Doctor Who: The Giggle ★★★★★

“Well, that’s all right then!” – the Toymaker

Storyline
The whole of humanity is being driven nuts by a repetitive giggle in their heads. The Doctor and Donna are airlifted into a towering new UNIT HQ, where they join forces with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, who has recently recruited the Doctor’s former companion Mel. They deduce that the giggle is an arpeggio emanating from every screen in existence, and originating from the first TV transmission by John Logie Baird using a puppet Stooky Bill. It’s key to a diabolical game being played by the Time Lord’s ancient enemy, the Toymaker.

Visiting the Toymaker’s shop in 1925 Soho, the Doctor and Donna are trapped in his labyrinthine domain and menaced by puppet dolls. The Toymaker taunts the Doctor, who challenges him to another game. They race back to the present where the Toymaker seizes UNIT’s galvanic beam. He blasts the Time Lord who “bi-regenerates” into two bodies. They defeat the villain in a game of catch, and one Doctor retires to a family life on Earth with Donna, while the other sets off for fresh adventures.

First UK broadcast
Saturday 9 December 2023

Cast
The Doctor – David Tennant
Donna Noble – Catherine Tate
The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa
The Toymaker – Neil Patrick Harris
Melanie Bush – Bonnie Langford
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave
Shirley Bingham – Ruth Madeley
Charles Banerjee – Charlie De Melo
John Logie Baird – John Mackay
Colonel Ibrahim – Alexander Devrient
Shaun Temple – Karl Collins
Sylvia Noble – Jacqueline King
Rose Noble – Yasmin Finney
Edward Lawn Bridges – Tim Hudson
Middle-aged man – Ross Gurney-Randall
Pilot – Glen Fox
The Vlinx – Aidan Cook
Voice of the Vlinx – Nicholas Briggs
Trinity Wells – Lachele Carl
Voice of Stooky Sue – Leigh Lothian
Dance double – Luke Featherston

Crew
Writer – Russell T Davies
Director – Chanya Button
Music – Murray Gold
Producer – Vicki Delow
Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Phil Collinson, Joel Collins

RT review by Patrick Mulkern

“Well, that’s all right then!” The Toymaker’s piercingly sarcastic retort to the Doctor’s ludicrous bleats of exoneration – during a puppet show taunting him about the demises of his past companions – is just one of dozens of flourishes that sing in this third special. And they continue to haunt.

I love the Doctor breezing into UNIT HQ and bumping into Mel after some 36 years. Bonnie Langford’s second bite of the Who cherry is richly deserved after her raw deal in the 1980s. (I interviewed Bonnie for Radio Times in 1986, and she wasn’t sure even then whether she’d be back the following year – and here we are in 2023!) Time has been kind to her and, of course, she is magnificent as a Mel reimagined by Russell T Davies. I also love the idea of UNIT boss Kate doling out jobs to the Time Lord’s former companions – and Donna bagging one and doubling her salary in the space of seconds.

The Toymaker’s screamingly camp song-and-dance routine to the Spice Girls at UNIT HQ is one of my all-time favourite Doctor Who scenes, accomplished with precision and elan – flinging Kate into a wall, spinning Mel like a top, dealing death by bouncy balls, and showering rose petals in a steal from American Beauty. A jaw-dropping showstopper. I only wish they’d found something acceptable to inflict upon Shirley to include her in the assault (other than the Toymaker gurning at her).

We live in strange times; we exist in a Whoniverse where it is now verboten to show Davros in his mobility chair, for fear it might offend people with disabilities, whereas it’s fine for another ancient villain to be as camp as a row of tents and voice racist tendencies in a wavering mittel-European accent. I’m glad I’m not making such nice judgment calls. I adore Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker, though, the closest Doctor Who has come to Jonathan Harris’s Dr Smith in the 1960s Lost in Space.

The Giggle’s 1966 forebear, The Celestial Toymaker, embroiled William Hartnell’s Doctor and companions Steven and Dodo in far more elaborate challenges than these latest, banal games of cards and catch-a-ball, but the Toymaker’s masterplan of seeding a maddening arpeggio through time from the dawn of TV is very clever. RTD delivers a subtle, salty comment on our modern addiction to screens and our tendency to shout into the ether.

The ventriloquist dummy Stooky Bill is hideous, as are his Woodentop family, Stooky Sue and the “babbies”, and it’s hugely satisfying when a merciless Donna smashes and boots them to bits. It almost goes without saying, but Catherine Tate and David Tennant are a superb pairing, a gift for this 60th anniversary.

Some fans barked loudly for a multi-Doctor episode and RTD cunningly delivers one in a way that few could have predicted. The “bi-generation” is a joy as the old Doctor teams with the new for the majority of the denouement. We’ve had off-kilter regenerations before and this one opens all manner of possibilities for the future.

It’s a perfect wrap for 60 years of Doctor Who that one version of the Time Lord is parked in his happy place to lick his wounds and dump his baggage, and I actually hope this umpteenth Tennant Doctor is left to enjoy his retirement undisturbed. Onwards and forwards with Ncuti Gatwa – in just his briefs or fully attired. He’s electrifying.

At the end of these three specials, what fast becomes apparent is that it’s actually Russell T Davies who is the Toymaker, dusting off some long-neglected toys, holding them up to the light again and giving them another game for old time’s sake. He’s also minted shiny new toys that will see him and us through a few more years. With The Giggle, the showrunner has had the last laugh.

Catch up on past episodes in the Radio Times Doctor Who Story Guide