Come one, come all to the Psychic Circus — where the audience kills, the clowns are robots, and the Doctor may be only one striped scarf away from becoming one himself. This week, Pull To Open tackles The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, a late-McCoy oddity that somehow manages to be creepy, funny, ambitious, and weirdly relevant all at once. Is the Chief Clown an all-time villain? Are the Gods of Ragnarok a brilliant meta-commentary or a giant last-minute shrug? And most importantly: is the Doctor, in fact, a hippie? Grab some popcorn and keep your hands inside the clown car at all times.
Give your own rating for The Greatest Show in the Galaxy on Spotify!
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and become a True Companion of the podcast to get new episodes before everyone else!
Subscribe to our newsletter at pulltoopen.net for extended notes on The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.
Support the podcast by becoming a patron of Pull To Open on Patreon.
Please review Pull To Open on Apple Podcasts.
Timeline:
- Intro 00:00:00
- Previously… 00:02:41
- Whomoji Challenge 00:08:00
- Poll to Open 00:13:14
- TL;DW 00:21:16
- Review: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy 00:23:48
- Four Questions to Doomsday 01:01:05
- What If the Evil Plot Had Succeeded? 01:05:01
- Where Is the Clara Splinter? 01:07:36
- Final Judgment 01:12:32
- Randomizer! 01:19:10
Follow us on:
- TikTok: @pulltoopen
- Instagram: @pulltoopen63
- Facebook: @pulltoopen63
- X: @pulltoopen63
- Threads: @pulltoopen63
- Bluesky: @pulltoopen
Play Pull To Open Bingo
Story Essentials
- Season 25, Serial 4
- Story number: 155, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Stephen Wyatt
- Director: Alan Wareing
- Script Editor: Andrew Cartmel
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 14 December 1988–4 January 1989
Pull To Open: Time and the Rani
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2026
Doctor Who ©️BBC 1963