The Celestial Toymaker

The Doctor finds himself suddenly fading from sight. Dodo and Steven believe that it has something to do with the invisible Refusians, but the Doctor senses a much greater threat at work. The TARDIS has landed in the world of the Celestial Toymaker, an immortal being outside time and space who delights in ensnaring travellers in his web and forcing them to play his games with their freedom as the prize. The Doctor is made to play the trilogic game which requires 1023 precise moves for him to win, and when he becomes too irritible the Toymaker makes him intangible save for one hand so he can play the game, and makes him mute as well (this continues through two full episodes, which allowed William Hartnell a break in the filming schedule). Dodo and Steven meanwhile are flung into the other regions of the Toymaker's world to play games against the Toymaker's dolls, including a pair of clowns, some playing cards, and a snide schoolboy named Cyril. The Doctor manages to play his game despite constant taunting from the Toymaker, and Steven and Dodo manage to outplay the cheating toys and win the TARDIS back as their prize.

As with so many other adventures of this era, The Celestial Toymaker is incomplete, with only episode 4, The Final Test, surviving on the Lost in Time DVD. The balance of the episodes are on the BBC Radio Collection CD, and I enjoyed them at the gym over the last couple days while doing my cardio bike sessions. Michael Gough makes a splendid appearance as the Toymaker, and it's a shame that he never got a chance to return in that role - a rematch between the Doctor and the Toymaker was planned for a 1986 story but it was not made. The story was made into a novel, though, and I will be looking at that, if for nothing more than a chance to see what might have been. There is already a history between the Doctor and the Toymaker; the Toymaker alludes to a previous visit the Doctor made to his realm, one that the Doctor escaped from without playing any games (these events are outlined in the novel Divided Loyalties which I will also look at later on). Having most of this story on CD lets one imagine it as a bit grander than it may have appeared on screen. By the time we get to episode 4 there is only the Toymaker's office and the hopscotch game room to go through, and both are pretty bland sets. Who knows what Mrs Wigg's kitchen looked like, or the Dancing Hall?

And out of this twisted domain, we go into what a lot of fans refer to as the worst episode ever - a romp through the rootin' tootin' old west...

NEXT EPISODE : THE GUNFIGHTERS