Story #1: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

[victorylime]

Written by: Stephen Wyatt
Script Editor: Andrew Cartmel
Director: Alan Wareing
Serial Number: 151
Number of Episodes: 4
Year/Season: 1988/Season 25
The Doctor: 7th (Sylvester McCoy)
The Companions: Ace (Sophie Aldred)
Synopsis: The Doctor and Ace are coerced into coming to the "Psychic Circus" on the planet Segonax, but soon find themselves in a

Comments

Re: spoilers, obviously

[angagaladiel]

This was my first time seeing Seven/Ace (well, even just Seven), and they've definitely got an adorable relationship going on. The Doctor was really great (I think my favourite part was when he barked at the mime). I know that I'm going to want to see more Ace, hopefully with a bit better writing. I didn't know about the asbestos, pretty neat bit of trivia Nick! And having that shot inside would have been disaster, you could even tell in some of the scenes in the circus tent that they were actually shot in a tent outside, which definitely added to it.

Nick and I talked about it a bit, how it was a neat idea for a story, but really underdeveloped, and that made me kind of sad. I felt really lost at parts of it, and still am a little with respect to the motivations of it. Not sure, but since I haven't seen the rest, it felt like the Gods of Ragnarok were recurring villains, so maybe that's why I didn't really feel connected to them at all. Also, what is a Psychic Circus? How does it work? Another idea that feels recurring, so probably why I have so many questions about it.

Nick also explained to me about Whizz Kid, and how he's supposed to represent the average Doctor Who fan of the time. All I can say about that is that it made me really sad :(

I agree with you Lisa, re: how it would be in a different Doctor's era. I think they would really be able to pull this off in the current series. It would definitely be darker (hopefully with better hair/makeup...Mags as a werewolf?? What was that about? Also the fortune teller looks like a man in drag), and I hope they would go into a bit more detail. But there would also be some point of the Doctor flipping his lid at the Gods of Ragnarok killing people for amusement, and having some twisted way of locking them away for eternity instead of killing them after a tough inner struggle (*yawn*). I could see Matt Smith being a real pro at the tricks and adorable-ness of this kind of thing, but I don't really think we've had the chance to see him get really mad/upset, as we've seen with Chris Eccleston (AMAZING at brooding, and I kind of miss it) and David Tennant, so I am looking forward to an episode where he can stretch a little more.

Re: spoilers, obviously

[victorylime]

The show tended to do a lot of 'Aha, [villain], I have met you before', in order to give credence to the idea that the Doctor has a lot of adventures that we don't see. It's also possible they were trying to establish a bunch of continuity on the fly, as there was a definite feeling I got with this story that they were trying to say 'Hey guys, this is still Doctor Who!' What with Whizzkid and the scene where Ace is seen wearing Tom Baker's scarf and Mel's jacket. It definitely felt like they were trying to draw people back into the show.