Day 336: Carnival of Monsters Episode 3

The major idea behind this story is that of a Miniscope. A Miniscope, as the Doctor puts it, is a peep show, an ability to put lesser species into a box and have them parade about for the amusement of the greater species that created this device. It can easily be seen as a barbaric invention, one which demeans these creatures on the grounds that they are less intelligent than what surrounds them. This is also a ploy on the part of the writer, Robert Holmes. Holmes has clearly decided here that he shall use this to comment on the way in which our society gets its entertainment. Humanity, as a race, tends to take its entertainment from looking at what is less than us, reminding us of how superior we are. It's a less than charitable habit, and one which reveals the inner problems that humanity has, as a whole. Thus, Holmes can show us this by placing humanity in an oppressed situation, forcing them to realise the ways in which they act and hoping to show that maybe we, as a species, can be better than what we currently are, through using Doctor Who as a somewhat revolutionary piece of television.