Since the 60th Specials were announced, I have been very vocal about wanting to see some past Doctors return. Although I thought The Giggle was a fantastic piece of television, I do find it slightly surprising that we didn't at least get a montage of every past Doctor via archive footage, as it does mean that for the 60th, nearly every past incarnation bar the First and (technically seeing as Fourteen has his face) Tenth Doctors don't get any kind of acknowledgement.
Having said that, The Giggle kept me hooked from start to finish.
From the very start, Neil Patrick Harris dominates the screen as the Toymaker. He is fantastically flamboyant, but also carries a great sense of menace. It still seems unbelievable that Russell T Davies managed to get such a famous star to play a rather obscure villain from the 60s, but I am glad that he agreed to the part, because he owns the role. His Toymaker is a man who playfully 'toys' with everyone, adopting multiple accents and turning his victims into mindless fools who argue about everything.
The human race believing they are always right brought COVID to mind for me, and how certain individuals refused to wear a face mask because of the 'It's my life' mentality. Their refusal to wear UNIT's fancy gizmos that keeps the giggle's influence away definitely feels like a deliberate metaphor for how people thought 5G was controlling people in 2020.
The whole hide and seek segment has to be one of Doctor Who's creepiest sequences. Charlie De Melo's character, who is an assistant to the original creator of TV, being transformed into a ventriloquist's dummy, is brilliantly disturbing, and those toy babies attacking Donna will haunt kid's nightmares for weeks.
I also really appreciate how the production dives into the surreal imagery that the Toymaker as a concept offers. The notion of the Toymaker turning UNIT soldiers into balls, and twisting the bullets from their guns into petals, is excellent, and plays fast and loose with the concept of a Godlike being who can bend reality to play his games.
Does it feel like a 60th Anniversary Special? I would say so. Although no past Doctors return (which makes me feel for Matt Smith, who wanted to come back), there are many nods to the past that makes this feel more special than the other two episodes. Not only is there the worst kept secret with Mel's return, but there are also colourized clips of the First Doctor and the Toymaker, from the largely missing Celestial Toymaker, which is a staggering amount of effort to go to. They really didn't need to put in all that hard work to colourize a serial that many viewers won't have seen and it shows the love and passion for the show from Russell T Davies and the production team that they will go to such extreme lengths like this.
Another excellent nod to the past is the Toymaker's puppet show. Whilst I do find it a shame that the companions get more acknowledgement than the Doctors, and it would have been nice to have seen some puppet Doctors too. Having puppet recreations of Amy, Clara, and Bill as well as the Flux, that retell their devastating conclusions is such a clever way to pay tribute to the series' history.
We even get references later on to classic Doctor Who serials such as Key To Time and Logopolis. It seems mental to me to think that Adric's death has been referenced twice in the space of two years! It's great how recent Doctor Who has made Adric's death feel like the Gwen Stacy demise of Doctor Who. Especially as many casual viewers won't even have a clue what happened with Adric!
The Giggle also gives us some traditional Multi-Doctor action with 14 and 15. Although I knew about the bi-regeneration rumour, I didn't expect us to get as much of Ncuti Gatwa as we did. It's a little like a reverse Spider-Man: No Way Home, where instead of getting past iterations of a character for the entire third act, it's a future version. 14 and 15 are so much fun together, they feel sort of like siblings, but don't have the bickering of other Multi-Doctor interactions. It makes me hope that we get another Multi-Doctor story from Russell T Davies, because judging by this episode, he's really great at writing them.
I like the bi-regeneration concept as a whole personally. I think it's such a novel concept that you could only really do during an anniversary like the 60th, and it makes the regeneration feel more special for an anniversary year. Although I do think it would be best for David Tennant to let Ncuti Gatwa have the spotlight rather than return or spearhead his own series, my hope is that we get some expanded media with 14, the Nobles and Mel that takes place after The Giggle. There's even room for some 14 and Mel TARDIS adventures, which is just so very cool. Maybe Once And Future's conclusion next year could be set after The Giggle, with 14 and Donna, or 14 and Rose Noble? (NB: It has since been confirmed to feature the Fugitive and War Doctors rather than 14).
Lastly, I am already loving Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor. I get the sense that he's going to be quite mischievous, and his mad grin brings to mind Tom Baker's Doctor to me. He seems so Doctor-y already, in the amazing amount of time we spend with him in The Giggle, and I can't wait to see more of him at Christmas. You can definitely see why they felt confident with having him share screentime with the nation's favourite Doctor, David Tennant, as he doesn't feel overshadowed by David Tennant in the slightest.
