A question you could be asking yourself now, or any time since Peter Capaldi left the series, though some might argue a lot further back into Tom Baker's later reign.
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is actually well regarded for its season, though many fans took offence against one particular character. That is, of course, Whizzkid, who was seen as a thinly veiled criticism of certain sections of fandom.
Even though he is supposed to be an alien, or at least a human from the Earth of the far future, his outfit is deliberately contemporary, though old-fashioned for the 1980's. He is far from trendy, and presents as a typical teenage nerd, with glasses, bowtie and tank-top. He's obsessively fond of a particular show and talks of little else. And he collects all the merchandise.
Only the anorak is missing to have him appear as the stereotype of the young, male, boyfriend / girlfriend-lacking, Doctor Who fan.
JNT had been suffering ongoing and increasingly hostile complaints from the more vocal sections of fandom, especially since Season 22.
People were unhappy with:
- the quality of scripts,
- casting of light entertainment figures,
- his rampant self-promotion,
- his petty vindictiveness,
- kowtowing to America,
- casting Colin Baker,
- casting Bonnie Langford,
- "ruining" returning monsters,
- over-reliance on the series past,
- not relying on the series past,
- listening to Eric Saward,
- not listening to Eric Saward,
- Saward's infamous Starburst interview,
- not using tried and trusted directors from before his time,
- not using tried and trusted writers from before his time,
- the hiatus,
- the lost Season 23,
- prioritising pantos over producing the show,
- prioritising conventions over producing the show,
- and basically staying in the role for far too long...
And that was just what you saw in the letters pages of Doctor Who Bulletin. You'll notice that Whizzkid says of the Psychic Circus that everyone knows it's not as good as it used to be - a common complaint among Doctor Who fans of every generation, but especially during the second half of the JNT era.
Onto the story itself.
The Doctor claims that he has fought the Gods of Ragnarok through all of time. Funny he's never mentioned them until now.
The Gods crave entertainment, but this seems to boil down to fairly rubbishy amateur circus acts - which don't seem to take place very often. If it's simply the death and destruction part they are after, why not just have mass executions and skip the juggling and strongman acts?
They also appear to have gotten rid of the Circus members who were actually quite good at this type of thing - people who may have been able to entertain them more successfully.
If the Gods really are deities, or aliens with god-like powers, why leave the means of your own destruction lying around nearby, guarded only by a robot?
They have the power to raise the dead, so surely they could have protected the medallion piece a lot better.
They begin firing energy bolts at the Doctor, who deflects them with the medallion - but the Gods keep on firing even when they can see it is having no effect. And they keep on firing even when this begins to destroy themselves and their arena.
Where does the Doctor get all that magic paraphernalia for his act at the end? The arena doesn't look like it has a ceiling, so what's he hanging from?
What exactly is "psychic" about this circus, which has fairly mundane acts. It can't refer to whatever it is the Gods get from the so-called entertainments, as it was known by this name long before they took it over.
The initials of Psychic Circus would be "PC" - so why do we see "PS" all over the place?
Allowing for the fact that we know the circus was much bigger in the past, was this the only bus they used to get around? It could hardly have carried all of their equipment, including the actual tent, fittings and fixtures, let alone the members. Bellboy has an entire robotics laboratory.
The Bus Conductor must be the work of Bellboy - so why doesn't he warn Flowerchild about it?
The Stallslady hates the circus-goers, yet they seem to be her only customers - and, as mentioned, there don't ever seem to be all that many of them. She seems to be standing in the middle of a desert, with no signs of habitation for miles around.
How can something as simple as an advertising robot manage to breach TARDIS defences?
Or has this all been set up by the Doctor in the first place? As well as claiming to have battled the Gods, he seems to know about a specific gladiator who fought and died for them, and mentions things getting out of control sooner than he anticipated - suggesting it's yet another old score from the past he's decided to deal with now, just like the Hand of Omega and Nemesis. If it is, it's the third story to have featured this set-up - out of a season that's only got four stories. A pity that the script couldn't have been clearer on this. (Maybe it was originally. Cartmel era stories are nearly always over-written and then need to be pruned right back to fit the running time).
How can Ace have been wearing one of Flowerchild's earrings on her jacket before she has even found it?
And why can't she recall that the rucksack which she's hunting for got blown up along with a Cyberman shuttlecraft only recently?
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