Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
| 151 – The Greatest Show in the Galaxy | |||||
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| Doctor Who serial | |||||
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Ace and the Doctor at the Psychic Circus.
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Others
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| Production | |||||
| Directed by | Alan Wareing | ||||
| Written by | Stephen Wyatt | ||||
| Script editor | Andrew Cartmel | ||||
| Produced by | John Nathan-Turner | ||||
| Executive producer(s) | None | ||||
| Incidental music composer | Mark Ayres | ||||
| Production code | 7J | ||||
| Series | Season 25 | ||||
| Length | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||||
| Originally broadcast | 14 December 1988–4 January 1989 | ||||
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| Author | Stephen Wyatt |
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| Cover artist | Alister Pearson |
| Series |
Doctor Who book: Target novelisations |
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Release number
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144 |
| Publisher | Target Books |
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Publication date
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21 December 1989 |
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| Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy | ||||
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| Soundtrack album by Mark Ayres | ||||
| Released | 1992 | |||
| Genre | Soundtrack | |||
| Length | 76:21 | |||
| Label | Silva Screen | |||
| Mark Ayres chronology | ||||
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| Doctor Who soundtrack chronology | ||||
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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.
The Doctor and Ace are invited to the Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax. Aside from others that have been invited, the Circus is surprising empty; a few entertainers and stagehands are present alongside the Ringmaster and Morgana, the ticket seller and fortune teller, and the only audience is a stoic family of three, a father, mother and daughter. They quickly learn that they are expected to perform for the circus, and those that fail to entertain the family are annihilated. Escape is nearly impossible, as the Chief Clown leads a group of mechanical clouds around the wastelands of Segonax to recapture those that escape, aided by numerous kites used for surveillance.
In their arrive, the Doctor and Ace discover the corpse of Flower Child, one of the workers that had attempted to escape along with robot mechanic Bellboy, having been killed by a robotic bus conductor when she took shelter in its bus. Ace takes one of her earrings and pins it to her jacket as a keepsake. The Chief Clown later notices this and demands to know where Ace got it, and she flees into the circus, eventually finding Bellboy secured away. He recognizes Flower Child's earring, but his memories have been disrupted when he was captured, but tells Ace he does remember there being more people at the circus. Ace helps to untie him and they take to hiding in a circus caravan, where Ace tries to help Bellboy recover his memory.
The Doctor, meanwhile, has joined with intergalactic explorer Captain Cook and his young female companion Mags, who had also been invited to the circus. They all are told that they will be expected to entertain in the near future by the Ringmaster. Mags joins the Doctor as he explores the circus to try to learn what really is going on. They find a well with a glowing energy source at the bottom, with an eye symbol similar to that on the Chief Clown's kites and Morgana's crystal ball. Just then, they are cornered by Cook along with several mechanical clowns, informing the Doctor is on next. The Doctor escapes encountering a worker named Dead Beat who has a medallion with the same eye symbol.
Eventually, he comes to the same caravan that Ace and Bellboy are hiding in. Ace has been able to help Bellboy restore his memories. In the past, Dead Beat, then known as Kingpin and owner of the Psychic Circus, had come to Segonax in search of a great power; in finding it, the power had driven him mad and caused him to enslave the rest of the circus to that power. The Chief Clown locates the three in the caravan, and Bellboy, feeling responsible for Flower Child's death as he had been forced to construct the robotic bus conductor, offers to sacrifice himself to let the Doctor and Ace escape.
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