Doctor Who - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy [DVD] [1988]

Coming directly after the disappointing "Silver Nemesis" this story gets series 25 back on track and just in time as it was the last story of that series.
Plenty of evocative images prevail and the character of Ace is much better written for than in most of her previous stories ("Remembrance Of The Daleks" excluded).
Series 26 would continue the trend before it was sadly cut down in it's (McCoy era at least) prime.
The BBC DVD is, as we now come to expect, chock full of delightful extras.
Great entertainment for all the family.

I'm not a huge fan of the stories script eidted by Andrew Cartmel becuase I don't think his approach could deliver within the budgets etc. of the time he was working on Who but when the stories came together ( Remembrance of the Daleks, Curse of Fenric and this), you can't deny something special resulted.
Following the teleportation into the Tardis of an advertisting robot(nice touch) the Dr and Ace go to see the Psychic Circus but soon discover that what with the lack of audience, death dealing bus conductor (played by Dean Hollingsworth also an android in Timelash)and strange family watching the shows, something evil lurks at the heart of it.
Sylvester is the dark Doctor here. Ace clearly doesn't want to go due to a fear of clowns but he insists and seems to revel a bit in the goings on. Great performance from Sylvester who is given a neat scene to reveal is skills form his earliest showbiz incarnation as a physical performer e.g escapology and magic tricks. (interestingly Cartmel reveals in the commentary that he wasn't in favour of the way it was done)
Ace's fear of clowns give something different for Sophie Aldred to do & it's good to see a chink in Ace's armour. Her best scenes are with Christopher Guard the 2 working really well together.
Great guest cast most notably Ian Reddington's Chief Clown who switches form an almost Stephen Fry demeanour to menacing very effectively, T P McKenna's bombastic explorer Captain Cook (revealed in the info titles to have been inspired by politician Lord Hailsham!) and Jessica Martin's Maggs. Watch also for Daniel Peacock's Nord and the stallslady played by Sitcom legend Peggy Mount!
Well directed and the tents, plus location filming all convince us the circus is real. Some effects inevitably fail to look good after all this time (wonder if in a few years people will say that about Christopher Eccelston's stories?). Coolest moment? Sylv strolls nonchalantly off with a huge explosion behind him!
Good remastering although as well as delivering a good picture it has sharply pointed out how knackered that tardis was inside and out, by this time!

The pic n' mix commentary is the best in some time. It's funny e.g. cartmel recalls during the filming in the Elstree car park the "Allo Allo Girls doing a Can Can!"Sophie says this was his dream and also tells us that the custard and sweetcorn her and Sylv had to eat may be the forerunner of Matt Smith's fishfingers in custard! It's informative e.g. the original story idea was a bit more space museum and would have featured home of a Who Exhibition of the time Longleat and there are interesting view points e.g. Mark Ayres says that a lot of JNT's ideas didn't work but when they did they were terrific and he did give new talent chances. The Moderator Toby Hadoke shocks them all by referring to Daniel Peacock's character as dead in such a way they think he means the actor and are shocked, whoops! He does clarify himself thankfully.

There are deleted/extended scenes and and unused effects shot put into context by Mike Tucker's introduction. The shot looks a bit like his Red Dwarf work.

There's The Psychic Circus a song sung by Christopher Guard, Jessica Martin and (channelling Vincent Price in Thriller) T P Mckenna about the story, made into a video with clips.

Mark Ayres' test run on scenes from Remembrance of the Daleks is synced up to the action for us and there's a mildly amusing sketch with Jim Broadbent as the Dr.

Tomorrow's Times covers the 7th Doctor's Era, a period when the show was not loved by Fleet Street. You may need a stiff drink!

Best saved til last "The Show Must Go On" is a terrific making of covering the story's genesis, how part of the way through filming the unavailability of studios led to the cancellation before setting up a marquee in Elstree car park saved the day. As in the commentary tribute is paid to JNT as the man who saved the show. A fantastic doc. Just a shame that as in the commentary, there's no input from Sylv

I once said that I thought the extensive (even if mostly second hand)extras on Curse of Fenric made it doubtful, there would be a better DVD release. Delighted to be proved wrong, I recommend this to everyone!

The fourth and final story to be shown in Sylvester Mccoy's second season as Doctor Who comes to DVD, with all four episodes complete on a single disc.

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy sees the Doctor and his companion Ace visit the famous Psychic circus whilst it's on the planet Segonax. Despite Ace not being too keen on clowns. The two time travellers aren't the only people on their way there, as an electic bunch of travellers are doing the same. But the circus is no longer the happy and carefree place it once was. As the performers live in fear of the chief clown. And a very demanding and rather small audience.

Can the Doctor find the truth that lurks under the big top?

Coming from a period when the style of the show didn't find favour with many, this is one story where it works to it's advantage. Because the level of quirkiness is just right and it never goes too far or pantomimey. The outdoor filming may be in quarries but it creates a wonderfully alien and desolate landscape. The supporting cast of characters are all played at just the right level of eccentricity - although it could probably survive without the dig at Doctor Who fandom - and a problem with the production that led to most of the interior work having to be shot in a big tent in a car park rather than the usual bbc studio also works to it's advantage because it makes it look more convincing.

With a good plot that develops at just the right pace, and superb villainy from actor Ian Reddington as the chief clown, it's not the greatest story ever. But it's a very good one indeed.

The DVD has the following language and subtitle options:

Languages: English.

Subtitles: English.

It's also English audio captioned.

It has the usual features for this range of:

A commentary from some of the cast and crew [not unfortunately including Sylvester Mccoy].

A photo gallery of stills from the story and it's production.

Production information subtitles.

The radio Times listings for the story as PDF files.

The option to listen to the score of the story all on it's own.

And a trailer for the next dvd in this range, that as ever involves fast editing and is one epileptics may have a problem with.

There's also:

A typically excellent thirty minute long making of documentary. Which among other things tells the full story of why they had to go to the car park.

Eleven minutes worth of deleted and extended scenes. These usually involve people walking from one set to another but this lot does have some good character moments. And some are unfinished so it means they will go from black and white to colour at random. Do look out for a scene of the buried robot, as it shows it got some dialogue which was cut from the final version.

Model effects: a two minute long feature about a visual effect shot planned for episode one, showing the shot itself and a visual effects man explaining it and why it was cut.

The psychic circus: a pop song recorded by some of the cast all about the psychic circus, using images from the story for it's video. This also involves flashing images and fast editing which may cause problems to some.

Remembrance demo: Mark Ayres, who wrote the score for this story, did a demo of his work by taking two scenes from earlier story 'Remembrance of the Daleks' and writing new music for them. This is that music set to the scenes in question.

Tomorrow's times - the Seventh Doctor: is the latest in the series that looks how the press of the time covered a various era of the show. In the case not very nicely. The quality of the journalism is as poor as many say this era of the programme was, but there are a couple of better articles than expected. Although the Janet Street Porter impression isn't very welcome. And it ends rather abruptly on a to be continued note that seems to promise a look at how the show survived in other media post 1989.

There is also a one minute long clip of a parody of the show from 'Victoria Wood - seen on TV' which also plays exactly as you would expect, parodying stupid companions and cheap sets and monsters and the Doctor's costume. There is one good joke in the middle of it. But that's that. It's only a minute long. Thankfully.