The Giggle

I don't think it helped that I watched an extremely compressed version of this episode where I could see maybe 3 pixels worth of content. I did enjoy the Doctor and Donna in the Toymaker's silly little maze, however anything that takes place at that f**king new UNIT tower actually bores me to death. You could bring Paul McGann back as Zagreus and have him be combatted by 9, Jack and Rose but set it at that UNIT tower and I'd be snoring through the entire thing. However, Ncuti Gatwa is a treasure, and it's quite refreshing to see the Doctor happy.

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.

Doctor Who (2023 – 20XX)

The Giggle ~ 8/10

◆ An Introduction

Better late than never, I guess. Things have changed dramatically in the six plus months since I covered one of the RTD2 episodes; my computer stopped working throughout January, I had something of a mental breakdown in February, and I began moving all my reviews to TARDIS Guide in May. Despite all of this, Spice Up Your Life still hasn’t left my head… unfortunately.

The Time Lord and the Toymaker.

One final game…

◆ Publisher’s Summary

The giggle of a mysterious puppet is driving the human race insane. When the Doctor discovers the return of the terrifying Toymaker, he faces a fight he can never win.

◆ The Fourteenth Doctor

Remember when everyone thought RTD would ignore the entirety of the last era, and all the bigots started celebrating? I sincerely hope they all watched this episode and cried when we got the amazing puppet show scene, seeing the Doctor forced to confront all his past tragedies; three dead companions from the Moffat era, and the universal devastation caused by the Flux. The Doctor tries claiming that those companions still lived in some form – such as being trapped in their last second of life, like Clara – but their deaths clearly weigh heavily on his mind.

David Tennant recently claimed that he wont be returning to the franchise anymore – at least on television, I don’t think he ruled out a potential return to the audio adventures – but I somehow doubt this is the last we’ve seen of him. His performance in ‘The Giggle’ was utterly superb, especially when he played cards with the Toymaker: talk about palpable tension! Tennant also received the unique opportunity to act alongside his successor, and he’s clearly got great chemistry with Gatwa.

The Doctor’s face practically illuminates the minute he is reunited with Mel. He’s a billion years old: if he stood and talked about everyone he’d ever met, they’d still be in the TARDIS, yapping. When the Doctor was young, he was so sure of himself and made a terrible mistake. He let the TARDIS fall into another realm, a hollow beneath the Under-Universe, where science is a game and all of us are toys. He escaped. He beat the Toymaker, he won his game, but now he’s here. He’s found his way into reality… and the Doctor thinks it’s all because of him. He cast that salt at the edge of of the universe. He played a game and let him in; an elemental force with the power of a god, and he’s driven the human race mad with a puppet! The Doctor is always so certain. He’s all sonic and TARDIS and Time Lord. Take that away – take away the toys – what is he? What is he now? He makes a tearful admission to Donna, that he doesn’t know if he can save her life this time. The Doctor proudly calls Rose his favourite niece, and it genuinely warms my heart that he’s become part of a family. He admits that he’s never been so happy in his life.

◆ Donna Noble

Russell T Davies gave Donna some amazing material in this episode. I particularly like how she pulled the Doctor out of his defeatist mood when they were trapped in the Emporium.

Catherine Tate delivered a superb performance in ‘The Giggle’. If someone asked me to choose my favourite scene with her, then it would have to be her basically smacking the Stooky dolls against a brick wall, as though she was on an anger management course! I know that scene was meant to be really creepy, as Stooky Sue tried biting into Donna, but the minute the dolls got kicked into next week, I burst out laughing.

She isn’t keen on being called a companion. That sounds like they park the Doctor on the seafront at Weston-super-Mare! Donna spent six months teaching her daughter how to play the recorder till she said, “This is not who I am.” And that was the start of a whole other conversation, believe her. But it helps her identify that the wavelength is actually a tune. Kate offers her a job at UNIT - £60,000 annual salary – but she haggles and manages to get £120K and five weeks holiday! Donna’s dad used to say, “Dice don’t know what the dice did last time. Games don’t have a memory. Every game starts from scratch.” and that advice seems to be enough to bring the Doctor out of his defeatist mood.

◆ Mel Bush

Quite easily the greatest decision RTD has ever made. Speaking as someone who loves the bones off this character, I’m so glad she’s becoming a key member of UNIT personnel. She flexes her computer programming skills in this episode – something she never got the opportunity to do in the Classic Era – and a tragic backstory has been hinted at involving her family. I sincerely hope this will be expanded on, either in the show itself or by the good folks over at BigFinish.

I recently had the honour of meeting Bonnie Langford at EM Con 2024, and what a charming woman she is! Some people will doubtless have been worried about her returning to our screens, but I can guarantee those people have never listened to a BigFinish play in their lives. Her performance in ‘The Giggle’ was genuinely marvellous, and she doesn’t scream once!

Mel travelled the stars with good old Sabalom Glitz, who lived till he was 101. Died falling over a whisky bottle: it was the perfect way to go! He had this great big Viking funeral, and then she thought… “time to go home.” So she got a lift off a zingo and came back to Earth. But then Mel had to face up to the one thing she’d been running away from: she’s got nothing. Her family are all gone. Then Kate offered her a job, and here we are.

◆ The Game of the 21st Century

The Toymaker is one of the most creative villains in the history of this franchise, so RTD was really spoilt for choice when coming up with contemporary storylines for him. Personally, I’d have the Toymaker take over one of the big-name video game companies, like Electronic Arts, and make him create several real-time strategy games where you fought using real people… I know that sounds like the deranged fever dream from someone still bitter about the damage EA did to the Command & Conquer franchise, but it’s still a damn good idea!

Instead, the Toymaker has established his own emporium in 1920s Soho, manipulating events so that one of his dolls – Stooky Bill – would become the first image viewed on a television screen.

The Toymaker then animated and immortalised the sound of Stooky Bill’s laugh to spread insanity in the 21st century, because technology and communication had reached a point where the Giggle could be heard subliminally through all screens across the globe. Now everyone has started thinking they’re right, all the time, and they wont change their mind. If you try to argue, they go completely mad. Essentially, the Toymaker has made a never-ending game.

It’s honestly quite amusing that RTD has turned the entire planet into Karens, because it reminds me of being back in lockdown and having someone at work purposefully cough when they were around me. People really are quite awful, which the Doctor himself states during the episode, but the Toymaker is amplifying all of our arrogance and worst traits to cause total anarchy. It’s an incredible idea.

◆ “Und now everybody loves the balls!”

The previous actors who portrayed the Toymaker are both long gone, so I was interested to see how Neil Patrick Harris would put his own stamp on the character. What I didn’t expect was for him to spend most of the runtime putting on a hammy German accent, and acting like a living meme! – see the subtitle for this section of my review.

RTD sought an actor with theatrical skills who could entertain like a magician, and he got exactly that. The performance was genuinely excellent, and that musical number was just perfection.

◆ Bi-generation

Originally believed to be a myth, bi-generation was an extremely rare variant of regeneration. Instead of one incarnation directly changing into the next, as seen with the regeneration process, bi-generation instead causes the new incarnation to split from the previous, allowing both to exist simultaneously.

Bi-generation – perhaps unintentionally – solves a mystery from a decade ago, and I’m obviously talking about the Curator: an elderly form of the Doctor who had retired from his adventurous ways, and possessed the ability to wear aged forms of his previous incarnations.

I firmly believe that the Fifteenth Doctor will continue having adventures and keep moving on with his life, whilst the Fourteenth Doctor will eventually become the Curator. And that’s why I have no issue with the concept of bi-generation.

◆ Set Design & Visuals

I know I’ve probably mentioned this already, but seeing Doctor Who made on a Disney budget is genuinely gorgeous! Everything looks phenomenal in this special.

Opening with the image of Stooky Bill caught alight, his wooden face wide-eyed and slack jawed, is genuinely quite horrifying.

Everyone started thinking they were right two days ago, and the streets of London are consumed with rioting and chaos… and the Toymaker is just dancing through it all in that glorious top-hatted outfit. We’re given a terrifying view of the capital ablaze, as the Doctor and the TARDIS are taken to the helipad at UNIT Tower.

Remember when UNIT had their headquarters in what can only be described as a country estate? Those days are long gone, because someone has constructed “not Stark Tower for legal reasons” in Central London! The command deck is absolutely gorgeous; sleek terminals integrated into every desk, with giant screens at the front of the room offering a battle interface of sorts. I’m also a big fan of the theory that this was all built by Dan Lewis: in all fairness, he was looking for a job after the Doctor ditched him.

Having those little colourised flashbacks to the original Toymaker story was a very nice touch. It makes his return feel like something truly worth celebrating… even if said Hartnell adventure was pretty average.

The Emporium becomes this insane realm where the laws of reality mean absolutely nothing, where a giant apparition of the Toymaker can play with human sized puppets… and Donna Noble can end up trapped with the horrifying Stooky Sue doll!

The Toymaker puts on this intricate puppet show which showcases all the tragedies the Doctor has faced since he last met Donna; Amy Pond being zapped back in time by the Angels, Clara Oswald being killed by the raven, Bill Potts getting shot by Cybermen… and finally, the devastation caused by the Flux! Seeing the Emporium collapse in on itself was quite the sight! It actually reminded me of a movie I watched as a kid, think it was called Monster House.

I finally get to discuss the musical number! The Toymaker bounces round the UNIT Tower dancing to Spice Up Your Life, and it is quite literally the most camp thing I have ever seen. Guaranteed, the song will be stuck in your head for months after watching the episode! I particularly loved how the guns all started firing rose petals: it’s a really striking image.

◆ Music

The demonic fairground music which plays during the juggling scene is marvellous: a ridiculous mix of camp and creepy which fits the Toymaker perfectly.

◆ Conclusion

“That’s the game of the 21st century. They shout and they type and they cancel. So I fixed it.”

An elemental force with the power of a god has been unleashed, and he’s driven the human race mad with a puppet! Defeating the Toymaker hinges on the outcome of one final game…

David Tennant and Catherine Tate once more deliver excellent performances, but we cannot forget our returning companion, who has spent the past twenty-something years being redeemed by BigFinish. Bonnie Langford excels with this material, and it warms my heart knowing that RTD is making her a key member of the UNIT family.

‘The Giggle’ actually kick-starts the Pantheon of Discord storyline which is set to conclude this Saturday, so I’ve certainly timed this review well! Neil Patrick Harris brings endless camp to the role of the Toymaker, turning him into this unpredictable magician who treats reality as just another plaything. I sincerely hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of him. Though I’m not sure how RTD will beat the storyline of this episode: making all humanity into literal Karens!

An excellent conclusion to the 60th Anniversary, ‘The Giggle’ resurrected one of the most creative classic villains and granted him a new lease of life. I can’t wait to discuss the next series with you all… here’s hoping I manage to get Spice Up Your Life out of my head by that point!

I rewatch this one a lot, it still hold ups.

The problem I have is that The Toymaker only appears on this one because of the salt stuff. His presence would be more menacing if he was the one briging chaos during Star Beast and WBY or even the reason why this face cameback with fully regenerated chlothes (Well, Troughton did the same so)

Anyway, Toymaker spiced up this episode and hell he's good! Harris definitely left his mark, hoping for a return later RTD2.

The Bigeneration is still confusing, but hecka nice. It split the Doctor's soul in half, as mentioned in The Devil's Chord, and Russell in a commentary did say that during this, all the other Doctors bigenerated too, so... SHALKA

Okay love this story I don’t get the hate like it’s a perfect bridge ending saying goodbye to nuwho and hello to nunuwho

I'm a little all over the place on The Giggle. On the one hand, there is an awful lot to like.

The cast is pretty wonderful here. Mel and Kate were great as returning talent, while Neil Patrick Harris was pretty excellent as the Toymaker. Very Count Olaf from his Lemony Snickett days, which largely worked for me. There are a lot of fun ideas and set pieces throughout the episode. A particular highlight for me was the Spice Girls bit. Sure it was a bit tacky and even some of the acting around it was a little stiff, but overall I just loved how the Toymaker was clearly having a blast being silly while also murdering guards and turning bullets into rose petals. It felt very appropriate for a villain we've only really ever gotten brief tastes of over the years across the franchise. In a lot of ways, The Giggle is a pure representation of the power often alluded to, but rarely seen in past appearances of the Toymaker.

On the other hand, as well as he is built up and used in scenes like the Spice Girls bit, his actual games with the Doctor feel really weak. I've seen some reviews liked the game of catch, but it seemed so awkward to me. Not once do we ever see Gatwa, Tennant, or Harris actually throwing a ball to each other, it is entirely done through these obvious cuts and shots where clearly a producer is just throwing a ball at each of the actors individually. It was not very impressive or engaging, and if the whole thing with the Toymaker is that he is playing games with the Doctor, well, these games were awfully anti-climactic and underwhelming.

The bi-regeneration is certainly something people will complain about for all time, but it makes a lot of sense to me. Having back-to-back years where two consecutive incarnations of the Doctor are blasted by a space laser and forced to regenerate at the hands of a quirky but musical madman would have been unnecessary and repetitive. Especially from an emotional standpoint, I think it was very good of RTD to aim for a different, more celebratory ending, otherwise it would have felt just like the Power of the Doctor. Let Ten heal a bit and have some unburdening of all his baggage - it certainly felt like good payoff to some of the trauma we saw in Wild Blue Yonder. Leave some space for Big Finish. Why not? The franchise has done a lot worse, and as others have pointed out, it leaves interesting room for other bits of continuity in the future or as RTD has stated, room for the other incarnations to have further adventures free of continuity sticklers.

Gatwa was pretty great as the new doctor here and that is only firmed up more in The Church on Ruby Road. Overall, it sure feels to me like Doctor Who is in good hands, even if the Giggle was far from perfect.

Doctor Who: The 60th Anniversary Specials n.3 

So, here we are, the final Special. And it was amazing. I found rather dull the Toymaker's debut serial when I watched it last summer (but the fact it was a lost one may have influenced my judgement), but here he's incredible! So manic, hilarious and creepy, his reveal scene with Michael Gough's Toymaker and Hartnell glitching along with the children's choir was awesome. Of course, the Toymaker's attack at UNIT Tower was hilarious. Villains dancing on pop music, my favourite running gag.

Despite the controversy, I actually like the bigeneration twist. I was feeling so sad, since it was the first regeneration I saw on broadcast and then...Poof, the Fifteenth Doctor is here and so is Fourteen.

In the end, it was a nice conclusion, at the last the Doctor can catch a break.

60th Anniversary Specials #3:
--- "The Giggle" by Russell T. Davies

Look, I know change is good but I thought we established that f**king with the established lore and the Doctor's character was a no-go. I went into this knowing the leaks with this false sense that whatever happens happens and it couldn't possibly be more dumb than before, that I could just sit back and enjoy it. Whilst, no, this certainly isn't as idiotic or as damaging as the Timeless Child, Doctor Who as it was is gone now and that's kind of sad. The show might as well have been cancelled after Series 10 and renewed completely because ever since Jodie Whitaker fell out of the TARDIS, the show fell off the rails.

Returning to an Earth maddened by a mysterious puppet's giggle, the Doctor and Donna team up with UNIT and an old friend to defend against a foe that the Doctor thought he had once defeated, a foe in love with games. The Toymaker is back, and nothing can stop him...

(CONTAINS SPOLERS)

... (expect a game of catch).

It was going so good until the final confrontation. The Toymaker was an, if melodramatic, fine antagonist played pretty well by Neil Patrick Harris, though the fake accent was pretty grating. All the bits in the toyshop, the Doctor's sheer fear after seeing the Toymaker, the eeriness of the puppet's giggle were all great setup for a decent story, but then it began to lose me. I'll get onto that later but for other positives I liked tat UNIT felt interesting again and Mel was a friendly face; though she's a companion I'm personally not particularly fond of, it's always nice to see old companions done right. And though all the world ending was the background to one room in UNIT, it felt somewhat high stakes at times and the Toymaker felt relatively threatening. The Toymaker has a big, taunting dance number pretty similar to that god awful Rasputin bit from Power of the Doctor but why I think it works more here is that it's used by the Toymaker to mess with everyone in the room, setting him up to be a pretty formidable foe, whereas the Master's thing was just Chibnall going "wow, look how quirky and insane my character is!".

However, the ending happened, and it tanked the entire episode in my opinion. I knew what was going to happen, I knew about the bigeneration and still I found it so, very, very dumb. How is something that new and massive and weird just shrugged off like "Oh yeah, that can happen". I guess in the miracle world of RTD, an entirely new aspect of a very well known species can just appear when the plot calls for it. Why not turn that into a mystery for the next season? Ask, why did that happen? Was someone behind it? They're setting up some sort of new villain so why not tie it in, create a question to answer for, not just a disinterested shrug. Make it sort of like the Doctor getting 10's face back. Oh, and that's another thing, he got his old face back because he wanted to, what, settle down? That might be the worst explanation I have heard for anything in this show. I know characters change but this just feels like it's forgetting the Doctor's 60 years of characterisation. Imagine 12 doing this, or 9, or 4, or 2, or 7, or literally any pre-Whitaker incarnation. It does not compute and it makes no sense. And they didn't even explain why his f**king clothes regenerated! I know that doesn't matter but it really confuses me. And the day is saved by a god damned game of catch. No outwitting, no clever trickery, just a classic RTD Deus ex Machina and a ball. It could've been done well but it just ends up being a poorly directed sequence of throws with no flow between them; I am never convinced these shots weren't all taken minutes apart. The Toymaker, who had been so well set up to be this omnipotent, undefeatable and terrifying foe, is turned into a joke so the episode may wrap up.

Wild Blue Yonder gave me some false hope and this episode went and tore it down again. I'd give it a lower score if it didn't start out so well, it's really just the last 20 minutes that horrendously dropped the ball (heh). What we need is a reset and definitely not one like what they're doing. We need to go back to the classic Doctor Who formula, with the classic character and the classic tone the show had always had. It may sound like I'm living in the past but if it ain't broke, you absolutely should not need to fix it.

5/10

Pros:
+ First two thirds were good, solid TV
+ The Toymaker was a pretty good and threatening villain, if a little over the top
+ UNIT felt like a useful, real organisation
+ Mel's return was nice and her character was written pretty well
+ Ruth Madeley is an actual part in the story, not just a dumping ground for exposition
+ The Toymaker's little, taunting dance number actually felt like a pretty cool moment
+ The episode making fun of transphobes and Tories complaining about Doctor Who on twitter was actually pretty funny
+ Donna punting a ventriloquist dummy was really f**king funny

Cons:
- An ending so bad it ruined the rest of the episode for me
- Bigeneration is just shrugged off as a thing that can happen, despite the fact it makes no sense logically and was incredibly convenient
- The final confrontation with the Toymaker turns him into a joke
- Constantly making up rules to service the plot
- Ending completely goes against the Doctor's literal decades of characterisation
- The CGI can go from kind of uncanny to downright god awful between scenes
- Not one single character seems to have any questions about the insanity that just happened and it really annoys me when the characters don't, you know, act like human beings and react to things appropriately
- I don't even know what to put for my Wilf bit