Next we have the official 60th Anniversary Special, The Giggle, one of the biggest and most anticipated Doctor Who episodes to date; the Fourteenth Doctor’s final story as he bows out to make way for the Fifteenth played by Ncuti Gatwa, but much bigger than that though, after over 50 years, the Doctor has a rematch with one of his most powerful foes.

The world has collapsed into chaos with everyone, barring the Doctor, Donna and UNIT, gone completely mad. The source of which emanates from a sinister giggle from one of television’s earliest recordings, a puppet named Stooky Bill. When the Doctor tracks the recording of the giggle back to 1925, he finds himself in a bizarre toyshop run by one of his oldest and most powerful enemies, a cosmic entity he has not seen since his first incarnation, a lover of toys and games and one who delights in turning his victims into his own playthings, the Toymaker.

There is so much to unpack with this story, both the good and the bad, there’s a lot to love and a lot to hate about this one. One of those being the Toymaker himself, on the one hand he is the most entertaining part of the story with a great performance from Neil Patrick Harris. The Toymaker as a concept does benefit from Modern Who’s emphasis on visuals as we get some very creative and bizarre moments and imagery, also the highlight of the story being the puppet show he puts on going over each companion from the Moffat era and their horrible fates while mocking the Doctor’s excuses for them. Somewhere out there is a 7 hour cut of this scene that I’ll pay an arm and a leg for! Just the Toymaker going over every terrible thing that has happened to someone close to the Doctor would be a joy to sit through! But on the other hand, he does suffer from being a villain remade by Russell T. Davies in that he is very over the top and even gets a dance number to Spice Up Your Life by the Spice Girls, kinda similar to the issues I had with John Simm as the Master. The Toymaker portrayals I prefer are the more reserved kind with occasional moments of childish insanity when things don’t go his way. At the end of the day, Solitaire is still the best Toymaker story. I will say though, a lot of people were let down by the climax being the Doctor(s) challenging the Toymaker to a game of catch and while the sequence is overplayed, I gotta disagree, I think it’s very in line with Doctor Who to have the Doctor stake all of reality against a cosmic god in a game as childishly simple as catch.

Speaking of the climax, that brings me to the most controversial part of the story, the Fourteenth Doctor is killed a lot sooner than expected as the Toymaker decrees his third and final game to be against the next Doctor. But as the Doctor starts to regenerate, the energy suddenly dissipates, feeling something very different this time round, the Doctor tells Donna and Mel (oh yeah, Mel’s in this too) to pull his arms, which results in the next Doctor being pulled out of him like an amoeba! So now you have two Doctors existing simultaneously in an event termed “bi-generation”. So quite a few points to go through, firstly I get it, it’s the 60 year anniversary, you want to do something different with the Doctor’s regeneration this time round, the whole story up until this point has been completely batsh*t crazy anyway so why not. As for the whole bi-generation being impossible, you can sort of explain it away by the Toymaker’s prolonged presence in our reality having lasting effects on it that would allow unusual and impossible phenomenon to occur (of course Russell as usual went with a dafter explanation in The Reality War he clearly didn't put much thought into). Also the ending thematically does tie in well with the Fourteenth Doctor’s character arc with having all the weight of recent events weighing heavier on him than before and there’s some good themes of self-healing. Particularly the idea of the Fourteenth Doctor retiring and the new Doctor being completely separate from him physically carrying on their adventures completely fresh and free of all the emotional baggage. That said though, I do understand why people hate this idea, as with anything that breaks with tradition people are just instinctively going to have a negative reaction, it plays itself safe with the Fourteenth Doctor to have him go on living, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered such as can Fourteen regenerate again, is he mortal now, is he gonna grow old and die, why give him his own TARDIS if the whole point is that he’s retired from his adventures??? Also what Russell said in an interview about the idea of the bi-generation event bringing all the past Doctors back to life, yeah f**k off with that idea Russell! But if I’m being honest, the biggest issue I had with this regeneration was, the Toymaker is a cosmically powerful being who can manipulate reality and use toys and games as his weapons, and of all things, he kills the Fourteenth Doctor with a f**king laser?!?!

Another thing I absolutely hated about this episode was the payoff to the big mystery around the Fourteenth Doctor’s face. I’m sure this wasn’t intentional but on top of these specials mostly celebrating the Russell era instead of 60 years of Doctor Who, the big reveal as to why the Fourteenth Doctor looks like the Tenth Doctor felt like a massive f**k you to every other Doctor and companion! That explanation being that the Doctor subconsciously wanted to be like his Tenth incarnation again and also subconsciously wanted to find Donna again! Because of all the Doctors and companions in the show’s 60-year history, the two that matter the most deep in the Doctor’s hearts and soul are the two main ones from Russell’s most popular series, f**k off RTD!!! And I’m sure that explains why the Doctor’s clothes regenerated with him!!! And the fact that they don’t even resemble the Tenth Doctor’s outfit!!!

If I’m being honest here, I still can’t decide if I liked this special or not; The Giggle is very well made and performed with some great and striking imagery whilst living up to being this massive epic special with creative, imaginative and even daring ideas. But at the same time, it is Russell T. Davies at his most egotistical, it’s somehow more self-indulgent than The End of Time and to do this for what’s supposed to be Doctor Who’s 60th birthday, whether intentional or not, just rubs me to wrong way. I think The Giggle is just one of those rare episode that is best left for time to decide where this story stands when looking back on Doctor Who’s best or worst.

I came to this universe with such delight. And I played them all, Doctor. I toyed with supernovas, turned galaxies into spinning tops. I gambled with God and made him a jack-in-the-box. I made a jigsaw out of your history. Did you like it?

Rewatching this episode, my overriding thought is that it is perfectly matched with its chief antagonist. Like the Toymaker themself, The Giggle is a darkly playful story, delighting in introducing an abundance of characters and ideas, toying with them for a few minutes at a time, and then getting bored and discarding them before moving on to the next shiny new thing. But far more than being just a return for an obscure villain, this episode acts as the conclusion to a three part arc, an anniversary episode, AND a regeneration episode. Does it succeed on all those fronts? Let's take a look inside the Toymaker's toybox, shall we?

Considering the episode's A-plot, we start by spending 20 minutes investigating the revelation that everyone on Earth now thinks they are right about everything, in the first of several coming stories to parallel the public response to the COVID-19 pandemic and social media. The social commentary here, while thought-provoking, is a little heavy-handed, but perhaps more importantly, doesn't really fit in with the remaining 40 minutes of the episode - we get a bit of explanation from the Toymaker later on, regarding this being "the game of the 21st century", but to me, it felt like this opening plot was largely dropped after the Doctor and Donna travel back to the 1920s.

For the next 20 minutes, we get various shenanigans with the Toymaker, first in his realm, then with his dance number at UNIT HQ. For me, this was undoubtedly the strongest part of the episode - there's not much plot to speak of, but we get several great, playful scenes in a row. The hall of doors, the giant Toymaker and his puppet, Stooky Sue, the puppet show - these are all really imaginative, visually engaging scenarios which arrive, make a strong impression, and then leave without outstaying their welcome. The Toymaker's dance number was a particular favourite of mine - just a really fun scene which feels like it could only work in an episode like this. Neil Patrick Harris is clearly having great fun too, and his performance really carries this segment of the episode. David Tennant and Catherine Tate struggle to match his energy, for the most part - while Donna briefly comes alive during her confrontation with Stooky Sue, the rest of this segment and the previous one feels rather rote for the two leads, with several character beats being rehashed from RTD'S first time as showrunner (at least we know David Tennant can still do angst). This more serious Doctor and Donna seem very lost in the mad world of the Toymaker for most of this story, which I think is a shame for what is potentially their last appearance in the show.

Moving into the final act, the big focus is on the confrontation with the Toymaker, the Doctor's regeneration, and wrapping up the Fourteenth Doctor. Again, there are some strong visuals here, with the Toymaker astride a giant laser cannon menacing the Doctor and friends. I did find the effect of the Doctor actually being shot with the laser rather bizarre - he sort of pivots backwards, before returning to an upright stance afterwards. It looks very odd, and I wondered if this was because they didn't want the scene to be too violent, especially given I've noticed similar weird choreography in subsequent episodes. After this, the episode fully gives in to the playful spirit of the Toymaker, and we get two more big scenes with very little in the way of logic: the infamous bigeneration and subsequent game of catch. It's very interesting that the Toymaker is effectively defeated by being beaten at his own game (haha) - the implausible arrival of Ncuti Gatwa's joyful, exuberant Fifteenth Doctor, and the two Doctors' ridiculous gambit involving a game of catch, is what leads to his defeat. As a transitional moment from the semi-serious tone of New Who to the more fantastical tone of the current era, I think it is quite clever, and represents an obvious baton pass moment. It's a shame, however,that the bigeneration itself robs Gatwa of the opportunity to make a first impression as the Doctor without his predecessor being onscreen alongside him, as well as two companions and Neil Patrick Harris. Similarly, the final scenes of the episode, in which Fourteen gets a semi-retirement with the Nobles, feel a little wrong to me - for a show that has survived on change for 60 years, having the most famous lead hang around after he should have fully handed over the reins feels both uncharacteristically twee and disappointingly cynical. In particular, the idea that this Doctor's retirement has made him "the happiest he's been in his life" feels strangely at odds with the central ethos of the character.

I think this sense of being at odds with what's expected extends throughout the episode, however - this is a story that doesn't make a whole lot of sense within the context of being a regeneration episode or an anniversary episode. As I said above, Fifteen unfortunately has to share the limelight with Fourteen here, and while I don't mind the idea of bigeneration, it really does just happen out of nowhere - it would have been good to have even a crumb of foreshadowing. On the anniversary front, there also really isn't a lot here - other than the presence of Tennant, Tate, Bonnie Langford and Jemma Redgrave, there are no major returning characters, which leaves vast swathes of the programme's history unrepresented. Even including some additional past companions in the final scene with the Nobles could have helped this to feel more like a celebration of the programme's history, but unfortunately we don't get anything like this. Similarly, there is little in the way of references to eras outside of the First, Sixth/Seventh and Tenth Doctors, besides the puppet show segment and 15's brief discussion with 14 at the end (and even this basically misses out the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors' eras). The references to Amy, Clara, Bill and the Flux in the puppet show felt to me like the only time this episode was really interested in building on the eras that came before to create interesting drama, and in fact I think the central thesis of the episode (that the Doctor is burned out and needs to take a break) only works by actively ignoring some of the developments during those eras, such as the Doctor's time on Trenzalore and at St Luke's University. For an episode that acts both as an anniversary and a conclusion to the New Who era of the show, I think this is a real shame - the contrast with 2013's The Day of the Doctor is a stark one in terms of these aspects.

However, to circle back to the comparison with the Toymaker at the start of this review, I don't think this episode cares about logical and emotional consistency with previous eras, or expectations of what an anniversary episode "should" do, or even that its own plot makes sense or has a coherent theme - it really just wants to take a big bunch of ideas, mash them together and play with them for a bit, and who cares how it fits in with anything else. By that metric alone, it is surely a success.

I love that unlike all of the previous regenerations fifteens first moments aren't shrouded in grief for his previous regeneration, instead I can start loving 15 right away as nothing was lost when meeting them. this doctors first action was breaking a cycle of grief and heartbreak not just for himself but the viewers as well and I love him so much for that. also no one stopped to pick up my poor little cringe-fail wet cat of a timelord up off the floor. how rude. however it was absolutely hilarious watching the toymaker brag about defeating the master as if the master hasn't died in practically every single appearance. like the toymaker isn't special for doing that.

Of the three specials, this has the heaviest lift in terms of moving the pieces around for the future. Overall, a success but would have loved if it was a half hour longer so we could spend more time with The Toymaker. NPH was deliciously evil in the part but I needed more than a few monologues to make this feel like a proper scary standoff.

Wasn't on board with the bi-generation until I realized that this is how we get The Curator and now it is perfect. I hope every ten years, we get a new chapter in his journeys!

The Toymaker works in his introduction for a brand new generation - threatening, intimidating, and his immense presence assured from the start, and Neil Patrick Harris delivers a strong performance.

His scheme, doesn't hold up to much scrutiny, but as his villain presence is good, I'll let it slide.

My nit-picks are common criticisms from others, so I'm not offering ne insights. The Bigeneration, and the reason for the face returning feel forced and unexplained - it doesn't feel earned. It certainly doesn't ruin the episode by any means, and it isn't canon breaking for me, it's just not narratively satisfying.