Miniscope

Miniscopes were sideshow attractions displaying the lives of intelligent and nonintelligent creatures for the entertainment of others. The creatures on display were actually miniaturised and kept in secure micro-environments within the device itself.

Appearance
A Miniscope appeared as a cylindrical plinth topped by a control panel and a dome with a round dislay screen with a audio-visual display.

Technology
Within the Miniscope were a number of sealed habitats, often intended to replicate the native time and place of the specimens within it, though in some cases the environement mixed and matched specimens from different times and/or places. The sample environments were not perfectly.

The specimens were reduced in size by a factor of about 72 and kept this way by a compression field generated by the Miniscope itself. 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 presence of this artificial time loop further suggests that the Miniscope was the product of an extremely advanced civilisation.) 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.


 * ''The method by which individual scopes were initially populated is not known, though it most likely involved the use of technology analogous to the time scoop.

History

 * It is not known if Minisocpes where a unique technology, or independently developed by a number of different civilisations.

Ban on use
Prior to leaving Gallifrey, the Doctor learned of the existence of the Miniscopes and was outraged by their cruelty to the specimens held within. He campaigned to have them banned, and despite the non-interference policy of the Time Lords was eventually successful (DW: Carnival of Monsters). This course of action which won him great respect in the galactic community. By the reckoning of the wider universe, this occurred prior to 1609, Humanian Era. (MA: The Empire of Glass)

Most Miniscope operators ceased trading following the ban, but a few continued to run their peepshows, normally shady individuals of dubious character. (DW: Carnival of Monsters, MA: Goth Opera)

Individual Miniscopes
In his third incarnation, the Doctor found himself within the Miniscope of the Lurman showman Vorg, who was having difficulty in sustoms on the planet Inter Minor. Vorg's miniscope contained a Human sailing vessel, the S.S. Bernice, and its passengers and crew from 1926 Earth and also a plesiosaur from prehistory. It also contained an Ogron, a Cyberman, and Drashigs in a swampy environemnt similar to that of their home. The Doctor was ultimately able to extricate himself from the miniscope and returned all the specimens to their original times and places. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)


 * Since the Bernice was reported as missing after 1926, possibly it never returned to its proper time and place after all,

Romana 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 was also able to escape. (MA: Goth Opera)