to be a convention of sorts.
• Working Title: The Labyrinth and Peep Show.
• Writer Revolt: It's hard not to see a certain undercurrent of Biting-the-Hand Humour to the story, in which the Doctor and his companion get trapped in a tiny universe made up of corridors and generic monsters to run away from down those corridors. An eccentrically-dressed intellectual gentleman and his plucky blond assistant are involved, but only because they've figured out that scaring children gets them paid. All of this goes on under the purview of privilege-obsessed literal grey-faced bureaucrats who complain about monsters and view entertainment as purposeless. Robert Holmes was asked to do a Strictly Formula story, and instead did a Deconstructive Parody.
• You Look Familiar: Michael Wisher makes another appearance, this time as Kalik.

---