Jump to content

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Etron81 (talk | contribs) at 00:43, 21 March 2013 (adding composer to infobox). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

151[1] – The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
Doctor Who serial
File:Greatest Show in the Galaxy.jpg
Ace and the Doctor at the Psychic Circus
Cast
Guest
Production
Directed byAlan Wareing
Written byStephen Wyatt
Script editorAndrew Cartmel
Produced byJohn Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)None
Music byMark Ayres
Production code7J
SeriesSeason 25
Running time4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast14 December 1988–4 January 1989
Chronology
← Preceded by
Silver Nemesis 		Followed by →
Battlefield
List of episodes (1963–1989)

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is the fourth and final serial of the 25th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 14 December 1988 to 4 January 1989.

Plot

The Seventh Doctor and Ace respond to an invitation to visit the mysterious Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax, despite Ace’s fear of clowns and reluctance to go. Other travellers have arrived on the wasteland world too – the fannish Whizz Kid; the motorcycling maniac Nord; tiresome bore and intergalactic explorer Captain Cook and his young female companion Mags, whom the Captain curiously refers to as a "unique specimen".

But all is not pleasant at the Circus. The Chief Clown travels around the planet's surface in a hearse with his team of mechanical clowns, using some unusual kites to search for and recapture an errant robot repairman named Bellboy, and his companion, Flower Child, who are trying to escape the circus. While hiding on board a disused hippie bus, Flower Child is killed by something mysterious. It turns out to be a creepy robot conductor, which also attacks the Doctor, Captain, Ace and Mags when they discover the bus. The Doctor disables the killer robot, while Ace finds one of Flower Child’s earrings, and pins it to her jacket as a keepsake. They venture on to the circus tent itself, but Ace hesitates when she hears Mags screaming inside, as she witnesses Bellboy being punished. The Doctor, however, doesn't hear a thing, and persuades her to go in.

Inside, they meet Morgana, the Circus ticket seller and fortune teller, who offers to read the Doctor's fortune, and reveals the Hanged Man Tarot card. The Doctor and Ace both join the audience, noticing that the only other audience members are a small family of three – father, mother, daughter – who observe the central stage with stoic disdain. The Ringmaster soon appears and invites the Doctor to join the entertainment. He agrees and is taken backstage where Nord, the Captain and Mags are also being kept. It appears that audience members are expected to become part of the show. Nord is duped into performing first, and when his act fails to amuse, he is obliterated.

The Chief Clown meanwhile notices the earring pinned to Ace's jacket, and demands to know where she got it. Ace flees deeper into the Circus, and finds Bellboy strapped to a workbench. She hides as the Chief Clown comes in and lets him up to work, then questions him about what is really going on at the Circus. Bellboy sees Flower Child's earring pinned to Ace's jacket, and trusts her, but his memory seems to have been affected by his punishment, and he can only tell her that there used to be more people at the Circus, and then they all disappeared. Ace ventures back to the main entrance, where she sees Morgana and the Ringmaster arguing about the Circus. The Ringmaster does not seem to share Morgana's ethical qualms about the means used to fill the Circus. Their argument is interrupted by the arrival of Whizz Kid, who is ushered into the ring. He too is obliterated when he fails to please the family in the audience.

The Doctor and Mags venture deeper into the Circus, and suddenly find a strange stone archway, which wasn't there before. Mags acts strangely when she sees the moon sign carved on the archway, but the Doctor manages to calm her down. At the end of a tunnel, they find a vast well shaft, with a pulse of energy at its core. A curious eye symbol looks up from the bottom of the well, which is also depicted on the kites that the Chief Clown uses to spy on the circus workers. Morgana also sees the eye at the heart of her crystal ball, which inspires her to pledge her loyalty to the forces that control the Circus and the planet. The Captain then corners the Doctor and Mags with a group of the robotic clowns, and tells the Doctor that he is next in the ring.

Ace has meanwhile encouraged Bellboy to remember more about what went wrong at the Circus. One of the workers, Dead Beat, was once called Kingpin, and had brought them to Segonax in search of a great power, which then drove Dead Beat mad, and enslaved the rest of the Circus. The death of Flower Child was at the hands of a robot Bellboy built himself, and he feels wracked with guilt. When the Chief Clown arrives to recapture him and Ace, Bellboy sets a reprogrammed clown on himself, and it kills him.

The Doctor has meanwhile escaped the Captain, and encountered Dead Beat, and has realised that he is key to the situation. The two of them find Ace, and together they visit the strange well again. Dead Beat has a medallion embossed with the image of the eye, which is missing a piece from its centre, and he and Ace head off to the old bus to try and find it. The Doctor gives them time by giving himself up, and finds himself in the ring with Mags; but Captain Cook is one step ahead. In an effort to ensure a good show and thus save his own skin a little longer, the Captain asks for some simulated moonlight to be beamed into the ring, and Mags begins to transform into a werewolf.

He then tries to set Mags on the Doctor, but, unfortunately for the Captain, her chosen victim is him – but the whole macabre spectacle has delighted the trio in the crowd. The Doctor and a shaken Mags slip away, with the Family demanding more entertainment. The Ringmaster and Morgana are now tested in the ring and killed when they fail to entertain.

Ace and Dead Beat meanwhile destroy the Bus Conductor, and retrieve the missing jewel for the medallion. With the jewel back in place, Dead Beat’s mind is restored, and he becomes Kingpin once more. They return to the Circus – disposing of the Chief Clown and his minions en route – to find the Doctor has become the next person in the ring, having responded to a challenge from the Family. When he enters the ring this time, he realizes that it is a dimensional portal, and that the Family are in fact the Gods of Ragnarok, who feed on entertainment and kill those who do not satisfy them. After an array of tricks and japes he holds off the Gods long enough for Ace and Kingpin to throw the medallion into the well. It reaches the Doctor through the dimensional portal and he uses it to repulse the power of the Gods. Thus it is they themselves who are the next victims of their own power. The Doctor returns to the Psychic Circus as it disintegrates and explodes, and flees with his friends. He and Ace depart while Kingpin and Mags elect to set up a new circus on another planet. As the Doctor and Ace leave, the Doctor quietly comments that he's now not so sure he likes clowns any more than Ace does.

Continuity

Near the beginning of the first episode, Ace briefly appears wearing the Fourth Doctor's trademark scarf, and Mel's top seen in Paradise Towers.

The New Adventures novel Conundrum states that the Gods of Ragnarok created the Land of Fiction, seen in the Second Doctor story The Mind Robber. Another New Adventure, All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane, identifies the Gods of Ragnarok with the Great Old Ones from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The canonicity of the novels is unclear.

Production

Template:Doctor Who episode head The character of Whizz Kid was created as a parody of obsessive fans.[2] Sylvester McCoy was coached in the magic tricks he performs in episode 4 by Geoffrey Durham, formerly known as the Great Soprendo.[2] This is the first story to feature music composed by Mark Ayres.

Owing to the discovery of asbestos at the BBC, which led to the temporary closure of various television studios, this story nearly met the same fate as that of the uncompleted Shada - that of being cancelled after the location work had been completed. However, a tent was erected in the car park of BBC Elstree Centre, enabling the crew to complete all sequences previously scheduled for the studio inside the tent.[3]

The last episode of the story received the highest viewing figure of Sylvester McCoy's time in Doctor Who - 6.6 million against Coronation Street.[citation needed]

Cast notes

Director Alan Wareing provides the voice for the third God of Ragnarok in Part Four. Dean Hollingsworth as the Bus Conductor is credited for Part Three, but does not appear. Jessica Martin who plays Mags in this episode, briefly returns in "Voyage of the Damned" (2007) voicing the Queen of the United Kingdom. Ian Reddington later played Nobody No-One in the audio play A Death in the Family.

In print

Template:Doctor Who book A novelisation of this serial, written by Stephen Wyatt, was published by Target Books in December 1989, the same month the final episode of the original Doctor Who series was broadcast.

VHS, DVD and CD releases

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was released on VHS in January 2000. The Region 2 DVD release was on 30 July 2012, completing the DVD releases of Seventh Doctor stories.[4]

Soundtrack release

Untitled

Music from this story by Mark Ayres was released on CD in 1992 by Silva Screen Records.[5][6][7]

Track listing

  1. Introduction: 'Doctor Who'
  2. The Psychic Rap
  3. Invitation to Segonax
  4. Bellboy and Flowerchild
  5. A Warning
  6. Fellow Explorers
  7. The Robot Attacks
  8. Something Sinister
  9. 'Welcome, One and All!'
  10. The Circus Ring
  11. Deadbeat
  12. Eavesdropping
  13. 'Let Me Entertain You'/Stone Archway
  14. The Well
  15. Powers on the Move
  16. Sifting Dreams
  17. Survival of the Fittest
  18. Bellboy's Sacrifice
  19. Plans
  20. The Werewolf/'Request Stop'
  21. The Gods of Ragnarok
  22. Playing for Time
  23. Entry of the Psychic Clowns
  24. Liberty Who
  25. Psychic Carnvial
  26. Coda: Kingpin's New Circus
  27. Epilogue: 'Doctor Who'

References

  1. ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the four segments of The Trial of a Time Lord as four separate stories and also counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this story as number 155. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.
  2. ^ a b BBC - Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - Details
  3. ^ Template:Brief
  4. ^ "DVD Update: Summer Schedule". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  5. ^ Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (Media notes). Silva Screen. 1992. {{cite AV media notes}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |publisherid= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Ayres, Mark. "Mark Ayres - Doctor Who Incidental Music". Retrieved 5 October 2008. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) [dead link]
  7. ^ "Millenium Effect". Retrieved 5 October 2008. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Seventh Doctor.

Reviews

Target novelisation

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Greatest_Show_in_the_Galaxy&oldid=545829465"