The Greatest Show in the Galaxy Part Three

The one where the Doctor discovers Mags' secret...

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was transmitted through the festive season, the first time Doctor Who had done this since 1980's The Horns of Nimon - and the last until 2005's The Christmas Invasion. It feels somehow fitting that a story set in a circus, a world of entertainment, should have been shown at Christmastime. Part 2 of the serial was shown straight after a special programme called Terry Wogan in Pantoland, in which the chat show host encountered various fairytale scenarios performed by the likes of Barbara Windsor, Little and Large, Christopher Biggins and Wilfred Mott himself, Bernard Cribbins!

Part 3 was pushed back slightly to 7.40pm due to Wogan's very special interview with Hollywood legend James Stewart, making it one of the latest shown classic series episodes. There are scenes throughout the episode in which the family of three spectators express how bored they are ("Something has to happen soon"), but this third episode is far from dull, exploring the background to the Psychic Circus and what happened when it arrived on Segonax.

There are some absolutely beautiful scenes, written elegantly by Stephen Wyatt, surely the best discovery of the McCoy era. The cast rises to the dialogue to produce some really touching and effective scenes, such as between Ace and the broken Bellboy. Sophie Aldred and Christopher Guard are so good in their gentle exchanges together, Guard being a seasoned former child actor by this point, and more than capable of translating the heartfelt dialogue effectively.

The sadness in Bellboy's recollections of how the Psychic Circus used to be, and the people who performed in it, is heart-breaking. He makes life in the circus sound happy and carefree, describing it like a commune of travelling hippies who loved one another and shared everything. He misses the love, friendship and shared experience of those peripatetic days, and resents how his robots were abused and misused for evil ends. The ultimate tragedy is that one of his robots - the bus conductor - killed the love of his life, Flowerchild. That must be extremely difficult to live with.

Aldred is relatively low-key in these scenes, letting Guard take the lead, but her muted presence works beautifully as Ace is clearly saddened, maybe even overwhelmed, by Bellboy's broken spirit. In this case, less is more, and her letting Guard do his thing makes the scenes palpably moving. A connection develops between Bellboy and Ace just through the process of sharing, like in the old days of the circus.

The Doctor, who has escaped Captain Cook thanks to some sudden growling from Mags, encounters Deadbeat, whose mind seems fractured but you can tell there's still something/ someone in there. The Doctor's meeting in the beautifully lit, breezy corridors of the circus is lovely too, and Deadbeat asks the Doctor to follow him, taking him to see Bellboy and Ace.

The Doctor and Ace are reunited (notice the little nose-pinch he gives her) and they try to get to the bottom of what corrupted the circus and its carefree existence. Bellboy explains that Deadbeat - or Kingpin as he was known then - wanted to visit Segonax, as there was something there that he wanted. Kingpin used a mirrored medallion with the design of an eye on to summon the powers that lurked on Segonax, and as a result the Psychic Circus and its people came under the control of this power. "They took everything that was bright and good about what we had, and buried it where it will never be found again," remembers Bellboy.

"And a friendly hippy circus was turned into a trap to kill people," the Doctor diagnoses. It's such a sad story, recounted so movingly and truthfully - you really do feel the loss of what the Psychic Circus and its people once were. The happiness between Bellboy and Flowerchild, the carefree existence of performers like Kingpin, Peace Pipe and Juniper Berry, the talent displayed by the Chief Clown in those days long-gone... Wyatt paints these pictures so beautifully, all framed with some gorgeous, sad music by Mark Ayres.

These workshop scenes are wonderful - written, performed, lit and directed so skilfully by everybody involved - that they must rank as some of the most meaningful in the canon. I love how Ace perfectly sums up the Doctor's seventh persona as "an ageing hippy", and the Doctor agrees that "there might be something in that, yes." And look at the expression of utter admiration on Ace's face at that moment - Aldred adores McCoy, and that translates onto the screen. Ace will do anything for this crazy professor who she trusts and respects.

Elsewhere, the devious Captain is trying to save his own neck by pushing anyone and everyone into the ring before himself. He's already betrayed the Doctor by teaming up with the clowns to capture him, but when that fell through, his sights come to rest on geeky fanboy Whizzkid, one of the Psychic Circus's greatest admirers. When the Chief Clown learns that the Doctor gave the Captain "the slip", Cook tries to deflect blame: "A similar thing happened to me in the Bay of Paranoia on Golobus", but the Clown cuts him off with a sharp: "I don't care what happened on Golobus!" Wonderfully, Cook retorts: "Your loss, old boy!" I adore the character of Captain Cook, written so well but performed astutely by T.P McKenna.

"I've never been able to visit [the circus] before now, but I've got all sorts of souvenirs," says Whizzkid. "Copies of all the advertising satellites that have ever been sent out. All the posters. I had a long correspondence with one of the founder members too, soon after it started. Although I never got to see the early days, I know it's not as good as it used to be but I'm still terribly interested." That's basically an annoying Doctor Who fanboy talking about his favourite TV programme, isn't it? Wyatt edges dangerously close to taking the piss here, but there's no denying that Whizzkid is a savagely accurate depiction of what some of the more obsessive/ obsessed fans were like in the 1980s. However, I'd argue that Doctor Who in 1988 was just as good as it was in the early days - and in some ways better.

Despite him being a mildly irritating character, Whizzkid's demise is unexpectedly sad. Seeing Gian Sammarco's wiry frame surrounded by clowns in the circus ring, a big beaming grin of pride on is face as he gets to realise his dream, only for him to score 0 out of 30 with the grumpy family - his death is inevitable, and Mags' horrified reaction empowers the moment.

Another character death that hurts so much more, and is directed and performed beautifully, is that of Bellboy. His spirit and dreams are broken, he no longer wants a part of the corruption his world has succumbed to. He's lost his freedom, his happiness, his lover and his pride - there's nothing left for him. The one thing he has power over is himself, knowing he is the only one who can maintain the robots - he decides to turn the robots on himself, an act of tragic self-sacrifice which visibly rattles the Chief Clown. It's such a good performance from Ian Reddington, who's at turns vicious (that slap!), numbed, then coldly pragmatic when he accepts Bellboy's death with a showbiz hand gesture and a beaming smile. Reddington truly deserved some kind of award for his impressively well-observed performance.

The Doctor returns to the ring to buy Ace and Kingpin time to get to the bus to retrieve the eyeball from the centre of the mirrored medallion. I'm not clear on where the medallion came from - did Kingpin have it before arriving on Segonax, or find it once there? Bellboy says something drew Kingpin to Segonax, something he knew he wanted - was that the medallion, or the force of the powers that lurked there? Why was the eyeball removed from the medallion, and hidden in a cashbox in the abandoned bus? Why does a robot bus conductor guard the eyeball on the bus? If it's something the dark powers don't want to be found, why didn't they just destroy it? It's all a bit vague.

The Doctor suggests he, the Captain and Mags work together as one act in the ring, but Cook has other ideas, and asks stage management for a special lighting request: "that old devil moon effect". Mags clearly does not want this lighting effect, and it's pretty obvious by now why. The clues are there: she looks a bit feral, she's from the planet Vulpana, she reacts rather savagely to images of the moon, and was saved from a silver bullet by the Captain. This sweet, straight-talking alien punk is a werewolf!

For me, this is Doctor Who's scariest ever cliffhanger. There have been plenty of cliffhangers where the stakes are so high that the consequences are scary, and others that are psychologically disturbing. But for me nothing betters the transformation of Jessica Martin into a slavering, wild-eyed werewolf, snarling and gnashing into camera and flashing razor-sharp claws at our hero. This is an inescapably dangerous situation the Doctor's in, he could be mauled and savaged to death, torn to shreds. Alan Wareing directs it brilliantly, with that final snarl into camera - Martin's eyes poisoned by feral contact lenses, her fanged mouth dripping with rabid saliva - seriously scary. I was 12 years old when I saw that cliffhanger and it's the only time in my whole life I've been genuinely scared by Doctor Who. I think it's horror film level of scary.

Bravo Alan Wareing. In fact, bravo every single one of them.

First broadcast: December 28th, 1988

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: That cliffhanger!
The Bad: All the stuff about the medallion, the eyeball, the well and the bus is a bit fuzzy to me.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Ace says "Professor": 53 - "You're just an ageing hippy, Professor."

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site.

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Greatest-Show-Galaxy/dp/B007Z10I5E