The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

An advertising satellite tempts the Doctor into visiting the planet Segonax, where the Psychic Circus - the self-proclaimed Greatest Show in the Galaxy - if holding its talent festival. Ace doesn't want to go; she thinks clowns are creepy. They join other travellers making their way across the planet to see the revels, and at the same time some of the founding members of the circus are trying to escape from some unseen force and dying in the process. Far from a happy family atmosphere, the circus is now shrouded in menace with robot clowns doing the bidding of the crazed Chief Clown, and the Ringmaster sending act after act into the centre ring to meet their deaths when they fail to perform. The Doctor detects an ancient evil lurking in the shadows and knows me has to stop it before he and Ace are thrust into the spotlight, and towards their deaths.

Brilliant. Clowns have always been a source of fear and terror in fiction, made up faces lerring away and insane laughter punctuating unspeakable acts. Like, hello Joker? Hello any serial killer in a cheap slasher film. And now, hello nasty robot clowns. Of course they were never meant to be evil; they were built by the talented and gentle Bellboy, whose joy at performing for people has been eroded away. Bellboy is not the only one, though; Flowerchild dies trying to make her escape, and Deadbeat loses his mind. The rest of the circus alumni have fallen under the thrall of the dark power that has consumed the circus, and they are barely clinging to their own lives. They see the likes of vistors such as the grunting Nord, the irritating Whizzkid, and the pretentious windbag Captain Cook as fodder for the ring, to keep the powers that be at bay for just a bit longer, until the next act can be sent in. And the next. And the next.

Captain Cook is a fantastic character. He's very much the spirit of the old British Empire, looking down on everything in a jaded seen-it-all-before kind of way, and travelling with his own companion, the mysterious and beautiful Mags, who has her own secrets. The Captain is no fool, though; he's a survivor and a coward, shopping the Doctor to the killer robot driver of the hippie bus, and then ultimately betraying Mags in the ring just to save himself.

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy has some fantastic stylistic touches to it which are not entirely planned; just as the series was about to be recorded asbestos was found in the studios and had to be removed, which threw all of the BBC television centre into a tailspin. Talk shows were broadcast from the lobby and a lot of television programs were simply stopped in production. Doctor Who, however, was not stopped, for doing so would have meant the whole script for Show would have been scrapped, and instead its studio component was recorded entirely inside a circus tent set up in the television centre car park. This results in a different feel to the TARDIS interior with the lighting being more direct as opposed to overhead, and the camera movements somewaht differently handled as the Doctor and Ace investigate the intruding ad satellite. Shooting a show set in a tent actually inside a tent only adds to the effectiveness of the rest of the production, even if it's obvious that there is not a lot of floor space to deal with which results in some odd close-up shots here and there - shots which are actually handled quite well and give the show an almost artsy look. The location work is nothing to shout about at first, with Segonax presented as a quarry, but when the first long shot of the Psychic Circus is presented with a ringed planet hanging in the sky overhead it is actually quite striking. Topping the whole thing off is a rather brilliant score by Mark Ayres, including atmopsheric calliope music for the circus scenes and some fun little cues here and there such as the sample of the series theme when the Doctor and Ace arrive on the planet.

Could it have been improved? Well... who's to say if improved is the right way to look at it but the introduction rap done by Ricco Ross as the ringmaster dates the program somewhat, even if it does serve as a different way to start a show. Jay and I had a bit of a giggle at some of the interior scenes; it seems that even in tents there are corridors to run down, but they're done cleverly, the fabric of the walls billowing in the wake of all those clowns charging about hunting for Ace when she tries to escape. There's also this bit of continuity that you only know if you're looking for it; Ace finds one of Flowerchild's earrings in the sand near the bus and attaches it to her jacket with the other badges she has there, but as production for the season was done out of order, the earring was already there on her jacket in the previous episode, Silver Nemesis. Still, no-one is going to re-shoot the whole thing for the sake of one earring, and it actually does become a plot piece.

This is actually one of Sylvester McCoy's best performances, with the Doctor slowly realizing what's going on and going into his confrontation with the controlling powers behind the circus knowing that he might not survive. Still, as he goes through a long repertoire of magic acts to entertain the powers, he keeps looking at his watch, knowing that Ace is coming with something to help him win the fight. The Doctor has slowly changed in the two seasons so far, his character going from happy-go-lucky to more brooding, and in the next, and final, season he would become even darker still, with his own set of agendas that could rival those of his enemies.

After the schlock that was season twenty four, the series has started to revive itself and the writers have come together to build their vision of where the Doctor should go next. Unfortunately, though, the dice have already been thrown in the background and the series is on its way out; producer John Nathan-Turner wants out and he's been told that if he leaves the show will be cancelled. It's debatable if anyone else knew this at the time; interviews with writers and the script editor certainly don't seem to indicate that they knew their ship was sinking and they went ahead planning the twenty-sixth season, which would be one of the best of the classic series, garnering all sorts of critical praise from those who were still watching it.

And that's next.

NEXT EPISODE : BATTLEFIELD