Doctor Who classic moments: The Seventh Doctor walking away from an explosion like a badass (The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)

Having recently reviewed The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, we look at an iconic Doctor Who moment from that story: its explosive ending.

Some moments are absolute classics in Doctor Who because of their amazing dialogue. Where the Doctor gives a big, dramatic speech against giant monsters or whole armies, or even when he muses over the consequences of even the smallest decisions over a cup of tea.

However, sometimes, a classic moment doesn’t need words. It just needs a big explosion and the Doctor looking awesome. And that’s exactly the kind of moment that The Greatest Show in the Galaxy gives us.

As we reviewed recently, there are many reasons why The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is so fantastic in its own right. It features a number of distinctive and quirky characters, but it also hides a rather dark heart beneath the surface of a colorful story.

It also introduced the character of Mags, who recently returned in the Big Finish audio The Monsters of Gokroth. So there are certainly plenty of reasons to find this classic story enjoyable.

Taking on the gods

But the explosion at the end is just the icing on the cake. After facing and defeating the Gods of Ragnarok, the evil power that had been controlling the Psychic Circus for some time, the Seventh Doctor calmly and quietly exits the circus…as a huge explosion happens right behind him!

It’s a highly effective way to wrap up the story, for a couple of reasons. Production wise, there’s the very clear fact that this was an actual explosion that Sylvester McCoy was calmly walking away from. Look closely, and you can see it go off right behind him. It’s actually pretty scary to think how close McCoy was to that explosion, and yet he doesn’t bat an eye. He just focuses on looking cool and making it look effortless. It’s considerably impressive, really.

More from Winter is Coming

• For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
• Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
• Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
• Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
• Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”

There’s also the fact that storywise, it’s pretty perfect. The Doctor has just defeated actual gods. And not for the last time, either: later in the same incarnation, he’d end up confronting the powerful entity Fenric, which had essentially taken the form of a Norse god.

This is a great demonstration of what makes Seven such a great Doctor: he deals in far higher stakes, and he’s not afraid to taken on the most powerful of enemies. Defeating the Gods of Ragnarok was just the beginning. If their deaths didn’t prove that McCoy’s Doctor was a force to be reckoned with, then a huge explosion definitely did.

The explosion at the end of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy might not be one of Doctor Who‘s more subtler moments, but it is instantly memorable, and easily iconic.

Are you a fan of this scene from The Greatest Show in the Galaxy? Do you think the explosion worked for the scene? What’s your favorite explosive scene in Doctor Who? Let us know in the comments below.