‘THE GIGGLE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Toymaker with the Fourteenth Doctor, Donna et al – Celebrating 60 Years of ‘Doctor Who’

Okay, so, this is going to come as a shock to some of my readers on ‘Bradley’s Basement’. I’m actually going to be kind to ‘The Giggle’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ 60th anniversary special. I honestly found this to be the best special out of the three by Russell T. Davies to celebrate 60 years of ‘Doctor Who’.

Whilst I find ‘The Star Beast’ and ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ to be underwhelming efforts as 60th anniversary specials, ‘The Giggle’ managed to make up for it by having more callbacks to the show’s past. There’s a past companion appearing in this special sooner than I expected and there’s also a past villain in it.

Does that mean I think ‘The Giggle’ is fantastic? Ha, no! Not really. There are still some issues for me to deal with in terms of how the special is presented, and it’s not mainly on the controversial thing RTD warned us about to upset the hardcore fans. Well, not exactly. At least not in the way I see it. 😐

The main problem I have with ‘The Giggle’ as a 60th anniversary special is how some of the good ideas put across to us by RTD are, in my opinion, half-done. There are quite a lot of missed opportunities to be found in the special. Once again, I’m surprised RTD didn’t go full-out on his ideas.

But like I said, I’m going to be kind to this special before I summarise my thoughts on the 60th anniversary specials overall. I’ll try my best to say more positive things than negative things about ‘The Giggle’, although if there is something I’m not happy about, I’ll do my best to explain why that is.

Before we begin though, there’s something I forgot to mention in my previous reviews. ‘Doctor Who’ is back on Saturdays! Yes, after experiencing most of the Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnall era on Sundays, it’s good to have ‘Doctor Who’ back on TV on the traditional Saturday evenings once more.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching the Jodie Whittaker era on Sundays from 2018 to 2022, but Saturdays are the best days to check out ‘Doctor Who’ rather than on Sundays and weekdays. I’m looking forward to checking out the Ncuti Gatwa era of ‘Doctor Who’ on Saturdays in the year 2024.

‘The Giggle’ begins with a prologue sequence set in Soho, London in the year 1925. Apparently, one of the inspirations for this special by Russell T. Davies was when he was researching John Logie Baird for ‘Nolly’, a three-part miniseries starring Helen Bonham-Carter, released in February 2023 on ITVX.

I never heard of John Logie Baird before ‘The Giggle’, nor did I know anything about the two-foot-tall puppet Stooky Bill that appears in the special. I admit, it was fascinating to find out about these historical facts in the special. I applaud RTD for introducing John Logie Baird et al to casual viewers. 🙂

Initially, RTD wanted to write a ‘Doctor Who’ story around the puppet Stooky Bill, but he later realised it wouldn’t be a very intimidating foe. So, he decided to use the Toymaker as the story’s antagonist instead, connecting him to Stooky Bill and John Logie Baird, which I think is quite clever. 🙂

In 1925 Soho, an assistant to John Logie Baird – Charlie De Melo as Charles Banerjee – makes a purchase at the toy store, which happens to be owned by the Toymaker. The purchase is the Stooky Bill ventriloquist’s dummy. Baird wants to use it as a test subject for his latest invention – television!

Apparently, the first ever television recording by John Logie Baird involved the Stooky Bill doll. In the special, the camera’s wheels spin and the bright lights burn. Baird and Banerjee are thrilled by the success of their experiment, despite the doll in flames and the sound of its giggle in the background.

It’s interesting how RTD had the Stooky Bill doll involved in the special, especially to connect it to the story’s present-day events as well as the Toymaker himself. There are other dolls in this special, including Stooky Sue and her babies. Whether those dolls were historically real is another matter. 😐

Apparently, my Mum found the Stooky dolls, performed by real puppeteers, terrifying. Even one of my aunts and uncles who came to visit my parents and me found them scary. It was tense when Donna got attacked by Stooky Sue and her babies in a room whilst being separated from the Doctor.

John Logie Baird is played by John MacKay in ‘The Giggle’. John MacKay also played Baird in RTD’s miniseries ‘Nolly’. John Logie Baird has also been in ‘The Churchill Years’ audio story by Big Finish called ‘I Was Churchill’s Double’ and he was played by Mark Elstob. Not I expect you to know that. 😀

After the prologue sequence and the opening titles, we rejoin David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna in 2023. London is plagued by chaotic anarchy. It’s disturbing to see the rioting going on and the Doctor is horrified by what he sees with the humans behaving badly.

Donna looks after her granddad Wilfred whilst the Doctor tries to stop a man killing himself by a car. The man in question, played by Ross Gurney-Randall (who’s also been in ‘An Adventure In Space and Time’), is very annoyed by cars driving in his way. All this is right after he claimed he cannot drive. 😐

And yes, it is amusing to see Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker dressed up in a Fred Astaire outfit like he was in ‘Top Hat’ and ‘Swing Time’. I wonder if that was NPH’s idea or RTD’s. Either way, it’s entertaining enough, especially to see David Tennant and Neil Patrick Harris dancing with each other in a street. 😀

But as you saw in the YouTube video, U.N.I.T. arrives on the scene and they take the Doctor and Donna with them to U.N.I.T. HQ. Wilfred is taken to a place of safety. Not sure where mind you, since it’s not actually mentioned in the special. 😦 But we can assume Wilfred is still alive after this. 🙂

As I said in the ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ review, it’s a pity Bernard Cribbins didn’t get to record more scenes as Wilfred in the 60th anniversary specials, especially as this was due to ill health, and he passed away shortly afterwards in 2022. We do get to hear a bit of Wilfred via audio archive from ‘The Poison Sky’ in this.

There’s also a brief appearance of Wilfred in the wheelchair through the use of a stand-in actor. It’s sad to see that, knowing that Bernard’s not actually there in the special, but I’m glad Wilfred wasn’t left off to the sidelines to be forgotten about after he made his brief comeback in ‘Wild Blue Yonder’.

Apparently, according to the in-vision commentary for ‘The Giggle’, featuring David Tennant with Russell T. Davies and executive producer Phil Collinson; RTD revealed that the special almost included a scene where Wilfred’s passing was mentioned and ‘it was immensely sad’ and ‘beautiful’.

Phil Collinson vetoed that scene from ever happening in ‘The Giggle’, to which RTD agreed was the right decision. I agree that it’s best it wasn’t included, as it wouldn’t have been right to mention that Wilfred had died in ‘The Giggle’, especially following Bernard Cribbins’ return in ‘Wild Blue Yonder’.

At U.N.I.T. HQ – I assume this is a new U.N.I.T. HQ following the one that was destroyed in ‘The Power of the Doctor’ – the Doctor and Donna are reunited with Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham, who previously appeared in ‘The Star Beast’. The Doctor also reunites with Kate Stewart. 🙂

Or rather Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, as she likes to be called now. Yes, Jemma Redgrave is back to play the Brigadier’s daughter in this 60th anniversary special, following her previous appearance in ‘The Power of the Doctor’. I admit, it’s nice to see Kate again, as she’s a vital ‘Doctor Who’ family member. 🙂

Even in the official trailer that was released in September 2023, a big deal was made of Kate’s return in the 60th anniversary specials. However, I feel that Kate’s return might be a bit too soon, especially as she recently appeared in ‘Flux’ in 2021 as well as ‘The Power of the Doctor’ in 2022 before this. 😐

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have Jemma Redgrave back as Kate in this 60th anniversary special of ‘Doctor Who’, but I would have liked it if it was more than Kate returning in the advertising of the 60th anniversary TV specials. After all, a past companion would have been good to see in one of these…

Yes! Bonnie Langford is back as Mel in this 60th anniversary special! I admit, it was lovely to see Bonnie back as Mel, especially since I thought she was going to return in Ncuti Gatwa’s first ‘Doctor Who’ season. Apparently, her ‘Doctor Who’ return ended up happening a lot sooner than I expected.

I’ve met Bonnie at two conventions over the years, including one in Bournemouth in August 2015 and one in London in November 2022. And it was after Bonnie did her cameo as Mel in ‘The Power of the Doctor’ that I saw her at the London event in November 2022, and it was nice to see her then.

Bonnie must have recorded her appearance in ‘The Giggle’ and her upcoming appearance in Ncuti Gatwa’s first ‘Doctor Who’ season before I met her at the London event in November 2022. To think that most of us were unaware of her big ‘Doctor Who’ return following ‘The Power of the Doctor’. 🙂

I think it would have been great if Bonnie Langford’s return in ‘The Giggle’ was advertised in the official trailer for the 60th anniversary specials in September 2023. At least I would have been excited about watching the upcoming specials, knowing that Bonnie Langford would return as Mel. 🙂

Did RTD want to keep Bonnie’s return to ‘Doctor Who’ in ‘The Giggle’ a secret? Well, it wasn’t a well-kept secret anyway, since fans could see Mel in the background in one of the trailers. And you can clearly see Mel on the right with Donna on the left in the promotional photo for ‘The Giggle’ below.

Bonnie Langford as Mel is one of the strong points of ‘The Giggle’ as a 60th anniversary special being a 60th anniversary special. At least the TV show’s past is acknowledged by having one past companion in one of the specials. It’d be nice if there were more, but I’m glad Bonnie is in this one. 🙂

Mind you, it’s a shame Peter Purves didn’t return to play Steven in this ‘Doctor Who’ special. Yes, yes, I know, he’s the king of another planet far away from Earth, but at least his appearance in this would have helped in connecting to the Toymaker, especially since he was in ‘The Celestial Toymaker’.

I mean, Dodo can’t come back since Jackie Lane sadly passed away in 2021 and she didn’t do much acting after playing Dodo in the classic TV series. So, surely having Steven back to make an appearance in ‘The Giggle’ would have helped to clearly establish the Toymaker is a villain a lot more.

Going back to Mel, when I did my ‘Power of the Doctor’ review, both in 2022 and recently in 2023, I asked the question of “What was Mel doing on Earth?” To add to that, how did she end up on Earth at all? Thankfully, RTD managed to answer the question when David’s Doctor got to chat with Mel. 🙂

You’ll recall from the end of ‘Dragonfire’ that Mel went travelling the stars with Sabalom Glitz. Apparently, he lived until he was 101 and died due to falling over a whisky bottle. 😀 He had a great big Viking funeral and soon Mel got a lift off a ‘zingo’ (whatever that is) and she returned safely to Earth.

Sadly, Mel’s family were gone by the time she returned to Earth and she was soon offered a job to work for U.N.I.T. by Kate. Not sure if Mel got the job before or after ‘The Power of the Doctor’. Probably ‘after’ due to Kate stating she might recruit companions at the Companion Support Group.

And yes, Mel gets to work with a computer for the first time in ‘Doctor Who’ on TV, since it’d been established that computers are her specialty. I’m also pleased that Mel didn’t scream in this special, and that her character in ‘The Giggle’ matches to how she’s been interpreted in the Big Finish audios. 🙂

I could be pedantic and point out Mel’s return to Earth doesn’t match to what’s been established in the Big Finish audios with Mel reuniting with the Seventh Doctor and Ace in ‘A Life of Crime’ onwards. Nor does it match to another post-‘Dragonfire’ Mel appearance in the ‘Head Games’ book.

But honestly, I don’t think it’s too much to worry about in the grand scheme of things. I’ve not heard ‘A Life of Crime’ in a while nor have I read ‘Head Games’ as a book; but judging from the way Ace had multiple timelines, according to ‘At Childhood’s End’, I assume that the same applies to Mel too.

‘A Life of Crime’ and ‘Head Games’ take place in alternative timelines for the Seventh Doctor and Ace, so Mel reuniting with the two in those stories could have happened in those timelines as well. It makes sense, even if it’s not entirely satisfying for me, as I’ve enjoyed some of the audio adventures.

Once again, this is another missed opportunity for RTD to acknowledge the wider ‘Doctor Who’ universe in other mediums, including the Big Finish audios. It’s astonishing it’s the case for not just the Chris Chibnall era but also for the neo-RTD era, since I thought RTD liked the Big Finish audios. 😐

It’s also a shame that Mel didn’t remark on the fact that Shirley Bingham looks like her former friend and travelling companion Hebe Harrison, whom she and the Sixth Doctor met in the Big Finish audios. Or wait, did those Big Finish audios not happen either? ‘Doctor Who’ continuity is confusing!

Anyway, back to the story. It turns out that U.N.I.T. personnel, including Kate, Shirley and Mel (though Mel doesn’t need one of them) are inoculated to the chaos in the streets of London, thanks to a U.N.I.T.-created armband called a Zeedex, which happens to be an invention of the alien Vlinx. 🙂

The Vlinx is played by Aidan Cook and is voiced by Nicholas Briggs. Ha! I knew Nick Briggs couldn’t get away from ‘Doctor Who’ and voice an alien in one of the 60th anniversary specials. 😀 I’m not sure if the Vlinx is an alien or a robot, but it’s clear that this won’t be the last time we’ll see the Vlinx.

There’s a moment where Kate orders her Zeedex to be deactivated to demonstrate the consequences of being exposed to the chaos outside. When she’s no longer suppressed, a distorted brainwave appears on the control hub’s big screen, and Kate becomes pretty paranoid and vengeful.

This was disturbing to see in the special. I’ve met Jemma Redgrave in Milton Keynes once in November 2014. As well as ‘Doctor Who’, I’ve also seen her in ‘Grantchester’. Here, Jemma gives some of her best acting in ‘Doctor Who’, especially once she isn’t suppressed by her Zeedex bracelet.

I was anxious for Kate when she wasn’t herself and she took off her Zeedex bracelet, hurling insults at the Doctor, Donna, Mel and Shirley. Once the bracelet is put back on her and reactivated, Kate is back to her normal self. Kate is deeply apologetic about what she said, but thankfully, she’s forgiven.

By the way, I wonder what became of Osgood – either of them. I know Osgood was a creation in Steven Moffat’s era of ‘Doctor Who’, but it’d be nice to know what became of her and how Shirley Bingham replaced her. At least Osgood is in my epic 60th anniversary ‘Doctor Who’ story and one of the ‘Once and Future’ stories by Big Finish. 🙂

After analysing the waveform that caused the chaos and playing it as a sound, the Doctor and group discover it corresponds to the giggle accompanying the 1925 Stooky Bill recording. It’s been hidden in every screen since then, triggered once the KOSAT 5 satellite connected humanity to the internet.

Eventually, the Doctor and Donna travel back in time to the year 1925 in order to search for the cause of the madness sweeping humanity. They trace the Stooky Bill doll back to the toy store, as seen in the special’s prologue, and it’s where the Doctor finally meets Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker.

Ah, so that’s why they did ‘The Daleks’ in colour recently for the TV show’s 60th anniversary. They wanted to colourise scenes of the surviving fourth episode of ‘The Celestial Toymaker’, featuring William Hartnell as the First Doctor and Michael Gough as the original Toymaker. So nice to see that!

Mind you, considering that ‘The Celestial Toymaker’ is going to be released in animation form on DVD and Blu-ray soon (though the animation style remains to be desired from what I’ve seen in the teaser on YouTube), I’m very surprised that it wasn’t released before the release of ‘The Giggle’ on TV.

But yeah! Neil Patrick Harris is playing the Toymaker in ‘Doctor Who’! 🙂 For many uninitiated UK viewers, Neil Patrick Harris isn’t a big name for you, but in America, he’s very well-known. As well as an actor, he’s also a magician and a puppeteer. Something I didn’t know about before seeing this special. 🙂

For me, Neil Patrick Harris voiced Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the short-lived ‘new’ animated TV series in 2003. He also starred in two live-action film adaptations of ‘The Smurfs’ in 2011 and 2013. NPH also worked with RTD, appearing in the 2021 miniseries ‘It’s a Sin’, so there’s the connection there. 🙂

I enjoyed NPH’s performance as the Toymaker in this ‘Doctor Who’ special. It’s not like how Michael Gough played the character, but it’s certainly very entertaining and I like how he bounces off David Tennant’s Doctor when interacting with him, especially once he torments the Doctor with his games. 🙂

I probably would have done without the German accent and perhaps stick with just the British-sounding voice, but that was deliberate on RTD’s part. In the original ‘Celestial Toymaker’ story, Michael Gough was dressed up in a mandarin’s outfit – something that a Chinese man would have worn.

Obviously, you can’t have the Toymaker dressed up like that nowadays, as that would be considered offensive in today’s society. I like how Neil Patrick Harris dresses up as the Toymaker in this story, especially when dressed up as a magician or a ringmaster once he ends up at U.N.I.T. HQ in 2023. 😀

The put-on German accent in the Toymaker’s character is to illustrate that he’s racist, which is an interesting approach by RTD and something I wouldn’t have considered when seeing Michael Gough as the Toymaker in the original 1966 TV story. I don’t mind it, so long as the Germans aren’t offended. 😀

It’s fascinating that RTD brought back the Toymaker to be the big bad ‘Doctor Who’ villain in the final 60th anniversary special. This is especially considering the Toymaker only had one TV appearance, since most of it is missing with the first three episodes gone and the fourth episode still in existence.

However, another missed opportunity is made to reference other Toymaker appearances in ‘Doctor Who’, as it’s heavily implied that this is the Toymaker’s second encounter with the Doctor. This is despite the fact that he’s encountered the Doctor in many audios, books and comics over the years.

This includes a book story called ‘Divided Loyalties’, featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric; twice in ‘The Nightmare Fair’, featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri (both as a book and an audio drama), and an audio story called ‘The Magic Mousetrap’, featuring the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex.

Granted, the continuity of some of these stories featuring the Toymaker is quite debatable, but my point stands. It’s sad to think the TV series in both Chris Chibnall and neo-RTD eras aren’t brave enough to acknowledge the wider ‘Doctor Who’ continuity in order to make it broader and richer. 😐

It would certainly help to affirm that the Toymaker can change his face as much as the Doctor, since the Toymaker was played by David Ballie from ‘The Robots of Death’ in the audio adaptation of ‘The Nightmare Fair’ and Paul Antony-Barber played the character in ‘The Magic Mousetrap’ by Big Finish.

Heck, ‘The Nightmare Fair’ was originally a TV story before it and the original Season 23 of the classic TV series got scrapped because of Michael Grade. Are we to consider the Lost Season 23 of ‘Doctor Who’ by Big Finish non-canon? Is Graham Williams’ Target novelization of the story non-canon too?

Maybe these are things I shouldn’t worry about too much, but I’ve emotionally invested myself in many of the non-TV ‘Doctor Who’ stories over the years. I hate to think that they’re being ignored in the main continuity, simply because the TV audiences won’t have checked them out beforehand. 😦

Incidentally, whilst it’s nice that Neil Patrick Harris is playing the Toymaker in ‘Doctor Who’, I think RTD had a missed opportunity with casting a different actor to play the role. He could have cast Sylvester Stallone in the role, since he did play the Toymaker in ‘Spy Kids 3D: Game Over’ in 2003. 😀

When it was confirmed in the official trailer in September 2023 that Neil Patrick Harris would be playing the Toymaker in the 60th anniversary specials, despite many of us guessing that; I wish it was saved as a surprise for the fans once the specials were released on TV from November to December.

I know fans guessed Mr. Saxon was the Master in Series 3 of the new TV series, but like Sacha Dhawan’s surprise reveal as the Master in Series 12, it could have been more effective for fans to learn NPH was the Toymaker all along if it was kept a secret in the build-up to ‘The Giggle’s release on TV. 😐

As the Doctor and Donna pursue the Toymaker in his 1925 toy store, they end up in a lot of endless corridors for a bit. Whilst exploring, the Doctor suspects that he let the Toymaker into our universe due to his invoking a superstition of the line of salt at the edge of the universe in ‘Wild Blue Yonder’.

I’m glad that was acknowledged and followed up on in this story. I don’t know if the Doctor invoking the superstition caused the Toymaker to be free from his dimension in ‘The Celestial Toymaker’. Maybe this also caused splinters of the Toymaker to be created for his non-TV appearances to occur.

Despite the Doctor telling Donna to go back to the TARDIS, Donna is determined to stay with him. They get separated whilst in the funhouse labyrinth and encounter puppets. The Doctor meets a marionette of Charles Banerjee whilst Donna fights off the aforementioned Stooky Sue and family. 😐

It was unnerving to see the Charles Banerjee marionette being controlled by the Toymaker, especially with strings as if he was walking like a ‘Thunderbirds’ puppet. The marionette’s face changing into David Tennant for a bit was pretty freaky. This was on my second viewing of the story.

Thankfully, the Doctor and Donna reunite safely before finding themselves as guests of honour at the Toymaker’s puppet show. There, the Toymaker recounts to Donna the Doctor’s adventures since leaving her at the end of Series 4, including portraying the deaths of his beloved companions. 😦

This includes Amy Pond, who was touched by a Weeping Angel in ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’; Clara Oswald, who was killed by the raven in ‘Face the Raven’, and Bill Potts, who was killed by the Cybermen in ‘World Enough and Time’/’The Doctor Falls’. The Amy, Clara and Bill puppets are good.

I’m pleased that the Steven Moffat era is at least acknowledged via the Toymaker’s puppet show, involving the depictions of Amy, Clara and Bill’s ‘deaths’. Mind you, why wasn’t Rory mentioned? He was touched by a Weeping Angel! Rory got touched by a Weeping Angel before Amy got touched. 😐

The Doctor of course objects that none of them died under his care and that Amy, Clara and Bill survived in some form. I liked it when Neil Patrick Harris reverted to his American accent and said, “Well, that’s alright then!” The Toymaker then goes on to mention the Flux ravaging the universe. 😐

I can imagine the behind-the-scenes conversation that went on between RTD and his colleagues and it was like, “Yes, mentioning Amy, Clara and Bill’s deaths to torment the Doctor is good. But what about Graham, Ryan, Yaz and Dan? They’re still alive when Chris Chibnall wrote them in Jodie’s era.”

“Um, the Flux can fill in that slot for the Toymaker’s puppet show.” “Yeah, that’ll do.” In fact, I think RTD provides more emotional weight to the Flux causing destruction to half of the universe in his 60th anniversary specials compared to how Chris Chibnall handled it in his era with Jodie Whittaker.

I like the confrontation between the Doctor and the Toymaker in their scenes together, especially when the Doctor challenges the Toymaker to a game. The Toymaker is willing to accept, as he can’t resist playing games with the Doctor. There are also possible future events in the TV show shared. 😐

I’m not sure if the ‘jigsaw’ out of the Doctor’s history phrase is a reference to the Timeless Child and its contradictions to the Doctor’s timelines. It certainly would explain why some of the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ aren’t referenced much in the TV series apart from in ‘The Night of the Doctor’.

Also, I knew that RTD couldn’t leave the Master alone by having him sealed inside a gold tooth in the Toymaker’s mouth, having lost playing a game to him. 😀 I’m guessing it’s the Sacha Dhawan Master that played with the Toymaker, especially considering what happens towards the end of this special.

There’s also some foreshadowing about ‘the one who waits’ that the Toymaker didn’t face following his escape from his own dimension. He considers that a game for another day. Not sure if this is something for Ncuti Gatwa’s upcoming ‘Doctor Who’ era. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. 😐

It might refer to this ‘boss’ that Beep the Meep mentioned at the end of ‘The Star Beast’. After a game of a simple cut of the deck where the highest card wins and the Toymaker wins, a third game is required. The Toymaker agrees and he disappears to 2023 before the Doctor and Donna escape. 🙂

The labyrinth collapses and the toy store folds into a small toy box, following the Doctor and Donna’s escape. Returning to 2023 in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Donna reunite with Kate, Mel and Shirley at U.N.I.T. HQ, where they’ve managed to shoot down the KOSAT 5 satellite using their galvanic beam.

The satellite chain triggering ‘the giggle’ is broken, but the Doctor and friends have more things to worry about. The Toymaker turns up through a door at U.N.I.T. HQ and performs a song-and-dance number. The song performed happens to be the 1997 song ‘Spice Up Your Life’ by the Spice Girls. 😀

I know this for a fact since that song was performed at one of my birthday parties when I was a kid in the 1990s. To hear the song played in this ‘Doctor Who’ story is surreal. It’s even more surreal to see Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker dancing to it with everyone else and he kills people in the process.

I’m sure the Toymaker’s ‘Spice Up Your Life’ scene is trying to join the ‘Doctor Who’ music league that consists of the Master’s ‘Voodoo Child’ scene in ‘The Sound of Drums’ and the Master’s ‘Rasputin’ scene in ‘The Power of the Doctor’. It’s not as good as the Master’s ‘Rasputin’ scene, but it’s close. 🙂

Also, seeing Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker dancing with Jemma Redgrave as Kate and then with Bonnie Langford as Mel during the ‘Spice Up Your Life’ song-and-dance number is so random. NPH is clearly relishing it with that song-and-dance number, despite not having heard the song beforehand. 😀

It’s scary to see the Toymaker killing some of U.N.I.T.’s soldiers by turning them into bouncy balls. Also, when bullets are fired upon him, they’re turned into harmless rose petals. After all, the Toymaker is an elemental force that can meddle with reality. RTD makes good use of that trait in this special. 🙂

After the ‘Spice Up Your Life’ song-and-dance number, the Doctor and friends end up facing the Toymaker on the U.N.I.T. HQ helipad, where he mans the galvanic beam. The Toymaker is dressed as a pilot and the Doctor begs him to stop, offering to leave with him to take their game to the stars. 😐

For a moment, the Toymaker is tempted, but he declines, since he considers the planet Earth to be the ultimate playground. After firing the galvanic beam at U.N.I.T. soldiers, the Doctor begs again for the Toymaker to stop. The Doctor is shot in the stomach by the Toymaker when using the galvanic beam.

And thus, we come to… the controversial moment we’ve all been waiting for. This is how we see David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor regenerate into Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor. Except, it’s not really a regeneration. Watch the YouTube video below and you’ll see what I mean. 🙂

Yes, it’s not a regeneration. It’s a bi-generation! This was the controversial thing that RTD warned us about before the special was transmitted on TV. It’s certainly a new thing that’s being introduced in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series and it’s eerie to see David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa together like this.

I liked it when Donna and Mel supported David Tennant’s Doctor before he bi-generated. It’s funny when they helped in holding his hands to pull on him before Ncuti’s Doctor popped out. It’s also funny when the Fourteenth Doctor, Donna and the Toymaker went “What?”, “What?!”, “VOT?!!!”

I couldn’t help but think of ‘Call the Midwife’ when Donna and Mel pulled on David’s Doctor and when David and Ncuti’s Doctors pushed on each other to separate. It’s like when the mother is pushing out the baby and the doctors, nurses and midwives are helping to pull the baby out of her. 😀

I don’t know if that’s what RTD had in mind when he wrote the bi-generation scene, but I wouldn’t put it past him. Once separated, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors are delighted and excited to see each other. 🙂 They hug before the Fifteenth Doctor demands to know what the heck’s going on.

And not with the background he had in one of the trailers promoting the 60th anniversary specials! I know RTD claimed that the cloudy-like background isn’t what Ncuti Gatwa would standing against in actual TV special, but I didn’t expect he would be standing on the helipad of the latest U.N.I.T. HQ. 🙂

It’s nice to see Ncuti early in his introduction as the Fifteenth Doctor in ‘The Giggle’. Usually, the introduction of a new Doctor would be at the end of a regeneration story, not earlier. Sometimes, a new Doctor would only get one line to say at the end. Sometimes they barely have any dialogue at all. 😀

I appreciate the amount of screen-time that Ncuti gets in the final act of ‘The Giggle’, especially to explain the concept of bi-generation, which is something that the Time Lords considered a myth. And this is something the traditional ‘Doctor Who’ fans would object to, concerning regeneration. 😐

I’m probably going to risk a slightly unpopular opinion about the bi-generation. I think it’s fine. 🙂 It’s a new idea that’s introduced by RTD to progress the TV show forward in a direction that will keep it going, and it’s so intriguing how David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa deliver that in playing their Doctors.

I appreciate the new idea of bi-generation to reinvigorate ‘Doctor Who’, especially for its 60th anniversary. Mind you, the idea could have been handled differently, especially with featuring callbacks to the TV show’s past. This is something I’ll get into more when doing my summary of the specials.

I know this is likely to upset fans, but I think it could have been worse than that. The controversial thing that RTD warned us about could instead have ended up being that the adventures from ‘The Gunfighters’ to the present day were all a fiction after all and they were created by the Toymaker. 😐

Thankfully, that didn’t happen and I’m glad that most of the ‘Doctor Who’ stories we’ve seen over the years haven’t ended up in the Land of Fiction from ‘The Mind Robber’. It’s something RTD could’ve easily included. Fortunately, he didn’t do it that way, and I’m okay with the bi-generation. 🙂

By the way, on first viewing this, I didn’t realise Ncuti’s Doctor wasn’t wearing trousers when he split from David Tennant. He was in his pants! 😀 He still is by the time he’s piloting his TARDIS on a new destination. I hope Ncuti Gatwa has his trousers on the next time we see him for Christmas 2023. 😀

Returning their attention to the Toymaker, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors challenge him to a game of catch. The game ends when the first player to drop the ball loses. The two Doctors and the Toymaker toss the ball to each other back and forth whilst on the helipad, which does go on for a bit.

Eventually, the Toymaker misses a throw and the ball falls to the city below. The Doctors are the winners, and the Fourteenth Doctor declares that his prize for the Toymaker is to banish him forever from existence. Hmm. Even the Doctor seems to have forgotten many past Toymaker encounters. 😐

I know it’s likely that the Toymaker’s non-TV appearances could have taken place in parallel universes, but surely not all of them. Maybe the Toymaker’s non-TV appearances did happen, but after the events of ‘The Giggle’. I can only speculate on this, since there isn’t much to go on with that.

The Toymaker folds up like a paper doll and slots inside his toy box, crying out that his legions will come for him. I’ve no idea what this is meant to indicate and whether the Toymaker will return, but it’s nothing to worry about for now, since U.N.I.T. takes the toy box to keep in their deepest vault. 🙂

As the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors and Donna head back inside U.N.I.T. HQ, the Toymaker’s gold tooth that contains the Master is picked by a mysterious woman. What woman though, I’m not sure. It can’t be the woman who picked it up in ‘The End of Time’, since she got killed in that story. 😐

I’m guessing it’s the Rani. Am I wrong? We’ll have to wait and see. Also, laughter of various incarnations of the Master can be heard when the woman picked up the tooth, including Anthony Ainley, John Simm, Sacha Dhawan and Michelle Gomez. I didn’t realise that upon first viewing this. 🙂

Incidentally, was the Toymaker inspired by Harry in ‘Home Alone’ to have a gold tooth inside his mouth? He probably should have known better, as Harry lost his gold tooth in the film. The Toymaker lost his gold tooth after being defeated by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors. Or did he lose it on purpose? 😐

Later, inside the TARDIS, the Doctors discuss how life will work with two Doctors simultaneously existing. Fifteen insists that he’s only stable because Fourteen spent time recovering from the Doctor’s heavy experiences in their prior incarnations. I did like the references made to past stories.

This includes the Doctor’s exile and working with U.N.I.T., the Key to Time quest, Logopolis, Adric’s death in ‘Earthshock’, the Last Great Time War, River Song, the death of Sarah Jane Smith and losing Rose Tyler. Mavic Chen, the Pandorica and the Gods of Ragnarok are also mentioned in the special. 🙂

It’s poignant that Sarah Jane’s death is acknowledged in this special, especially following on from ‘Farewell, Sarah Jane’, which RTD wrote in 2020. I assume the events of that story have already happened for the Doctor, but it’s still sad to think Sarah Jane is gone from the Doctor’s and our lives.

Donna supports what Fifteen is saying to Fourteen and comes up with an answer for why he regenerated into a form near-identical to the Tenth Doctor. Initially, I assumed that the Toymaker was behind that and there’d be this big mystery to unravel whilst watching the anniversary specials.

Instead, it turns out that Thirteen regenerated into Fourteen and looked like Ten because…it was a subconscious sign to ‘come home’ and rest. That the Doctor’s past lives represented in Fourteen to look like Ten can retire and enjoy a quiet life, maybe say with Donna and her family on planet Earth.

Hmm. That’s not a bad answer. It’s something I would have gone with… Except, why did Jodie Whittaker’s clothes change into David Tennant’s when she regenerated into him. That doesn’t make sense, especially when it seems that the Toymaker had no part to play in Thirteen’s regeneration.

I’ve heard it argued that it was to echo the First Doctor changing clothes when he regenerated into the Second Doctor from ‘The Tenth Planet’ to ‘The Power of the Daleks’. I’m not sure if that’s true, considering ‘The Power of the Daleks’ is missing from the BBC Archives, despite it being animated. 😐

Also, the Doctors who’ve regenerated since then have stayed in the previous Doctors’ clothes before they changed into their new outfits. Heck, Fifteen wasn’t wearing his new outfit when Fourteen bi-generated. 😐 He wasn’t wearing any trousers for crying out loud! So, this doesn’t really make sense!

I think it would have been better if David Tennant was in Jodie Whittaker’s outfit at the end of ‘The Power of the Doctor’ before he went inside the TARDIS to change into his new clothes. I know ‘Doctor Who’ tends to go into the realms of fantasy, but it’s a weak point I find a challenge to grasp.

Fourteen reluctantly agrees about staying on Earth with Donna, but he hesitates to part with the TARDIS, since the ship is his home after all. Eventually, Fifteen finds a way to resolve that problem for Fourteen and… Well, this is something I didn’t expect to see when watching ‘The Giggle’ on BBC TV.

Yes, Fourteen gets to have a TARDIS that he can keep whilst he’s on Earth, and Fifteen has his own TARDIS to have adventures in space and time in. By the way, it’s funny when seeing Fifteen use a huge mallet to hit the TARDIS to forge a new one. I agree with Donna in that it’s ‘completely nuts’. 😀

Also, in revisiting the closing scene where Fourteen and Donna say goodbye to Fifteen, I could hear the Fifteenth Doctor’s theme music by Murray Gold being played in the background. This is especially when it was first introduced in ‘Doctor Who at 60: A Musical Celebration’ for radio and TV.

Speaking of music, there happens to be a jukebox in the Fifteenth Doctor’s TARDIS. I’ve heard Ncuti Gatwa happens to be a singer as well as an actor. Not sure if this ties in to what’s going to happen in Ncuti’s first ‘Doctor Who’ season. The Doctor and Ruby could be playing the jukebox in the TARDIS. 🙂

And yes, the TARDIS is wheelchair-accessible now. Meaning that Shirley Bingham can get inside the TARDIS and join Ncuti’s Doctor as a companion someday. I wonder if that will ever happen in Ncuti’s first ‘Doctor Who’ season. I’m pretty sure K-9 would appreciate the ramp to get inside the TARDIS. 😀

After saying goodbye to Fifteen, we see Fourteen living on Earth with Donna and her family, which includes Karl Collins as Shaun, Jacqueline King as Sylvia and Yasmin Finney as Rose. They’re having a meal and are soon joined by Mel, who’s now one of the Doctor and Donna’s new family on Earth. 🙂

Apparently, Wilf is off shooting moles whilst Fourteen has placed forcefields around them since he ‘loves’ the moles. It’s also nice to see Sylvia happy with the fact that Fourteen is now one of their family on Earth. She takes it well when Fourteen names her ‘the evil stepmother’, which is hilarious.

Fourteen is happy that he’s now living on Earth, as he finally knows what he’s been fighting for. A normal life on Earth with a family. ‘The Giggle’ concludes with the Fifteenth Doctor heading off into the unknown in his TARDIS. And we all know where he’ll be making for next. Destination: Christmas!

The DVD/Blu-ray special features for ‘The Giggle’ are as follows. There’s the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode for ‘The Giggle’, director Chanya Button’s scene breakdown, and a behind-the-scenes featurette on ‘The Giggle’. There’s the in-vision commentary with David Tennant, executive producer Phil Collinson and writer/executive producer Russell T. Davies. There’s a behind-the-scenes trailer on ‘The Giggle’, ‘Ruth Madeley Introduces Shirley Bingham’, ‘Neil Patrick Harris Introduces the Toymaker’ and ‘Becoming the Toymaker’ with Neil Patrick Harris.

‘The Giggle’ ended up being an enjoyable ‘Doctor Who’ 60th anniversary special. Following the underwhelming efforts of ‘The Star Beast’ and ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, I personally feel that ‘The Giggle’ is the strongest of the three 60th anniversary specials, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate. 🙂

It was lovely to see Bonnie Langford back as Mel and it was lovely to see Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Neil Patrick Harris fares well as the Toymaker and Ncuti Gatwa gives an impressive debut as the Fifteenth Doctor, especially in his interaction with David Tennant’s Doctor. 🙂

As for the 60th anniversary specials overall, well…I think it’s no secret that I’ve found them underwhelming in general. I’m sure there are many people out there who love the 60th anniversary specials by Russell T. Davies and they found David Tennant and Catherine Tate absolutely brilliant. 🙂

I admit, I have enjoyed the official 60th anniversary TV specials of ‘Doctor Who’ in a strange kind of way. I agree David Tennant and Catherine Tate are brilliant as the Doctor and Donna, as you would expect them to be, and there are lots of fascinating concepts featured throughout the three specials.

But in terms of celebrating 60 years of ‘Doctor Who’, I don’t believe the actual 60th anniversary TV specials did that very well. I know lots of ‘Doctor Who’ fans aren’t going to agree with me on this viewpoint, but it’s how I feel. I would have done the 60th anniversary celebrations pretty differently.

Rather than what RTD did in bringing back David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the main stars of the specials, I would have done a lot of things to celebrate every aspect of the TV show’s history. Series 4 is only one aspect of the TV show’s history. I would have included both classic and new series elements.

To better explain this, let’s start at the end with how the bi-generation worked out in ‘The Giggle’. Like I said, I’m fine with the concept that RTD introduced in the special, but I feel it was half-done, especially to acknowledge 60 years of the TV show’s history, and a missed opportunity is made here.

When November 2023 began, ‘Doctor Who’ fans in the UK were given the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ spin-off series on BBC iPlayer. It featured past Doctors and companions in it. I would have done more in connecting the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ spin-off series to the three 60th anniversary TV specials by RTD.

The Fourteenth Doctor bi-generated into Fifteen, but we don’t know whether this means he’s lost the ability to regenerate. There are two ways to look at this. Firstly, Fourteen has lost the ability to regenerate and must live the rest of his life with Donna and her family on Earth till he dies of old age.

Secondly, Fourteen can regenerate, but he can only bi-generate into previous forms. So, after he bi-generated into Ncuti Gatwa, Fourteen can bi-generate into Jodie Whittaker, Peter Capaldi, Matt Smith, David Tennant again, and so forth. It’s something that would have been worth seeing on TV. 🙂

With the second option in mind, it would explain how the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctor ended up in the Remembered TARDIS in their ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ episodes. There might be plotholes to work around that, but I think it could have worked if RTD had spent more time in preparing the specials. 😐

After all, the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ spin-off series does feel like it was an afterthought, especially as it was made after the official 60th anniversary TV specials were made. It’s mindboggling RTD didn’t consider having ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ and the three 60th specials connected together for the fans to enjoy. 😐

It would have ‘bonkers delightful’ if Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and more Doctors appeared in ‘The Giggle’ to help David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa fight against the Toymaker. Nyssa, Tegan, Peri and Ace could also have been given the opportunity to appear in ‘The Giggle’ TV special.

Sadly, that never came to be. A major problem with the 60th anniversary specials is that they’re focused on David Tennant, as if he’s always been the Doctor. Whereas in fact, there have been other Doctors from both classic and new TV series eras, and they haven’t had a chance to have a look-in. 😦

Now don’t get me wrong, I love David Tennant as the Doctor – both Tenth and Fourteenth. When at ‘London Comic Con Winter 2022’, he said he hoped he would be my Doctor again. I had no worries about that. I knew he would deliver the goods and he would be fantastic as the Fourteenth Doctor. 🙂

But there lies the problem. David isn’t really doing anything different compared to when he played the Tenth Doctor in the original RTD era from 2005 to 2010. The Fourteenth Doctor is another copy of the Tenth Doctor, right down to his put-on London accent as well as declaring “Allons-y!” a lot. 😦

Wouldn’t it have been better to do something different with playing the Fourteenth Doctor this time round? Yes, I know he has the memories of the Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors, but another way to make him different is to let David speak with his own Scottish accent as Fourteen. 😐

I know these seem to be minor complaints, but David Tennant can’t just represent everything in the TV show’s history because RTD and the BBC say so. William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, etc, have contributed a lot to the TV show’s history just as much as David Tennant. 😐

Even Paul McGann didn’t get to have a look-in for the 60th anniversary specials. The way that David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor stays behind with Donna is clearly supposed to set up a new spin-off series with David Tennant and Catherine Tate, which I’m sure will be shown on BBC iPlayer and Disney+.

This is despite RTD claiming that this is the end of the Fourteenth Doctor era and that he has found peace by staying on Earth with Donna and her family. To be honest, I don’t see that happening, as I’m sure people like myself will continue the Fourteenth Doctor’s adventures following ‘The Giggle’.

Even Big Finish can have the option of telling new Fourteenth Doctor and Donna stories with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. The Eleventh Doctor tried to retire in ‘The Snowmen’ and the Twelfth Doctor tried to retire in ‘The Pilot’. You can tell how much their retirement plans were short-lived. 😦

The case applies to the Fourteenth Doctor, especially when he still has his TARDIS. Unless he removes the space-time element from his TARDIS, which he hasn’t so far, due to taking Rose Noble to Mars and Melanie Bush to New York quite recently, I don’t see Fourteen’s retirement lasting for very long.

And look, I know I sound harsh on that front. Maybe the Fourteenth Doctor will stay on Earth and retire. He could well end up like Chronotis from ‘Shada’ – both of them – who became a professor in Cambridge. He could also end up as a museum curator like Tom Baker did in ‘The Day of the Doctor’.

Wait a minute! David Tennant bi-generating into previous forms after Ncuti Gatwa? If he kept on like that and bi-generated into Tom Baker… Oh, now I’m seeing the connection between the 60th and 50th anniversary specials! It makes sense! Tom Baker did suggest looking up some ‘old favourites’. 🙂

Incidentally, the Fourteenth Doctor living a life on Earth with Donna and her family is eerily similar to the Meta-Crisis Doctor living a life on a parallel Earth with Rose and her family in ‘Journey’s End’. Discounting ‘The End of Time’, RTD seems to have a thing with giving David’s Doctors happy endings.

Another way of doing things differently would be to add more episodes in the 60th anniversary specials series. I know RTD wasn’t able to get David Tennant and Catherine Tate for more than three specials, but let us hypothetically surmise what could have been done differently with more specials.

I would have done a series of eight specials featuring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, and they could have visited many places featuring past companions like Peter Purves as Steven and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. That way you’ll get more tribute episodes to celebrate the TV show’s 60-year long history.

Steven and Nyssa could meet up with Mel and the trio could join the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors and Donna to help them out with defeating the Toymaker in ‘The Giggle’. If more companions were able to return like Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, I’d be even happier about that.

Another option would be to not have Jodie Whittaker regenerate into David Tennant in ‘The Power of the Doctor’, but have her regenerate straight into Ncuti Gatwa. That way you could have an ‘Eight Doctors’-style of a season for the 60th anniversary where Ncuti’s Doctor tries to recall who he is. 🙂

That would be another way to bring back more ‘Doctor Who’ actors from the TV show’s past and doing more tribute episodes to celebrate the 60th anniversary. David Tennant and Catherine Tate can still be in the TV specials, but they would actually be the Tenth Doctor and Donna from Series 4.

Yes, I know, RTD was trying to do something different with celebrating the 60th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’, especially with having David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the main stars. But I’m hungry for more people from ‘Doctor Who’s past to return, especially for a TV show’s landmark year.

If RTD wasn’t able to get David Tennant and Catherine Tate back for more than three specials, he could’ve had more sets of specials of Doctor-companion teams like Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill, etc. 😀

That way, it would mean the Doctor and companions meeting up and tackling the Toymaker in the final special. RTD can still do the bi-generation of David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa, but at least we would have more Doctors and companions coming back from the past for the 60-year celebration. 😐

I will say, the journey of Catherine Tate as Donna in the 60th anniversary specials turned out differently to what I expected. I thought she was going to die from having the meta-crisis in the specials. I’m glad she got her happy ending, especially when David’s Doctor stayed with her and her family on Earth. 🙂

It would have been dreadful if RTD kept the meta-crisis inside Donna’s head and it would never be removed from her. It was what I was expecting to happen, but thanks to this being the 60th anniversary celebrations, RTD found an alternative to Donna living happily ever after, which is good.

Talking about Ncuti Gatwa’s appearance in ‘The Giggle’; I read a fan theory somewhere that he was actually the Fourteenth Doctor all this time and not the Fifteenth Doctor. Jodie Whittaker did regenerate into Ncuti Gatwa, but in the 60th anniversary specials, he thought he was David Tennant.

The theory would make sense, especially considering the Toymaker is a character who plays on people’s minds as well as playing games with them. There was a point, behind-the-scenes, where William Hartnell could have been replaced by a new actor during the production of ‘The Celestial Toymaker’.

It’s a shame that fan theory didn’t happen in the specials, but I’m fine with how things turned out in ‘The Giggle’ in terms of the bi-generation scene between David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa. It’s not dreadfully executed on TV as I saw it, but it might have been done better with past Doctors appearing for it.

My Mum suggested to me recently that Tom Baker could have done a cameo in ‘The Star Beast’ to make the connection between the Fourth Doctor meeting Beep the Meep in the comics and the Fourteenth Doctor meeting Beep the Meep on TV. I’m surprised RTD didn’t go with that approach. 😐

Yes, Tom Baker probably wouldn’t have been able to do a full-on appearance, but it would’ve been nice to have seen a cameo of him as the Fourth Doctor in ‘The Star Beast’. It might end up being like ‘The Three Doctors’ for William Hartnell and ‘Dimensions In Time’ for Tom Baker, but I would’ve enjoyed it.

It also would have strengthened the idea that ‘The Star Beast’ story in the comics and ‘The Star Beast’ story on TV both happened in the same universe. The Big Finish audio adaptation would have been valid too. I don’t want the Tom Baker versions of ‘The Star Beast’ to be relegated to the side. 😐

One thing that did get in the way of the 60th anniversary celebrations is RTD’s agenda to have ‘Doctor Who’ be more diverse, as established with Rose Noble being transgender. I know there was some backlash to this, following ‘The Star Beast’s release on BBC TV, if what Wikipedia states is right.

Now, I’m not saying this to disrespect Yasmin Finney and Rose Noble as transgenders. To be honest, having a transgender character in ‘Doctor Who’ is fine. From what I’ve seen of Yasmin Finney as Rose in ‘Doctor Who’, she seems to be okay and I have enjoyed her performances as the character so far.

I’m not saying that RTD shouldn’t find ways to have ‘Doctor Who’ be more diverse. He’s the showrunner and if he wants to include a transgender character like Rose in the TV series, it’s up to him. It’s not really a major issue as far as I’m concerned in terms of progressing the series forward. 🙂

What I have an issue with is RTD not placing more emphasis on the anniversary celebrations. The anniversary specials are meant to celebrate 60 years of the TV show, after all. Couldn’t RTD have spent far more time celebrating the 60th anniversary whilst introducing new socio-political themes?

I prefer more ‘Doctor Whoey’ elements in the TV show. I know ‘Doctor Who’ stories are often strongly based on social-political themes, but the 60th anniversary celebrations should have more priority. I don’t think there was enough balance between the anniversary and social-political themes.

The backlash to Yasmin Finney and Rose Noble being transgender is something I wouldn’t have worried about too much. I’m okay with Yasmin as Rose being transgender, but the priority for me is to have more callbacks to ‘Doctor Who’s past, which I feel we didn’t get, which is rather disappointing.

Following the transmission of ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, there was criticism laid against the casting of Nathaniel Curtis as Isaac Newton, who looks more Indian compared to how Newton looks in his pictures where he’s clearly a white Englishman. It’s the TV show’s attempt to be more diverse here.

And look, I’m not a fan of historical inaccuracies like that, especially when trying to match fiction with reality, but it’s very small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. I didn’t walk away from ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ thinking that Isaac Newton wasn’t cast right because he looked Indian instead of white.

That’s quite low on my list of priorities concerning ‘Doctor Who’. I would have preferred it if the 60th anniversary specials focused a lot more on callbacks to the past, especially with including past actors who’ve played Doctors and companions in some form to ensure the TV show’s history is being celebrated. 😐

I did read a theory somewhere that the Toymaker was somehow responsible for Isaac Newton’s ethnicity and that it’s ‘mavity’ instead of ‘gravity’ in ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, since he claimed he created a jigsaw out of the Doctor’s history. It’s an interesting theory and it’s one I wouldn’t dismiss entirely.

I know I’ve said a lot in terms of how I’ve experienced the 60th anniversary specials and I know I’m not giving the same amount of praise to RTD like other fans have done. If you enjoyed the 60th anniversary specials by RTD featuring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, then I’m pleased for you. 🙂

I just feel that the way the BBC and RTD celebrated ‘Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary is not exactly how I would have done things to celebrate the TV show’s history. There needs to be a right balance of celebrating the show’s past and looking ahead to the future. I didn’t feel there was enough of that. 😦

If you were to ask me, which I would prefer: ‘The Power of the Doctor’ or the 60th anniversary specials, then I would say ‘The Power of the Doctor’. That had more callbacks and appearances of past Doctors and companions from the TV show’s history, especially in Jodie Whittaker’s swansong story. 🙂

Even though I still have issues with it, I feel ‘The Day of the Doctor’ did better with celebrating the TV show’s history compared to the three 60th anniversary specials RTD gave us. Heck, there were photos of past companions, including one of Nyssa and Tegan, in the U.N.I.T. Black Archive scene. 🙂

Also, ‘the timelines and canon are rupturing’ storyline that seemed to begin in ‘Destination: Skaro’ never got resolved in the 60th anniversary TV specials, which is disappointing. I wonder if this is something that will be resolved in Ncuti Gatwa’s first ‘Doctor Who’ season. It might be. Who knows?

If you’re like me and you were hoping for a traditional celebration of ‘Doctor Who’s 60-year history compared to what RTD gave us on the TV, then I turn your attention to my epic three-part ‘Doctor Who’ 60th anniversary story ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’, featuring the first thirteen Doctors and friends.

Not only that, but there are cameos of future Doctors like David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor and Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor. Even Ruby Sunday gets to have a cameo in ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’. You’ll have to check out that epic story on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ to find out more on what it’s like. 🙂

I’ve also written ‘Interdimensional Rescue’ for the Divergent Wordsmiths to celebrate 60 years of ‘Doctor Who’. It has the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy and it’s part of the ‘A Sparkle of Doctors’ three-volume anthology. There are also some very good stories by other writers in the anthology. 🙂

So, the 60th anniversary TV specials of ‘Doctor Who’ aren’t exactly what I was hoping for. 😦 It was nice to see David Tennant and Catherine Tate, but I think these specials could have been done differently. ‘The Giggle’ is the best special, ‘The Star Beast’ is the second best and ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ is the weakest.

I’m sure I’ll be revisiting the specials at some point in the future, especially through the Target novelization/audiobook versions of these stories. Hopefully, I can provide more insight on how I feel about the specials in future and it should be an enjoyable opportunity to revisit them on BBC iPlayer or Blu-ray.

With the Fourteenth Doctor era over, it’s time for us to move on to the Fifteenth Doctor era. 🙂

‘The Giggle’ rating – 8/10

’60th Anniversary Specials’ rating – 6/10

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‘DOCTOR WHO – THE GIGGLE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Toymaker’s Novelization of ‘The Giggle’

This Target novelization/audiobook should be called ‘The Toymaker and the Giggle’! 😀

This is of course the third and final instalment of the 60th anniversary TV specials to be novelized for the Target range of ‘Doctor Who’ books, accompanied by an audiobook release. ‘The Giggle’ is arguably the best out of the three specials to celebrate 60 years of a TV show that I love watching. 🙂

Thus, it comes as no surprise that ‘The Giggle’ is arguably the best out of the three Target novelizations based on the TV counterparts of the 60th anniversary specials by Russell T. Davies. Not that ‘The Star Beast’ and ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ Target novelizations/audiobooks were bad to check out.

But ‘The Giggle’ Target novelization is clearly the most inventive out of the three published following the transmission of the TV specials. It should be no surprise, since the author of ‘The Giggle’ Target novelizaton/audiobook happens to be James Goss. He has contributed significantly to ‘Doctor Who’.

He novelized ‘The Pirate Planet’ and ‘City of Death’ from the classic TV series as well as wrote up ‘Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen’, based on the surviving scripts by Douglas Adams. He’s also penned several Big Finish audio stories of ‘Doctor Who’ like ‘Death and the Queen’ and ‘No Place’. 🙂

Those featured the Tenth Doctor and Donna. Thus, it’s fitting to find him novelizing the third and final 60th anniversary TV special by Russell T. Davies, featuring the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna, as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate. I’ve found ‘The Giggle’ novelization pretty invigorating.

I make it no secret that I’m not really a fan of ‘The Day of the Doctor’ as a 50th anniversary special of ‘Doctor Who’, nor am I that excited by the three 60th anniversary specials by Russell T. Davies for TV. They don’t strike me in matching the same league as ‘The Five Doctors’ for the 20th anniversary.

With that said, and in checking out the latest Target novelizations/audiobooks of ‘The Star Beast’, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and ‘The Giggle’, I’ve found them compelling and easy to get into compared to when I checked out the Target novelization/audiobook for ‘The Day of the Doctor’ by Steven Moffat.

This is because the three Target novelizations for the 60th anniversary specials weren’t frustrating in terms of reading and hearing them. I was able to follow through the stories without any problem. And it’d be fair to say that I enjoyed the Target novelizations/audiobooks more than the TV versions.

Toymaker: OH, WELL THAT’S ALRIGHT THEN!!!

There, I got that joke out the way. 😀 I think the advantage that the 60th anniversary specials’ Target novelizations/audiobooks have is that they’re penned by writers like Gary Russell, Mark Morris and James Goss who are willing to do straightforward novelizations and not embellish with many changes. 🙂

It matches to what Jenny T. Colgan did when she novelized ‘The Christmas Invasion’ by Russell T. Davies. I’m sure RTD would have done superbly if he novelized the three 60th anniversary specials himself. I’m also sure he provided input into the novelizations as Gary, Mark and James wrote them.

But of course with him being busy as the ‘Doctor Who’ TV showrunner again, there’s not the time for him to do his own novelizations of the stories he wrote, like with ‘Rose’. It’s fascinating therefore how other writers have interpreted his TV scripts and translated them as prose for the Target range.

This is true in ‘The Giggle’ Target novelization/audiobook, as James Goss has novelized it in a way I’m sure many readers wouldn’t expect. You see, this novelization, in the ‘Doctor Who’ universe, is ‘written’ by the Toymaker himself. 😮 This happens to be his story instead of the Doctor and Donna’s.

Yeah. I wondered how that was going to work, considering if you have the villain of this story be the author, you’re not going to get a reliable account of what happens as depicted in the TV version. There’s an occasion where the Toymaker tries to veer you from reading the story to the very end. 😐

As it turns out, the novelization details everything that went on in ‘The Giggle’, including the bi-generation between the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors as depicted in the TV story. You’d think the Toymaker has a warped mind-frame when he writes his own defeat by the two Doctors at the end.

But of course, the Toymaker is an entity that likes to play by the rules of the game being played. So, I imagine that the Toymaker is playing the game of writing up this novelization in its entirety in order to set up what next game he’ll be playing next with the Doctor. Maybe in Ncuti Gatwa’s incarnation.

It also helps that the reader of the Target novelization in audiobook form happens to be Dan Starkey, well-known for playing the Sontarans in the TV series and Big Finish audios. Dan Starkey gets his chance to shine and play the Toymaker in the Target novelization/audiobook as opposed to the TV story. 🙂

I would have thought maybe Neil Patrick Harris would have been more ideal to read ‘The Giggle’ audiobook as opposed to Dan Starkey, since Dan Starkey never appeared in the 60th anniversary specials themselves. In fact, how come it wasn’t Nicholas Briggs that read this Target novelization? 😐

Nick Briggs voiced the Vlinx in ‘The Giggle’ after all. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, as Dan Starkey is a good reader anyway, and I like how he gets the chance to provide a variety of voices to certain characters, including the two Doctors, the Toymaker, Donna, Mel, Shirley, Kate, etc.

I suppose this explains why Bonnie Langford narrated the ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ audiobook instead of ‘The Giggle’ audiobook, since due to the nature of the Target novelization, she would have had to voice the Toymaker instead of playing Mel. Mind you, I don’t think gender would’ve been a problem.

After all, Annette Badland recently played the Toymaker in the Big Finish audio story ‘Matryoshka’ for ‘The Fourth Doctor Adventures’ series, starring Tom Baker. I’m sure Bonnie Langford would have been up for the job in playing the Toymaker in reading the audiobook for ‘The Giggle’ novelization. 🙂

The story is divided up into 55 chapters. Well, I say ‘chapters’. They’re identified as ‘moves’, since this is the Toymaker’s novelization of ‘The Giggle’. As well 55 moves, there’s Move 1,024, Move 1 (Go Again) and there’s the Final Move, which does act as the epilogue for ‘The Giggle’ novelization. 🙂

Throughout the novelization, the Toymaker invites you as the reader to play puzzles. That’s more akin to a children’s activity book. However, the puzzles are changed in the audiobook to be actual readings not printed in the book. So, I would have to listen to them instead of read them on the page.

There’s a particular game in the novelization that allows you as the reader to choose Donna’s path through the maze of doors after she’s separated from the Doctor. I couldn’t help be reminded of ‘Ten Little Aliens’ with the First Doctor, Polly and Ben. It got me jumping back and forth in that story.

Admittedly, that was a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ in one chapter of the ‘Ten Little Aliens’ book. Here in ‘The Giggle’ novelization, you have to choose among varying chapters from Moves 16 to 27. I just read through the novelization whilst hearing the audiobook to avoid getting myself confused. 😀

I wouldn’t say the puzzles aspect of ‘The Giggle’ novelization is a bad one, but it can be distracting. When I wanted to move on to the next part of the story, I had to go through the puzzles in both text and audio form before I could get onto what would occur next for the Doctor, Donna and other characters.

Apparently, the end scene from ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ is reprised at the start of ‘The Giggle’ story in Move 2 once we start the Present-Day section of the tale, following the prologue scene of John Logie Baird and Stooky Bill in 1925 in Move 1. I wouldn’t have reprised the ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ end scene.

That was already dealt with in the ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ novelization/audiobook itself. Mind you, since this is the Toymaker’s novelization of ‘The Giggle’, I suppose it would be fair of him to keep everyone up to speed with what’s going on, particularly if somebody hasn’t read the first two novelizations. 😀

There’s more of Wilfred Mott featured in ‘The Giggle’ Target novelization compared to what was presented in the TV story. This is especially considering that dear Bernard Cribbins hadn’t long passed away after he did his ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ scene and before ‘The Giggle’ TV production began.

In ‘The Giggle’ novelization, Wilfred is the one who explains to the Doctor that ‘everyone thinks they’re right’. This is instead of the man standing in front of the car when the Doctor confronted him in the TV story. I believe there’s more dialogue for Wilfred in the original draft versions of the scripts.

This is especially when we come to the story’s conclusion and we have Wilfred speaking when he’s shooting the moles in the back garden of the house that the Doctor, Donna, her family and Mel are at. I’m glad there’s more of Wilfred speaking in ‘The Giggle’ novelization compared to the TV story. 🙂

There’s an extra scene provided in the novelization to explain that the nuclear launch codes that U.N.I.T. intend to use in the story are sealed in with a U.N.I.T. soldier in a bunker underneath a bunker with other U.N.I.T. guards stationed outside. I didn’t pick up on this aspect of this TV story here.

Apparently, it seems the President of the United States is determined to break in and acquire the codes for himself. I believe this is during the frenzy that’s going on when ‘everyone thinks they’re right’, thanks to the amplified waveform signal caused by the Stooky Bill puppet affecting everybody.

It turns out that the ‘Spice Up Your Life’ Spice Girls musical number by the Toymaker is reduced to the generic ‘La-La-La’ notes. There’s an amusing sequence where a certain Ms. Pockleton informs the Toymaker that he doesn’t have the right to use ‘Spice Up Your Life’ when writing the novelization. 😀

This makes me wonder why James Goss couldn’t write in the lyrics for the ‘Spice Up Your Life’ song compared to when it was being played in the TV special itself. Maybe the Spice Girls were happy for the song to be heard in the TV story but not happy for the lyrics to be read out in the novelization. 😀

It’s revealed that the Toymaker trapped the Spice Girls in their song. I wonder if that happened after they became popular in the 1990s. Or was the Toymaker lying just then? 😀 Apparently, there are also references to the two songs ‘Despacito’ and ‘House of the Rising Sun’ in the musical sequence. 🙂

Just for your clarification, ‘Despacito’ is a song performed by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, featuring Puerto Rican rapper and singer Daddy Yankee. ‘House of the Rising Sun’ is an American traditional folk song that is sometimes called ‘Rising Sun Blues’. Not that I’m expecting you to know these facts.

I certainly didn’t when I was doing my research for this review, and it didn’t click for me when checking out the novelization/audiobook. Maybe music’s not really my thing. Or maybe it’s a case of needing to hear the songs rather than have them being read out to me in a novelization/audiobook.

It makes me wonder what will happen when ‘Utopia’/’The Sound of Drums’/’Last of the Time Lords’ gets novelized concerning the ‘Voodoo Child’ song featured in ‘The Sound of Drums’ as well as the ‘Rasputin’ song in ‘The Power of the Doctor’. Maybe the Master will sort everything out for those. 😀

Apparently, the crew of the galvanic beam weapon on the helipad of U.N.I.T. HQ were turned into a bouncing ball, a wooden peg doll and a rattle, and were dropped off the platform. The Toymaker controlled their fall, which explains why they weren’t heard to have hit the ground for a long while.

This is when the Toymaker took control of the platform as depicted in the TV story. I checked that scene in TV form via BBC iPlayer, and apparently the Toymaker’s explanation of what he did to the crew is far briefer compared to how detailed it’s depicted in the Target novelization/audiobook.

I like how in Move 54 of the story, which is essentially the final chapter in the novelization, that it’s explained the Fourteenth Doctor bought the house when using money that had been paid into his account by U.N.I.T. over the years. There’s a scene where the Doctor interacts with an estate agent.

From watching the TV story, I assumed that it was Donna’s house that the Doctor was staying at. I didn’t think he bought the house himself with Donna and her family joining him. But considering Donna and family’s house in ‘The Star Beast’ had been mostly blown up, this sort of makes sense. 😀

After all, the Nobles would have had to pay a lot in terms of the repair damage following the events of ‘The Star Beast’. So, having the Fourteenth Doctor buy a new home for him and the Nobles to live in and for where he can park his TARDIS after it was duplicated by the Fifteenth Doctor is quite logical. 🙂

Apparently, Colonel Ibrahim (as played by Alexander Devrient in ‘The Giggle’ and subsequently in ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’ in Series 14 of the new TV series) is given the first name of ‘Christofer’ in ‘The Giggle’ Target novelization. I do wonder if that’s RTD’s input in the story then.

Ibrahim also has a greater presence in ‘The Giggle’ Target novelization/audiobook compared to the TV version of the story, including more lines of dialogue and some backstory. Mind you, I shouldn’t worry about Ibrahim’s time in ‘Doctor Who’ being short-lived. He has more appearances afterwards.

Not just in ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’, but also in the upcoming spin-off series ‘The War Between the Land and Sea’, featuring characters like himself, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Shirley Anne Bingham. He’s becoming more like Mike Yates and Benton in the latest version of U.N.I.T. 🙂

In the failed attempt to sneak up on the Toymaker out on the helipad, apparently, there’s a U.N.I.T. soldier called Private Cole who joins Colonel Ibrahim. I had an inkling that Private Cole wasn’t identified in the TV version of the story compared to when I read him in the book and heard him on audio.

Charles Banerjee, who was John Logie Baird’s assistant at the beginning of the story, is restored to his old life after the Toymaker’s defeat. Whilst that’s depicted in the TV version of the story itself, it’s clearly more signified when reading and listening to the scene in ‘The Giggle’ Target novelization/audiobook.

Like I said, the Final Move of ‘The Giggle’ novelization/audiobook is a short epilogue to confirm the Toymaker is biding his time until his next game with the Doctor. This helps to cover the final TV shot of the Fifteenth Doctor piloting his TARDIS for his new adventures once he’s up and away in the time vortex.

‘The Giggle’ Target novelization/audiobook has been very engrossing to check out. James Goss does well with being creative and imaginative in novelizing Russell T. Davies’ script of the third and final 60th anniversary TV special that doesn’t feel altogether frustrating and is quite easy for me to get into.

The audiobook reading by Dan Starkey is equally enjoyable, especially when he performs in character as the Toymaker being the author of the novelization. ‘The Giggle’ is a satisfying conclusion to the Target novelization/audiobook series of the three 60th anniversary specials for TV.

I wouldn’t say these Target novelizations/audiobooks change my mind on how I feel about the 60th anniversary specials overall, as they’re basically straightforward translations of Russell T. Davies’ three TV scripts for the 60th anniversary specials into prose form, which was what I’d expected. 🙂

I’m very pleased Gary Russell, Mark Morris and James Goss novelized the stories mostly to how they were presented on TV, adding additional embellishments here and there without deviating too much from the plots. They’re more satisfying than the ‘Dalek’ and ‘The Day of the Doctor’ novelizations. 🙂

Incidentally, I liked the semi-flashback scene of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart as a little girl being picked up by the Third Doctor (as played by Jon Pertwee in the classic TV series) in Bessie. I also liked it when it gets touched upon how Kate balances her U.N.I.T. life with her social life in the novelization.

‘Doctor Who – The Giggle’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Third Doctor was ‘Target Practice’ (Comic) For the Fourteenth Doctor was ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ (TV) For Donna was ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ (TV) For Wilfred was ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ (TV) For Mel was ‘The Power of the Doctor’ (TV) For the Master was ‘The Power of the Doctor’ (TV)	The next story For the Third Doctor is ‘The Three Doctors’ (TV) For the Fourteenth Doctor is ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ For Donna is ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ For the Fifteenth Doctor is ‘The World Tree’ (Audio) For Mel was ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’ (TV) For the Master is ‘Masterful’ (Audio)
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