The Celestial Toymaker

The Celestial Toymaker is a 4 part story beginning with The Celestial Toyroom.

This story is the first instance of the series going off into pure fantasy with a whimsical, strange setting in which the TARDIS crew are tormented by a mysterious power with mind games and very odd goings on. Sound familiar? Well if you have seen The Mind Robber from the second Doctor's era or the episode Amy's Choice from the modern 11th Doctor's (Matt Smith) era then you will see that this is very much the story they are based upon.

This being a different kind of story to anything that went before is a big plus in the first part as it is unusual and therefore surprising and interesting. The character of the toymaker is also an interesting and well acted character with the smooth Michael Gough in usual good form. However the strangeness and bizarre 'toyroom figures' they meet start to grate more and more in parts 2 and 3 with poor scenes and acting from some silly guest characters. Part 3 is particularly weak and embarrassing, probably the worst Hartnell era episode. The mind games are not thrilling and the final part with things coming to a conclusion still fails to pick up the level above that of the unimpressive second part let alone to match the first part or to rescue the story. Writer Brian Hayles has not provided great material apart from the initial ideas. Gerry Davis and Innes Lloyd who were the new script editor/producer combination also seem to have neglected the first couple of stories they inherited from their predecessors letting this fall very flat.

Overall this is disappointing stuff after the good first part and could maybe have been a success given proper care or would have been better as a 2-parter with a lot of the nonsense cut out.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 8/10, Episode 2 - 6/10, Episode 3 - 4.5/10, Episode 4 - 6/10

Overall: 6.13/10

Without doubt the worst Doctor Who I’ve seen. There are several stories from the sixties I haven’t yet watched but I really doubt they’ll be worse than this one.

The concept is an interesting one and the Toymaker is character that could work very well, indeed Big finish have done some great stories with him.

The games in this however are barely games at all, only episode 4 has a game that could really be considered one. The characters encountered are mostly annoying and nobody gets out of this withought some badly written dialogue.

It’s a shame how disappointing this story was but I just can’t think of anything to recommend it. Watch The Mind Robber to see the show do surreal properly.

A bit of a mixed story. On one hand, Michael Gough makes a truly memorable villain as the Celestial Toymaker, the guest actors all turn in good performances, and even from what we can still see, the set pieces look rather nice. The ending also has a nice bit of suspense thrown in.

On the other hand, the games aren't anything spectacular and a few of them drag on a bit (particularly in Episode 1.) The Doctor's absence from most of the story is felt and Dodo's clulelessness in the face of the toymaker's dolls can be exasperating at times.

Still, I think the story is more enjoyable than not, and worth experiencing for it's memorable titular villain.

I decided to watch the recon of this. Partly because the main defence of it is that it relies heavily on the visual elements and directing, so if it does ever turn up I don't think it will have lost any appeal. Especially, as there isn't much of a plot anyway. They were going to get another actor to come back in Hartnell's place, but instead, he limped on till Tenth Planet. Michael Gough is excellent as The Toy Maker, a villain that the Doctor recognises as soon as he sees what is outside the Tardis? Was the Toymaker meant to be a Timelord originally? Either way, both Gough and the Toymaker are great but his involvement with the Doctor is reduced to a disembodied hand playing a meaningless game with Steven and Dodo play even more arbitrary games that The Toymaker tries to bend in his favour? Surely, it would be more exciting for him to risk losing and making things more even? There is just no menace in this and the characters are annoying, especially, Dodo who doesn't take anything seriously. 'The Mind Robber' did surreal so much better. Although, I do like The Doctor's ventriloquist trick he does to escape the Toymakers world, I thought that was a very good idea. It lacks pace and excitement.