The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: Part Four (1989) User Reviews (4)

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: Part Four

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 26 September 2023]

By the fourth episode, the Doctor is left entertaining for his life. Captain Cook gets upset when called a bore. Mags does not like moonlight. There are killer bus conductors and the clowns realise that it is the end of the Psychic Circus.

This story takes advantage of Sylvester McCoy's vaudeville roots. In return the scene where the Doctor walks away unflinchingly as the tent explodes was very much the show must go on. The explosion was more near to him and louder than anticipated. His pants were on fire.

Ace tells the doctor that the circus was really about him. That was very much the intention of John Nathan-Turner.

The Gods of Ragnarok, the extra dimensional beings who feed on entertainment were basically BBC management. Never nurturing anything and demanding instant success. In the BBC's case cutting the budget in half and putting Doctor Who against Coronation Street where it was slaughtered in the ratings.

McCoy had the last laugh on Micheal Grade and Jonathan Powell. In 2012 the Christmas day edition of Doctor Who clashed with Coronation Street. This time the Timelord was the comfortable winner. At the same time McCoy had a nice role in the Hobbit trilogy of movies which was number one in the worldwide box office.

Funny how time works!

"Circus riff-raff, you don't own this planet you know." Strong end to an OK story.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 3 March 2007]

Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: Part 4 starts with the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) in the ring of the Psychic Circus performing for his, & his friends lives. He survives & makes his way to where the real evil is, the Dark Circus where the three Gods of Ragnarok preside & wait to be entertained by unwilling participants at the Psychic Circus & when they become bored the unlucky entertainer is killed & another is brought in to replace them. With Ace (Sophie Aldred) trying to retrieve an artifact that will destroy the Gods on the surface of Seganox will the Doctor be able to keep them entertained for long enough for her to get it to him so he can use it against them & put an end to their murderous ways?

This Doctor Who adventure was the last story from season 25 & it aired here in the UK during the first week of 1989, directed by Alan Wareing I was getting bored & a bit annoyed with The Greatest Show in the Galaxy up to Part 3 but I have to say Part 4 was easily the best episode & much more like the Doctor Who I know & like. The script by Stephen Wyatt at last gets to the point & reveals exactly what's going on in the Psychic Circus & it's suitably daft & it works quite well, if only the previous episodes had been a bit better The Greatest Show in the Galaxy could have been a great story, as it is I think it's an OK story & nothing that special. More should have been made of the robotic clowns in my opinion & why would anyone put a self destruct button on the top of a robots head?

There's some fun to be found in this episode particularly as the Doctor performs all sorts of magic tricks to try & keep the Gods of Ragnanok entertained so they won't kill him, hey it did the trick for me. The Gods themselves look pretty good actually & are quite menacing in their own silly way, unfortunately the terrible looking robot from Part 1 makes an appearance again. The way the Gods Dark Circus ring collapses is pretty good & I just wished the previous episodes were as fun as this one. I also rather liked incidental music or The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy overall as a Doctr Who story gets a 6 stars out of 10 from me across it's four episodes which vary in quality, it's worth watching but uneven.

Dreadful ending to a fantastic story

[bens_k · 1/10 · 19 August 2017]

This serial was terrific. Strong characters, an interesting mystery, just the right level of creepiness, stunning scenery, a wonderful humorous tone with great jokes, and that line about anybody remotely interesting being mad. I loved every minute of it.

That is, for the first three episodes. The final episode is dreadful. I haven't felt this let down by a strong beginning's weak ending since Frontios.

Anything to do with Sylvester McCoy gurning or acting like a clown immediately makes me roll my eyes and pray for it to end - and we're treated to an -entire- episode of it. The Doctor defeats the monster(s) of the week by doing a stupid magic act. Give me a break. It took me a few serials to warm to McCoy - I think he's vastly overrated - but just I was starting to finally 'get' what is so great about him and think I was wrong, we're given this tripe. Almost anything involving gods/the supernatural in Doctor Who also makes me tune out, with exception to Pyramids of Mars.

The Gods of Ragnarok are (ironically?) incredibly boring villains, and there was no need for the episode to suddenly nosedive into this territory out of nowhere, other than Andrew Cartmel's perverse desire to turn the Doctor into God (which was handled much better in Silver Nemesis.) It could have just been some poor brainwashed aliens who sold their souls/were driven mad by the eye thing. It was a feeble attempt at making the story epic like that time the ship exploding in Terminus would also make the Entire UNIVERSE EXPLODE!!!!! for no reason other than melodrama and a cheap cliffhanger.

Everything in episode four just sort of happens, as characters die because they've outlived their purpose and you can physically feel the wheels of plot turning and the audience collectively checking how much more of this gash they have to sit through.

As an aside - I like Cartmel but believe had he been allowed to continue past Season 26 he could have taken his somewhat interesting masterplan too far into the realms of unbelievable darkness which don't quite sit comfortably with the rest of the show. As it stands he injected the show with a good amount of mystery and intrigue and made us question who the Doctor was, but all the stuff I hear about Time's Champion etc makes me glad they never went that far in the show. Having The Doctor be some grand chessmaster rather than just an intrepid wanderer sucks some fun out of the show and raises some weird moral issues. Yes, it might stretch credibility that all his adventures happens by happenstance, but that never bothered me. This is Doctor Who for goodness sake.

So, starting out as an 8/10 episode and a potential highlight of the series, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy quickly turns into The Worst Show Since Time and the Rani. A sore disappointment.

A shame such a good story ends with a let down.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 3/10 · 21 January 2019]

I had truly loved Greatest Show in The Galaxy up to this point, I thought the writing was terrific, I loved the characters, villainy of the clowns, and the performances were terrific. Sadly though, thills last part is a real let down, overall I found it really dull, and at times it felt incredibly panto.

The Gods of Ragnarok themselves, so creepy looking in human form, but in their natural environment they look like Garden furniture, boring, dull garden furniture at that.

I'm afraid I have to fast forward the scenes where Sylvester entertains the gods with magic tricks, I've never been one for light entertainment, and Who should not have been the place for it.

One terrific scene, where the Doctor calmly walks off, and the circus explodes behind him,. wonderfully visual.

A shame, it had been great up until now. 3/10