The rest of this story is quite involving. The Doctor and Ace don't even make it to the Psychic Circus until the start of part two, but that's okay, because it gives us a chance to get a feel for this place and the rules it's operating under. The locals (well, the Stallslady, at least) evidently don't like the Circus because of the people it attracts, while something very sinister appears to be going on at the Circus itself, what with the two employees fleeing (chased by a clown driving a hearse) and the fact that they have to trap patrons in order to make them perform in the ring. (Lousy first cliffhanger, by the way: they could have stopped ten seconds earlier, on Mags's silent scream, but instead the actual cliffhanger is the Doctor saying to Ace, in a peeved tone, "Well, are we going in or aren't we?" Yeah, that's the thing you want to end on for a week...)
There's also a feeling of hippy sensibilities being overwhelmed by more mundane responsibilities present throughout these two episodes. The abandoned bus, painted with all sorts of psychedelic colors and patterns, but in a crude, homemade sort of way, is a symbol of that, and the clothes everyone's wearing adds to this feeling. (Bellboy, for instance, sort of looks like he's wearing an elaborate bellboy costume, but also looks like he's wearing one of the Beatles' jackets from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.) It also shows up in the dialogue. "We were really into personal expression and the Circus gave us a chance to develop ourselves by expressing our individual skills," Morgana tells the Doctor, while the conversation between Morgana and the Ringmaster points out how the Circus has changed:
MORGANA: It wasn't always like this, was it? Not before we came to this dreadful place. We used to have fun. We were free spirits then.
RINGMASTER: We are now.
MORGANA: You think so? It feels more like we're part of a machine.
RINGMASTER: Look, we're not leaving, if that's what you mean.
MORGANA: We must!
RINGMASTER: You keep saying that, but you haven't gone, have you?
MORGANA: I tried, but–
RINGMASTER: Listen, just as long as they keep on coming, and they will, no doubt of that, we are a success. Don't you understand? An intergalactic success. Now, the others, they couldn't take the pace, that's all. Bellboy, Deadbeat, Flowerchild, the rest. Don't you understand? They wanted to live in the past, the old lazy way. Not us. We'll make the Psychic Circus known everywhere.
And of course we meet some of the other people heading to the Circus: a ruffian named Nord, a nerd called the Whizzkid, and an explorer named Captain Cook with his "specimen" Mags. Captain Cook is a boring blowhard, but he also seems to be much more devious and underhanded than you might otherwise expect -- he's only ever thinking of himself. Mags is a lot nicer, even if she seems to have some sort of secret. Still, it makes for an interesting menagerie of characters.
I should also mention the look of thing. The ring itself is rather small, but there seem to be lots of tent corridors, all lit and shot atmospherically (on account of their shooting in a bunch of tents erected in a parking lot, as there was an asbestos scare in the studios during production). It looks fabulous, and I like the way it all seems to go on forever. There are also hints of some other power holding sway over the Psychic Circus, as the Doctor and Mags find a strange well that seems to have been around for a very long time, with some sort of eye inside. Not that they have time to find out more, as in the second cliffhanger Captain Cook has led the Circus's clowns to the Doctor and Mags, so that they'll go into the ring before he does...