The Greatest Show in the Galaxy ( TV story ) The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was the fourth and final story of the " Doctor Who " anniversary Season 25 . It showcased many of Sylvester McCoy ' s own skills as an entertainer , and some new tricks he had been taught to perform for the story . Synopsis . The Doctor and Ace head for the Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax , where they meet a disparate group of performers and visitors , including a self - centred explorer named Captain Cook , his companion Mags and a biker known as Nord . The circus itself is dominated by the sinister chief clown and his deadly troupe of robot clowns , who organise a talent contest in which all visitors take part . The audience consists of just a single strange family — mother , father and daughter — seated at the ringside . Although hindered by the treacherous Cook , the Doctor eventually discovers that the Circus hides a terrible secret : the family are in reality the Gods of Ragnarok , powerful creatures with an insatiable craving for entertainment who invariably destroy those who fail to please them . With Ace ' s help , the Doctor ends the gods ' influence on Segonax and returns the circus to the control of its original owners . Plot . Part one . In a circus ring , a ringmaster appears and begins a rap , saying , " You ain ' t seen nothing yet ! " In the TARDIS , Ace and the Seventh Doctor discover that junk mail persists into the far future ; a small robot that unexpectedly appears in the TARDIS console room proves to be an advertising drone for the Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax . The Doctor is delighted at the chance to see it and bring his companion . Ace , who is frightened of clown s , does not want to go , but the Doctor insists . Flowerchild and Bellboy , circus performers on the run from the Psychic Circus , flee across Segonax ' s barren wastes . They are tracked by a sinister chief clown wearing undertaker ' s clothing , travelling in a hearse with dark - tinted windows . The runaways agree to split up , and Flowerchild alone reaches an abandoned bus crewed by a deactivated robot . Inside , she finds an odd box , which she pockets — unaware that the robotic bus conductor has re - awakened and seen her . The robot attacks and kills her . One of her earring s falls to the ground . The TARDIS materialises on Segonax . The only sign of life readily apparent to the travellers is a roadside stand run by a jaded and cynical woman . She warns them off the circus . Ignoring her advice , Ace and the Doctor press on to the circus . Meanwhile , the chief clown has continued the hunt for Bellboy using sinister observational kites . Bellboy ' s luck runs out — the clowns have found him . They bundle him into the back of the hearse to take him back to the circus . As the Doctor and Ace continue down the road , they find other visitors making the trek . A futuristic motorcyclist named Nord impresses Ace , though the feeling is not mutual . Further down the road , Captain Cook and his friend Mags , another pair of interplanetary adventurers , invite the Doctor and Ace for tea at their campsite . Ace and Mags find a deactivated robot nearby ; it comes to life and attacks , but Ace defeats it . Nord arrives at the circus . He seats himself in the audience — near a father , mother and little girl — and is surprised to find himself selected for the circus ' " talent show " . He is escorted backstage , where he finds the contestants in the talent show are to wait . . . in a cage . The Doctor , Ace , Mags and Captain Cook stumble across the abandoned hulk of a bus . Ace finds and pockets the earring Flowerchild lost . They are attacked by the same robot that killed Flowerchild — again , Captain Cook lets the others deal with the threat . Disgusted by Cook , the Doctor and Ace continue without the others . Mags and Captain Cook arrive at the circus after Nord , before the Doctor and Ace , just in time to see Bellboy dragged into the ring to face punishment for his escape . Mags screams at the sight , but is quickly silenced by an electronic device held by the Ringmaster . She and the Captain are dragged backstage to the cage with the other talent show contestants . The Doctor and Ace arrive at the entrance . He asks her to decide whether they are going in , or not . . . Part two . Ace and the Doctor arrive at the circus to find it nearly deserted ; neither Nord , nor Mags and Captain Cook seem to be there . The only audience members besides themselves are the mum , dad and little girl . Despite Ace ' s forebodings and the veiled hints of the fortune teller , Morgana , the Doctor volunteers for the talent show and is delighted to be selected . As he is escorted backstage , the chief clown appears and brusquely asks Ace how she came by Flowerchild ' s earring . Panicked , Ace dashes into the circus ' recesses . In an unused room filled with robot clown parts , she meets the exhausted and battered Bellboy . She barely has time to hide from the chief clown , who enters and drags Bellboy away to fix the robots that he apparently created . Backstage in the cage , the Doctor is reunited with Captain Cook , Mags and Nord . Captain Cook explains their lives are at stake in the talent competition ; they must perform to stay alive . He tricks Nord into performing next , to the Doctor ' s displeasure . After Nord ' s performance ends in his failure and death , a young boy riding a BMX bike arrives at the circus . Whizz Kid is a great fan of the circus and of Captain Cook . He has come to enter the talent show . He is escorted backstage by the ringmaster . They find the cage empty except for Captain Cook ; the Doctor and Mags , observed by circus janitor Deadbeat , have escaped . Ace isn ' t so lucky . She has been recaptured by the chief clown . Playing on her phobias , he imprisons her in the room used to repair the robot clowns . While wandering in some strange stone corridors adjoining the circus tents , the Doctor and Mags come across a deep pit . Peering in , the Doctor is startled to see an enormous alien eye at the bottom . He cannot investigate further , as Captain Cook and clowns have arrived to take him to the circus ring for his performance . Part three . Ace , imprisoned and menaced by ill - functioning clowns , faces her fears and defeats the clowns . In doing so , she finds that Bellboy is also in the room . He reminisces sadly on the fate of the Psychic Circus ; once a light - hearted and merry band of free spirits roaming the galaxy , their ideals became twisted and corrupted once settled on Segonax . He is now a prisoner of the robot clowns he himself made ; Flowerchild made the kites that hunted her to death . He gives Ace a present : a remote control for a large - scale android he built on Segonax . Whizz Kid takes his turn in the circus ring . Star - struck , he fails to entertain the audience and is promptly killed . Only his melted spectacles are left behind . The Doctor , who managed to slip away from his captors when Mags staged a distraction , meets Deadbeat and finds an unexpected spark of sanity in the man . He leads the Doctor through the tangle of tent corridors to where Ace and Bellboy are held . Bellboy , his memory jogged , recognises Deadbeat as Kingpin , the circus ' former leader . In despair , he realises what he and the other circus performers have lost . Bellboy sends away the Doctor , Ace and Kingpin , then orders his robots to kill him as they killed Flowerchild . Ace , Kingpin and the Doctor make their way back to the pit with the mysterious eye . There , Kingpin shows them that the eye is connected to a mirrored eye medallion he wears . The medallion is incomplete ; its eye sigil lacks an eyeball . The Doctor and Ace realise the missing piece must have been what Flowerchild died trying to retrieve from the abandoned bus . The Doctor sends Ace and Kingpin to fetch it . He stalls for time by taking his turn in the ring , a desperate attempt to placate whatever in the circus is relentlessly demanding entertainment . In the cage with Mags and Captain Cook , the Doctor suggests that all of them enter the ring together , lengthening their survival if they work together . The Captain agrees , but once in the ring , he asks for an " Old Devil Moon " spotlight , and stands by as Mags begins a ferocious transformation , smugly informing the Doctor that he really should have deduce d that Mags is a werewolf . Part four . The audience are amused by the spectacle of Mags attacking the Doctor as Captain Cook and other circus performers watch . Mags then kills the captain and re - transforms into a girl . The Doctor briefs her on the plan and sends her to find Ace and Kingpin . Meanwhile , he will prepare for his performance . Ace and Kingpin reach the abandoned bus . Ace is attacked by the bus conductor robot , but Kingpin remembers how to defeat it permanently . They retrieve the missing part of the medallion and head back towards the circus . The family , their eyes glowing bright green , speak in reverberating voices , demanding more entertainment . When the ringmaster and Morgana have protest the chief clown and the robot clowns enter the ring and force the pair into two large wicker baskets for a magic disappearing act . When the baskets are opened , both the ringmaster and Morgana have vanished forever ; only the ringmaster ' s shiny red top - hat and whip are left behind . With the family now entertained the Chief and his troupe leave the ring to recapture the others . Mags meets them on the way . She is being pursued by the clowns ' hearse . The three realise they must evade or defeat it and Ace hatches a plan . The Doctor confronts his adversaries : the three audience members , the Gods of Ragnarok . Extradimensional beings who feed on entertainment , they have brought the Doctor to their home dimension , from which no escape is possible . The Doctor declares he is not afraid of them and begins a series of conjuring tricks . Ace , Kingpin , and Mags have reached the old robot in the desert , the one Ace and Mags have already defeated . They crouch behind it as the clowns approach , taunting them — but Ace uses Bellboy ' s device to control the robot and the clowns are incapacitated . The friends dash to the clowns ' hearse and return to the circus , which they find strangely deserted . They see Captain Cook ' s body , laid out in state in the entrance hall , but can ' t find the Doctor . Kingpin thinks he may be trapped in the Dark Circus , accessible through the stone labyrinth . The Doctor , meanwhile , is less than successful in entertaining the Gods of Ragnarok . He is still alive , but the Gods are running out of patience . They continue to taunt him , shouting , " We want more ! We need more ! " Kingpin , Mags , and Ace reach the pit in the stone labyrinth , but Kingpin cannot bring himself to use the medallion . As Mags and Ace try to talk him into it , he is pushed aside by Captain Cook , who had been re - animated by the Gods . Cook claims the medallion , but Ace rushes him and knocks it into the pit . . . where it re - materialises by the Doctor ' s feet . The Captain blunders into the pit after it , while the three travellers flee into Segonax ' s wastes . The gods try to kill the Doctor , but he deflects their weapons with the medallion and the arena begins to crumble . He mock - bows to the dying gods and calmly walks out of the arena , back into the Psychic Circus on Segonax , which disintegrates as he leaves it . He joins his friends to watch the destruction from a safe distance . Kingpin declares he will re - start the circus and return to its lighthearted roots . Mags joins him ; she is initially uncertain that she can control her changes , but the Doctor assures her she can . Kingpin invites the Doctor and Ace to join them and explore the galaxy , but they have galaxies of their own to explore . . . Story notes . Filming locations . This story was technically filmed entirely on location , although the main location was the car park of a studio . Production errors . " to be added " Home video and audio releases . DVD releases . DVD Contents : Notes : Early Region 4 pressings of this DVD have a major problem in the middle of Part 2 in the scene when Ace knocks over the kites and is chased by the clowns . The picture stops for a second when Ace knocks the kite over , and then resumes after around three seconds . When Ace disappears behind the booth being chased by clowns , the picture stops , and the sound plays for about a second and a half , before completely freezing . The only way to fix this problem is to restart the DVD and switch to the next scene . The cause of this problem is currently unknown . Soundtrack releases . A soundtrack album of Mark Ayres ' score was released by Silva Screen Records on FILMCD 114 .