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The Celestial Toymaker

2ND APRIL 1966 - 23RD APRIL 1966

(4 EPISODES)

  1. THE CELESTIAL TOYROOM      2. THE HALL OF DOLLS

3. THE DANCING FLOOR      4. THE FINAL TEST

“The Celestial Toymaker” is one of the first Doctor’s most recognised stories, a curious feat considering that William Hartnell is hardly in it and that only one out of the four episodes exists today. Perhaps this story is so well remembered because it is well and truly ‘out

there’; a highly experimental ‘sideways’ story which seems to have paid off.

Michael Gough has to be given a tremendous amount of credit for his fantastic performance as the Toymaker. He spends half the story playing a game against a silent, disembodied hand and yet he still manages to impress. However, despite the imagination of the story and the brilliance of the Toymaker himself, I do not think that this serial quite deserves its lofty reputation. The ‘Trilogic Game’ (which so much of the story revolves around) completely lacks suspense; as the audience is ignorant of the rules, the only suspense comes from how few moves are left, meaning that Steven and Dodo’s race against time to win the Toymaker’s games (and thus get the TARDIS back) has to really hold the audience’s attention, and in my case at least, it does not.

On the whole, with the notable exceptions of “The Myth Makers” and “The Daleks’ Master Plan”, I am not a fan of the series’ third season, and this has a lot to do with the Doctor’s rather dull and predictable companions. Steven may have his moments, but at heart he is just a rather generic male character merely thrown into the mix to handle the physical side of things; not a patch on the far more interesting Ian Chesterton. As for Dodo, she is just plain stupid. Time after time in this story she falls for the Toymaker’s tricks, befriending his minions and almost getting herself killed in the process. Nevertheless, I do concede that some of the games are entertaining to watch – particularly the game against Peter Stephens’ grotesquely superb ‘schoolboy’ Cyril in “The Final Test”, the serial’s orphaned episode.

“…then your battle will never end?”

The resolution of the serial is brilliantly executed at least; in a way mirroring Rassilon’s riddle in “The Five Doctors” – “To win is to lose, and he who wins shall lose” . The sequel that never materialised (at least on television) is also wonderfully set up; it is a real tragedy that we never got to see Michael Gough versus Colin Baker. I suppose there is at least an outside chance that Gough’s Toymaker could show up in the new series...

All things considered, “The Celestial Toymaker” was ahead of its time and even as it exists today (as three audio-only episodes and one complete episode) is still an enjoyable piece

of entertainment. With more involvement from Hartnell (who goes missing part way through episode one and does not show up until six minutes into “The Final Test”) it could have been so much better; if his sparring with the Toymaker in the final episode could have been spread across the whole story it would have really have injected the early episodes with that little bit of steel that I find they are lacking.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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