The Circus of Doom (audio story)

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The Circus of Doom
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Companion(s):	Yates
Main enemy:	Hornets
Main setting:	Blandford, June 1832 Nest Cottage, 24 December 2010
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Audio
Writer:	Paul Magrs
Director:	Kate Thomas
Producer:	Kate Thomas
Music:	Simon Power
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Release number:	3
Release date:	5 November 2009
Format:	1 CD 3rd of 5 stories
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-4084-2675-3
Hornets' Nest
← Previous	The Dead Shoes
Next →	A Sting in the Tale

The Circus of Doom is the third story in the Hornets' Nest arc, a series of five audio dramas featuring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor alongside Richard Franklin as Mike Yates.

Publisher's summary

The circus has come to town - and so has the Doctor! Watching the parade pass by in 1832, he finds the people of Blandford strangely drawn towards the garish big top. He knows something is terribly wrong. The only thing to do is pay a visit. Meanwhile Adam Farrow finds his sister caught up with the circus and its sinister ringmaster. What is behind Antonio's almost hypnotic power, and how is it connected with an event in the Doctor's future? Seized by clowns and forced into the centre of the ring, the Doctor encounters the fiercest of all circus acts. Yet something much more terrifying lurks in the wings - and the sound it makes is horribly familiar. Lives will be lost before the circus moves on - and the Doctor will face his own doom on the high wire.

Plot

Tracking down the Hornets, the Doctor finds himself in 1832, in a small town with a dark secret. A circus has come to town... only it's not the happy kind. This "Circus of Delights" is run by a man under the influence of the Hornets! The vile plot is to kill the entire town... and then move on to a bigger target... The Doctor must stop this act at once!

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
• Sally - Susie Riddell
• Dr Adam Farrow - Michael Maloney
• Francesca - Jilly Bond
• Antonio - Stephen Thorne
• Old woman - Susan Jameson

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor is very fond of tigers.
• The Doctor always imagined running away with the circus when he was a boy, but Gallifrey didn't get many circuses visiting.

Notes

• This story was recorded at Electric Airwaves and Motivation Sound Studios.
• This story was later included in The Nest Cottage Chronicles.
• A free download of this story was given away with The Guardian newspaper on 23 February 2011.
• The inside of the booklet provided a letter written by Sally's father to the Blandford Gazette, condemning the townspeople for indulging in the "gaudy charms" of the Circus of Delights.

Continuity

• The Doctor would later encounter another sinister circus in his next incarnation, (AUDIO: Freakshow) and again in his seventh incarnation. (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)

External links

• DisContinuity for The Circus of Doom at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
• The Circus of Doom at the Doctor Who Reference Guide