"Now welcome folks, I'm sure you'd like to know
We're at the start of one big circus show
There are acts that are cool and acts that amaze
Some acts are scary and some acts will daze
Acts of all kinds, and you can count on that
From folks that fly to disappearing acts
There are lots of surprises for the family
At the greatest show in the galaxy!
So many strange surprises, I'm prepared to bet
Whatever you've seen before... you ain't seen nothing yet."
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is the last story in season 25, and what better way to celebrate the show's 25th birthday than with a self-referential title, a show within a show? It stars Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace, and begins with a rap performed by the Circus Ringmaster, which concludes with him looking directly into camera and addressing us watching at home, telling us that we "ain't seen nothing yet" in a similar way to how the Doctor occasionally wishes us "Merry Christmas" or lets us know that even the sonic screwdriver won't get him out of this particular situation.
This is a brave opening, considering that we know nothing about the Ringmaster or the Circus at this stage, but it succeeds as a hook because the final line, and the Ringmaster's look, hints at something sinister going to happen.
The next thing that happens is that one of the Space Mouses from Blakes 7's Stardrive shows up with a big space motorbike and an even bigger space helmet, driving around on a planet looking for Avon or, failing that, the Circus.
The Doctor and Ace get involved in the story when an advert for the Circus materialises inside the TARDIS. It plays like something from out of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or maybe it is just that the similar rhythm of this story's title has already made me think of that? The Doctor is keen to go, and Ace is convinced by a simple bit of reverse psychology playing on her fear of clowns.
To demonstrate that, in this instance, Ace's coulrophobia isn't irrational at all, back on the planet we see Bellboy (played by Christopher Guard, who was Marcellus in I Claudius) and Flowerchild running away from the Circus pursued by a scary black death car driven by a clown. I hope that later on we will see lots and lots of clowns come out of it.
The car has electric windows that were futuristic back when this was made.
The TARDIS arrives and the Doctor and Ace meet the Space Mouse, he is called "Nord, Vandal of the Roads" and he decides not to join their group at this time. Meanwhile Flowerchild finds a space bus where she gets killed by a dangerous robot bus conductor.
Then the Doctor and Ace meet Captain Cook (played by the oddly named T P McKenna, who was Ex-President Sarkoff in Blakes 7's Bounty) and Mags. There is a moment of excitement when a robot wakes up and shoots pewpewpew blasts at the Doctor and Mags until Ace hits it with a spade. This scene is largely padding but it does serve to show there is something strange up with Captain Cook when he does nothing to try to help them.
Similarly in the following scene, when they all go aboard the space bus with the robot conductor on it, Captain Cook is useless again until the Doctor makes the robot pewpewpew itself.
Ace finds Flowerchild's earring and keeps it for later, indicating that by this time Ace is familiar with how point-and-click adventure computer games are supposed to function.
Bellboy has been captured by the clowns and taken back to the Circus. Captain Cook and Mags get to the Circus and go inside while Bellboy is being punished for running away. When Mags sees this (we don't, but from the reactions of the other mannys who see it, on top of the earlier desperation of Bellboy and Flowerchild to get away, we can tell it is something bad) she screams.
Ace hears the scream outside the Circus, and it makes her even more hesitant to go inside. This leads to a rather unusual sort of episode ending, as the Doctor and Ace are deciding whether or not to go into the Circus to face the danger that we - but not they - are aware awaits them, with the Doctor keen to enter but Ace unwilling. And so the last line is the Doctor saying
"Well? Are we going in or aren't we?"
Ending with them on the threshold of the Circus, with the peril still lying in wait rather than menacing them directly, means that we are left on an intriguing moment rather than an outright dramatic one.
Part one of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is almost entirely setting up for the rest of the story. There are a lot of characters to be introduced, and the Doctor and Ace did not even meet all of them by the end of the episode. This makes it especially hard to judge part one in isolation, because it feels like very little has happened so far - a feeling exaggerated, maybe, by this story following immediately after two that were both much faster paced because they were only three-parters.
No comments:
Post a Comment