Miniscope Miniscopes were sideshow attractions which displayed the lives of intelligent and nonintelligent creatures for entertainment . The creatures on display were actually miniaturised and kept in secure micro - environments within the device itself . Technology . Appearance . A miniscope was a cylindrical plinth topped by a control panel . It had an audio - visual display like a dome turned on its side . ( TV : " Carnival of Monsters " ) Workings . Within the miniscope were a number of sealed habitats , often intended to replicate the native time and place of the specimens inside , though in some cases the environment mixed and matched specimens from various times and / or places to maximise the habitat ' s entertainment value . The specimens were reduced in size by a factor of about 72 and kept this way by a compression field generated by the miniscope . Specimens extracted from the field resumed their original size . Sentient specimens were hypnotically conditioned not to notice any signs that they might have been extracted from their native environment ( such as access panels in their habitat ) and generally lived through a specific set of events over and over again . The behaviour of the specimens could also be modified to a limited degree by the scope ' s operator , although the fact that ( for example ) artificially induced aggression affected intruders in the miniscope as well as specimens indicates that this was a separate mechanism to the conditioning . This control was only effective for creatures of some intelligence . Creatures like Drashig s were too unintelligent to control . ( TV : " Carnival of Monsters " ) History . Ban on use . Before leaving Gallifrey , the First Doctor knew of the miniscopes and was outraged by their cruelty to the specimens . He campaigned to have them banned . Despite the non - interference policy of the Time Lord s , he was successful . ( TV : " Carnival of Monsters " ) This won him great respect in the galactic community . By the reckoning of the wider universe , this occurred before 1609 . ( PROSE : " The Empire of Glass " ) Most miniscope operators ceased trading following the ban , but a few continued to run their peepshows , particularly shady individuals of dubious character . ( TV : " Carnival of Monsters " , PROSE : " Goth Opera " ) Individual miniscopes . In his third incarnation , the Doctor found himself inside the miniscope of the Lurman showman Vorg , who was having difficulty in Customs on the planet Inter Minor . Vorg ' s miniscope contained a human sea vessel , the " SS Bernice " , its passengers and crew from 1926 Earth ; a plesiosaurus from the same planet ' s prehistory . It also contained Ogron s , Cybermen and Drashig s . The Doctor extricated himself from the miniscope and returned all the specimens to their original times and places . Vorg claimed his miniscope contained the only humans in captivity . ( TV : " Carnival of Monsters " ) Romana II was later stranded in another miniscope by the renegade Time Lord Ruath . This scope was in the possession of the adventurer Sabalom Glitz at the time . It also contained a Drashig habitat , suggesting this was a standard or popular feature of many miniscopes . Romana escaped . ( PROSE : " Goth Opera " ) Sometime after 2122 , Rana Salienti outbid Eileen in an auction bid and won a storage pod which contained a miniscope . ( COMIC : " Space Invaders ! " ) References . Upon encountering the supposedly mythical Robin Hood and his Merry Men in Sherwood Forest , the Twelfth Doctor suggested to Clara Oswald that they might be inside a miniscope . ( TV : " Robot of Sherwood " )