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.

Technology

A Miniscope appeared as a cylindrical plinth topped by a control panel and a display sphere. Accounts differ as to whether the display was simply audio-visual or a more sophisticated full-immersion experience. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)

Within the Miniscope were a number of sealed habitats, each intended to replicate the native time and place of the specimens within it. The specimens were reduced in size by a factor of about 72 and kept this way by a compression field generated by the Scope itself. Specimens extracted from the field resumed their original size.

Miniscopes were thus arguably dimensionally transcendental.

Sentient specimens were hypnotically conditioned not to notice any signs that they might have been extracted from their native environment (such as Scope 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 aggressiveness affected intruders in the Scope 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 timescoop.

History

The origin of the Miniscopes is not known, nor is whether they were a unique technology, or independently developed by a number of different civilisations.

Prior to leaving Gallifrey, the Doctor learned of the existence of the Scopes 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 - a course of action which won him great respect in the galactic community. By the reckoning of the wider galaxy, this occurred prior to 1609, Humanian Era. (DW: 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.

Individual Miniscopes

The Doctor eventually found himself within the Miniscope of the Lurman showman Vorg, who was having difficulty in Customs on the planet Inter Minor at the time. Vorg's Scope appeared to be a fairly representative example, containing Humans from 1938, a plesiosaur from earlier in Earth history, Ogrons, Cybermen, and voracious Drashigs. The Doctor was ultimately able to extricate himself from the Scope and returned all the specimens to their original times and places. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)

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