 This four-part story was the final story of the Season Twenty Five. It was originally considered to be filmed entirely in the studio but ended up technically being filmed entirely on location - although the main location was in a tent erected in the car park of BBC Elstree studios due to an asbestos scare that struck the BBC's studios.
Stephen Wyatt was asked to compose a new idea shortly after completing work on "Paradise Towers". Because of Stephen Wyatt’s knack for unusual settings, Producer John Nathan-Turner suggested an adventure taking place at a circus.
This story was originally written as for a three-part slot for Season Twenty Five. Subsequently, though, John Nathan-Turner and Script Editor Andrew Cartmel asked Stephen Wyatt to expand his storyline to four episodes, including some location material. This meant there could be more of the planet Segonax, on which the Psychic Circus was located, more characters who could be killed off (such as Nord and Whizz Kid), and expanded roles for Flowerchild and Bellboy whose roles were a reflection of the writer's disenchantment with the hippy movement of the Sixties.
Ben Aaronovitch, another potential Season Twenty Five writer, suggested an explorer character along the lines of Indiana Jones. This inspired the creation of Captain Cook, to whom Stephen Wyatt expanded this role enormously. At one stage, Stephen Wyatt even wanted to have Captain Cook mysteriously survive the destruction of the Psychic Circus.
Stephen Wyatt’s original vision of the Circus - as a competitive arena in which defeated teams were killed off one by one - had been greatly altered.
Whizzkid had originally been intended to be a computer genius who was an expert at all the Circus' games, but the evolving premise had made him essentially redundant. With the encouragement of the production office, however, Stephen Wyatt decided to retain the character, transforming him into a parody of the stereotypical Doctor Who fan.
Other changes to the script included renaming Mags' home planet from MacVulpine to Volpana; setting episode four during daytime instead of at night; removing the dialogue of the robot buried in the desert, who would originally lure passersby into approaching him before threatening to attack them; and making Segonax a desert world instead of a pastoral setting. The Little Girl was also called Sandra at one point.
The cast included Chris Jury, better known for his appearances in Lovejoy; Ian Reddington before his regular starring role as market owner 'Tricky Dicky' in EastEnders; Gian Sammarco fresh from starring as Adrian Mole in The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole; impressionist Jessica Martin; and popular actors Daniel Peacock, T P McKenna and Peggy Mount.
Dean Hollingsworth, as the Bus Conductor, is credited for being in the third episode even though he does not appear. While Lorna McCulloch, who voices one of the Gods of Ragnarok, is uncredited in the fourth episode.
Jessica Martin, who plays Mags (a werewolf-like alien), briefly returned in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "Voyage of the Damned" voicing Queen Elizabeth II.
Ian Reddington later played the part of ‘Nobody No-One’ in the Big Finish Productions audio story "A Death in the Family".
The Doctor is seen performing a number of sleight-of-hand conjuring tricks in the fourth episode. He also produces a variety of items as part of his magic show, including a scarf, a length of rope, and an egg. Sylvester McCoy was coached in magic by Geoffrey Durham, otherwise known as the Great Soprendo, for these scenes.
The director assigned to this story was Alan Wareing, whose credits included episodes of EastEnders and Casualty. Alan Wareing had been an assistant Floor Manager on several stories in the early Eighties.
In preparing the robotic clown outfits a cast of the face of Ian Reddington, the actor playing the Chief Clown, was taken. All the robot clown masks were then based around this cast, so that they were all echoes of the Chief Clown. However, each of the masks was different and each was designed by a different make-up assistant, overseen by Make-Up Designer Denise Baron.
Location work took place at West Knighton Pit in Warmwell, Dorset beginning in May 1988. The production was then supposed to return to the studio for two studio blocks. However, asbestos was discovered in Studio TC2 of BBC Television Centre during renovations, and traces of the dangerous material were subsequently detected in other studios. This prompted the BBC to close down all the studios until the problem could be rectified, but this meant the loss of the first block, at least.
With no additional studio time left and the performers' contracts obligating them to the production only until mid-June, for a brief time the story was cancelled. In desperation, John Nathan-Turner and Alan Wareing conceived the idea of erecting an actual tent complex on a field off the A40. Although this was forbidden, because any remount would have to take place on BBC premises, designer David Laskey suggested the same plan could be accomplished at a car park or similar facility. Finally, BBC Elstree - the home of EastEnders amongst other productions - agreed to let The Doctor Who team use their parking lot for two weeks. Although the arrangement was not ideal, as it would mean contending with the sound of pedestrians and airplanes landing at the nearby Elstree Aerodrome, it meant that this story could be completed.
Work at Elstree began in June 1988 and for a time, John Nathan-Turner hoped that this story’s second studio block might proceed as originally scheduled, but eventually this was cancelled as well. Consequently, Alan Wareing was forced to be extremely efficient in arranging his shots.
Despite the hasty change of plans this story experienced few major modifications despite. Amongst these though was the loss of Kathryn Ludlow, who played the Little Girl. By the time the scenes of the Gods in their nonhuman forms came to be recorded, the production team had exhausted the number of days that Kathryn Ludlow, as a child actor, could commit to the story. Consequently, Lorna McCulloch donned the God costume, while Alan Wareing’s own modulated voice provided the requisite dialogue.
Another late change was Bellboy’s appearance after his capture. Originally, he was to be haggard and white-haired, implying that he had suffered electric shock treatment, but this was dropped on recording. The script also indicated that he should be lashed to a kite, not a workbench. Meanwhile, it was thought that the use of a real tent (as opposed to a sturdier studio mock-up) would mean the loss of the sequence, in the fourth episode, where The Doctor swings on ropes. This scene was retained, however, at John Nathan-Turner's insistence and was accomplished without problem.
The Doctor is heard quoting Neil Armstrong (‘One small step for man’) and Al Jolson, via Bachman Turner Overdrive (‘You ain't seen nothin' yet’).
The Doctor knows the Gods of Ragnarok, and says he has fought them ‘all through time’.
Near the beginning of the first episode, Ace is seen briefly wearing the Fourth Doctor's trademark scarf, and Melanie Bush’s polka-dotted top from "Paradise Towers".
Captain Cook, the galactic explorer, spends much time remembering planets he has visited, including Lelex (the natives are Monopods), Dioscuros, Inphitus (where the Galvanic Catastrophods are ‘not what they were’), Leophantos, the baleful plains of Grolon, Fagiros (where the Architrave of Batgeld showed Cook his collection of early Ganglion pottery), the Bay of Paranoia on Golobus and the gold mines of Katakiki and Periboea. He also visited Vulpana, where he met Mags, recommends the frozen pits of Overod, says that Boromeo has ‘bouncing Upas trees’ and Anagonia ‘singing squids’, and shares The Doctor's love of tea from the Groz valley on Melogophon.
Captain Cook serves tea to Mags, The Doctor, and Ace; both at his campsite and at the circus.
Mags is the first werewolf to appear on the show. The Tenth Doctor deals with a similar alien race in the 2006 story "Tooth and Claw". While the Eighth Doctor encountered a strange virus capable of turning humans into werewolves in the BBC Books’ The Eighth Doctor Stories novel "Kursaal". Werewolf clans have appeared several times in the spin-off stories: In the Big Finish Productions audio story "Loups-Garoux" and the BBC Books’ The Past Doctors Stories novel "Wolfsbane".
Various posters state that the Psychic circus has visited Othrys, the Boriatic wastes, Marpesia and the grand pagoda on Cinethon.
Virgin Books’ The New Adventures novel "Conundrum", written by Steve Lyons, states that the Gods of Ragnarok created the Land of Fiction, seen in the 1968 Second Doctor story "The Mind Robber". The New Adventures novel "All-Consuming Fire", written by Andy Lane, identifies the Gods of Ragnarok with the Great Old Ones from H. P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos".
This is the first story to feature music composed by Mark Ayres - who suggested a single from this story, 'The Psychic Circus', performed by Christopher Guard and Mark Ayres, but the BBC was not interested despite the interest of the production team.
A rap song is heard during this story. This was the first original song commissioned for the show since "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" in the 1966 First Doctor story "The Gunfighters". The next original song for the show would be "Song for Ten" heard in the 2005 Tenth Doctor story "The Christmas Invasion".
Season Twenty Five was originally supposed to have been broadcast in production order, with this story being the second. However, the expected start of the season on the 7th September 1988 was delayed to the 5th October because of the BBC’s coverage of the Seoul Summer Olympics. John Nathan-Turner still wanted to begin the season with "Remembrance of the Daleks" and have the first episode of the Twenty Fifth anniversary story, "Silver Nemesis", broadcast on the 23rd November - the actual date of the show’s silver jubilee. This left only three weeks in between the two stories. Consequently, the original season finale, "The Happiness Patrol", was exchanged with this story. Unfortunately, this resulted in a couple of unforeseen continuity errors: Flowerchild's earring could be seen on Ace's jacket in the preceding two stories, "Silver Nemesis" and "The Happiness Patrol", though she only acquired it during this story. While during the first episode Ace is seen searching for her rucksack, which she blew up during the events of "Silver Nemesis".
The last episode of this story received the highest viewing figure (6.6 million) for a story during the Seventh Doctor’s era – and this was against Coronation Street.
Because of the discovery of asbestos at the BBC, which led to the temporary closure of various television studios, this story nearly met the same fate as that of the uncompleted Fourth Doctor story "Shada" - that of being cancelled after the location work had been completed.
Although the production office was interested in commissioning a third story from Stephen Wyatt, the writer was growing concerned about being pigeonholed as part of The Doctor Who team and declined the invitation. Stephen Wyatt has since been a mainstay on radio in addition to contributing scripts to the drama series Casualty.
A novelisation of this story, written by Stephen Wyatt, was published by Target Books in December 1989 - the same month the final episode of the original run of the show was broadcast.
Alister Pearson’s cover artwork for the Target novelisation was used again on the sleeve of the 1992 Silva Screen CD release containing the music from this story.
A volume titled "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: The Discerning Fan's Guide to Doctor Who" was published by McFarland Publishing in July 2007. Despite the similarity between the title of this book, it is a reference work that examines Doctor Who from a number of different perspectives.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Alan Wareing.
Mark Ayres' first involvement in the show providing the incidental music.
The first Doctor Who story to contain an original song since "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" that had been used in the 1966 First Doctor story "The Gunfighters".
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(Position = 84 out of 159)
(Position = 119 out of 200)
