Win the Game, or Here You’ll Stay – Reviewing “Doctor Who: the Celestial Toymaker” New Animation

“The Celestial Toymaker” as a serial has had quite a mixed history in fandom circles. It was first broadcast in April 1966 as part of the third season of Doctor Who, and like most of the stories of that season, the original episodes were eventually wiped from the BBC. While Episode 4 – “The Final Game” was found in Australia in 1986, there was twenty years it existed as a fan memory, with information shared in fanzines based on these memories celebrating the creativity and fantasy elements of the story. There was even a plan in 1985 to bring back the character for the cancelled original season 23 story “The Nightmare Fair” where he would use video games and theme park threats to menace Colin Baker’s sixth Doctor.

After the final episode was found in 1986, there slowly was a reappraisal of the story. While early Doctor Who special effects and staging were never seen as a strength, the original story’s budget was basically a shoestring. A retrospective by Doctor Who Magazine in the early 2000’s called it boring. In 2011, Elizabeth Sandifer in their Eruditorum Press blog, highlighted the racist aspects of the story, such as the use of a racial slur spoken by a minor character in episode two (thankfully concealed from all media releases), and the character of the Toymaker himself as a Fu Manchu style Asian stereotype. The term “Celestial” itself, while often taken to mean “From the sky” is also an old time slur for the Chinese. Russell T Davies in the lead up to the Toymaker’s return in “The Giggle” acknowledged he was aware of this in interviews, and had the character play with accents using race as an attack against others.

So like with many of the very lost stories of the sixties, it’s been an interesting journey for how “The Celestial Toymaker” has been seen. And the last time I sat down to watch the surviving episode, my partner lasted five minutes into watching characters throw dice on the floor before leaving the room and not returning. And she had a point.

But this review isn’t about the original 1966 production. In light of the Toymaker’s triumphant return in 2023’s “The Giggle” a newly animated version of the original 1966 story has been released to allow fans to have better access to this returning villain.

Story Outline

As was standard with the series in 1966, the story begins at the conclusion of the previous story “The Ark” with the Doctor (William Hartnell) suddenly becoming invisible and warning his companions Steven (Peter Purves) and Dodo (Jackie Lane) they were in grave danger. Exiting the TARDIS, the Doctor finds his form has returned, and after being tempted by windows displaying their memories, they are confronted by the Toymaker (Michael Gough). The Toymaker says in order to leave they must play his games, the Doctor being transported away to play the Trilogic Game (Better known as Towers of Hanoi), with Steven and Dodo completing several other games in order to find the TARDIS.

Each of these games is a variation of popular games of the time, such as Blind Man’s Bluff, musical chairs, and hunt the thimble, but with the threat of failure resulting in Steven and Dodo becoming eternal play things of the Toymaker. Meanwhile the Doctor is unable to assist his companions, as the Toymaker demonstrates his power by removing his speech, and reducing him to one hand, operating the game.

While the concept is interesting, and demonstrative of the wide variety of story styles in a series that didn’t have a set format a yet, in practice, watching a bunch of character actors play simple games is a slow and dull spectacle to watch. This isn’t helped by the last episode featuring the game “TARDIS hopscotch” where characters roll dice, and jump from base to base.

Production Turmoil

Behind the scenes, this is an era of Doctor Who of inner turmoil. William Hartnell’s health was declining, with his as yet undiagnosed condition of arteriosclerosis resulting in memory lapses and irritability. Previous production teams, who had known how to work well with Hartnell, had been replaced, alongside much of the cast that he had been close with. As a result, there was a new production team which did not have a good working relationship with Hartnell, and Hartnell often taking extended breaks within stories. Towards this part of Season 3, almost every second story had the Doctor somewhat incapacitated or absent, and in “The Celestial Toymaker” the Toymaker reduces the Doctor to just a hand for most of the first three episodes.

As regeneration would not be created as a plot device until the following season, there had been a plan to have the Toymaker change the Doctor’s appearance when he becomes visible again, and have the new recast Doctor become the main character following. While this plan was vetoed (And the producer who had the plan subsequently left the production of this story), some elements may have lead to the idea of what we now know as regeneration.

There had also been issues raised about the new companion of Dodo Chaplet, introduced five episodes previously. Originally developed as a down to earth modern girl with a Cockney accent, her accent was changed to BBC standard English from this story until her departure at the final story of the season. This was evidence of a different view between the production team wanting to move the series to reflect a youth audience, and the policies of the BBC of the day to only allow certain accents. However, by the end of the season, with the introduction of cockney sailor Ben Jackson as a companion, diversity of accents was eventually accepted.

Missing Stories

In the 1960’s there was not a view that television need to be stored. Home video was two decades away, repeats were rare, and tape was expensive and a fire hazard to store. As a result, many shows had episode, or entire seasons, wiped by the production teams of the time. Doctor Who is one of the most known series effected by this decision, but definitely not the only one, with series like “The Avengers” “Hancock’s Half Hour” and many more having most of their seasons almost entirely lost.

Fans of the time, while unable to record video, were able to record audio tapes of each episode, and this has meant that “Missing stories” have been able to be enjoyed by fans today either as narrated audio, or combining these audio tracts with existing pictures of the story.

Since 2006, the BBC had looked into animation studios to created animated reconstructions of these missing stories. Originally just attempting to recreate stories as they would have been shown in the 1960’s, since 2019 animation studios have increasingly tried to make a new version of the story, based on the ideas in the script, rather than the limits of what was possible in the budget of the day. The result of that is stories, such as 1967’s “The Macra Terror” featuring far more expressive and mobile monsters than were possible originally.

While the decision to change the stories somewhat substantially was a controversial one, it’s a decision I’ve very much approved of. Rather than make an animated reconstruction which will never match with what the original broadcast episodes would have looked like, instead a new story is created. In cases where these stories and their plots have been known for decades, there is an excitement in finding a new way to make them, and seeing what the animators have been inspired to make from the script.

The New Updated Animated Version – Pros and Cons

“The Celestial Toymaker” is the newest of these animations, and with a style that is quite distinct from most animations that have occurred before. Whereas most of the last productions were producing simple flash style 2D animation, the style used for Celestial Toymaker seems more three dimensional, with textures and crevices more noticeable on the faces of the cast.

This new style of animation has its drawbacks, and at first glance in the trailer earlier this year, the visualizations of the main cast was off putting to me. The way the mouth of most characters move seems not to match the sounds, with often just the lower lip moving to give the impression of speech.

Each human character, no matter their age, seemed to have old, tired eyes. While I reminded myself that no Doctor Who animated feature has been amazing when it came to showing human expression and emotion, the portrayal of the human cast in “The Celestial Toymaker” is a good example of the uncanny valley – they have ceased looking like a cartoon, but instead look like people with something wrong.

However, the animation team for this project have also used “the uncanny valley” for their benefit. Because while out of context, the animated versions of the human cast look wrong, for this particular story, in this particular context, looking uncanny makes sense. The Celestial Toyroom is an uncanny place – it’s meant to be outside of time and space, a world where the only rules are those determined by a God like creature obsessed with games. And this new animated version really reflects it.

Starting with the non-regular cast, not having to use a physical human being for a cast has freed the team to create a range of characters that would not be possible to feature easily in Doctor Who, even today. A comical chef character in episode three is now a life size knitted doll, and the movements which look awkward on an animated human, look sensible on a doll filled with stuffing. Dancing dolls which were originally just human dancers are now wooden dolls, with the wood grain visible on each face. The Toymaker himself seems to shrink and grow to giant sizes on a whim. The playing card characters in episode two, previously just actors dressed to look like the Kings and Queens appearing on a playing card deck, are now cards with stick arms and legs.

The settings also show a world where physics do not make sense. Steven completing an obstacle course can suddenly be walking on the ceiling. Transition between games occurs by crossing toy blocks seemingly hovering above a mist of nothingness. The game of jumping from shallow platforms across the floor, is now jumping through the air, with electrical sparks threatening the cast below.

The best example of how these themes combine is in episode three. As Dodo and Steven enter the dancing floor, there is a musical interlude where the dancing dolls as scripted finish their routine. It’s quite a long musical number, and nothing happens in it. The animated version instead has Dodo and Steven drifting through a void, falling through the Toymaker’s mouth, onto a form of the TARDIS, only to be reformed at the end of the musical montage. The creativity shown in this scene makes it, in my mind, the greatest piece of animated Doctor Who ever made.

While most animated reconstructions have allowed fans to appreciate and enjoy stories which are now lost, with “The Celestial Toymaker” we actually have a reconstruction which enhances on the original. The settings are exciting, the characters visually interesting, and the threat is apparent throughout the animation where it was not before. While no further animations are announced, if this is the new bench mark on what could be aimed for, I hope we see more of this in the future.

In particular, get this team of recreate “The Space Pirates” from 1969, and let them go to town to recreate a space opera without relying on 1969’s model effects.

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