The Giggle (TV story)

The Giggle
Novelised as:	The Giggle
Doctor:	Fourteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Donna
Featuring:	Wilf, Kate, Shirley, Mel, Trinity, Fifteenth Doctor, Rose, Sylvia, Shaun
Main enemy:	The Toymaker
Main setting:	Soho 1925, London, 2023
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T Davies
Director:	Chanya Button
Release details
Genre:	Science fiction
Story number:	303
Number of parts:	1
Premiere broadcast:	9 December 2023
Premiere networks:	BBC One, Disney+
Format:	1x60 minute episode
Unleashed:	The Giggle
The Official Doctor Who Podcast:	The Giggle
Official trailer
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Another official trailer
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Memorable moment
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Doctor Who television stories
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The Giggle was the third and final of the three 2023 specials of Doctor Who, broadcast on 9 December 2023 as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations.

It saw the final onscreen adventure of the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble, the return of the Toymaker portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris, and the first televised appearance of Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor. It also introduced the concept of bi-generation, a variant of regeneration which caused the Doctor's newest incarnation to "split" from the previous, allowing the two to become independent beings, also implying for the full regeneration to happen to happen off-screen.

Synopsis

The giggle of a mysterious puppet is driving the human race insane. When the Doctor discovers the return of the terrifying Toymaker, he faces a fight he can never win.

Plot

The Toymaker has returned! He's causing havoc, not just in the United Kingdom, but around the world - people are more easily offended than ever, making everyone fight. The Doctor and Donna find a hidden message concealed in every electronic screen in the world, created in the dawn of television - a giggle. The notes of this giggle correlate to a wavefunction UNIT have interpreted. The Doctor is also reunited with his former companion Mel, who now works for UNIT.

The Doctor and Donna return to 1925, when television was invented. There, they find the Toymaker, juggling three balls. He throws balls to the Doctor while recounting a tale about games. Eventually, Donna catches one and the villain retreats. Following him, the two end up in a seemingly-infinite set of corridors. They are split up and each fight a monster - the Doctor acts against a puppet whilst Donna encounters various little living dolls.

Finding one another, two chairs are created from nothing, propelling the pair towards a giant colourful stage, where the Toymaker awaits. He tells a tale of the Doctor's lives, how he allowed the companions Amy Pond, Clara Oswald and Bill Potts to be killed. At each death pronouncement, the Doctor defies the notion emotionally. Then the Doctor and the Toymaker play a little game, the winner being the triumphant overall. They decide to split a deck of cards; whomever draws the higher valued card is the winner. The Doctor draws an eight of clubs, the Toymaker wins with a king. However, just as the Toymaker goes to claim superiority, the Doctor suggests that they are in fact drawing overall, since the First Doctor previously bested the Toymaker. It is decided there is to be a final deciding round, best of three.

Thus, the Toymaker escapes to 2023, with the Doctor and Donna in pursuit. The toy shop they were in crumples into a small ornate box with a design reminiscent of a deck of cards.

Back in 2023, the Toymaker invades UNIT's skyscraper HQ, singing a song, dancing around, turning bullets into hearts and being a menace. He takes control of the galvanic beam and shoots the Doctor. Donna and Mel rush to the Doctor's aid, promising that he will not die alone and the Doctor, on the cusp of regeneration, says "Allons-y!". However, he does not regenerate. An odd sensation builds within him, and suddenly he splits in two. Everyone watches in amazement as the Doctor bigenerates for the first time. Instead of changing, a new incarnation emerges from the Doctor and splits off from him.

It is decided, since this is a new incarnation, they may now play the contest properly. The two Doctors together united defeat the Toymaker, by catching a ball and throwing it to him, who fails to catch it. He is defeated, and the new Doctor whacks a giant wooden mallet into the TARDIS, creating another TARDIS, which Donna thinks is nuts. Donna suggests to the Fourteenth Doctor that he should briefly settle down and have a normal life, for a few years. He agrees and says goodbye to his other self.

Inside the original TARDIS, the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna decide to settle down on Earth for a while, and have some lunch outside on a sunny day with Donna's family and Mel. Meanwhile, the Fifteenth Doctor plays some music from a newly-instated jukebox, and takes the TARDIS off, to new adventures.

Cast

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

And introducing Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor

Uncredited cast

• Wilfred Mott (archive voice) - Bernard Cribbins
• First Doctor (archive footage) - William Hartnell
• The Toymaker (archive footage) - Michael Gough
• The Master (archive voice) - Anthony Ainley
• Female UNIT Officer - Megan Shirley

Crew

to be added

Worldbuilding

TARDIS

• After the TARDIS is duplicated, the Fourteenth Doctor's interation no longer randomly takes him off course. This is because the Fifteenth Doctor is still out there, being taken where "the Doctor" is needed in the universe.

People

• Sarah Jane Smith is confirmed dead by 2023. The Doctor reveals that he loved her just as he had loved Rose Tyler.
• The Toymaker says he turned the Guardian of Time into Voodoo dolls.

Music

• The Toymaker has the Spice Girls song Spice Up Your Life when he breaks into UNIT to torment everyone.

Notes

• This story's upcoming debut was mentioned alongside the other 2023 specials in the non-fiction feature Back in Business published in Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 on 7 September 2023.
• Russell T Davies was inspired, when researching John Logie Baird during the production of Nolly, to write an episode around the puppet. He later realized that a two-foot tall puppet wouldn't be the most intimidating foe, so decided to use the Toymaker as the antagonist.
• Bernard Cribbins was originally intended to appear in this episode as Wilfred Mott. However, his health prevented him from doing so, making the previous episode his final acting performance prior to his death. Wilfred still appears briefly in the episode, through use of a stand-in actor, archive audio, and visual effects.
  • The archive audio used for Wilfred was taken from The Poison Sky.
• This is the only post-2005 regeneration episode not to feature either the Daleks or the Master, not counting the latter's brief appearance imprisoned in the Toymaker's gold tooth.
• Discounting the special cases of TV: Time and the Rani ^[+]Loading...["Time and the Rani (TV story)"] and TV: Doctor Who ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"], the regeneration scene occurs much earlier than in most regeneration stories. However, being a bigeneration, it is a unique circumstance in that it is not actually a change of appearance that takes place, but rather a new incarnation is "split" from the former.
• Davies revealed in his in-vision commentary that The Giggle almost included a scene which mentioned Wilfred Mott passing, saying "It was immensely sad, it was beautiful, and it was very much a reaction to what had literally just happened, 'cause it felt very, very strange so I felt like we had to acknowledge it.", and mentions that it was Phil Collinson who prevented the scene from happening.

Myths

• Donna would regenerate into the Fifteenth Doctor instead of the Fourteenth Doctor (this theory gained some attention before the airing of the 2023 specials, but was proven false during the first special)

Filming locations

• Clare Street, Bristol
• Broad Street, Bristol

Ratings

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

• Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 contained several works of fiction which teased some of the characters in The Giggle:
  • The short story First Day of the Doctor contained an obscured snippet of a page of the Fifteenth Doctor's diary about his first adventure with a girl called Ruby S.
  • The spot-the-difference puzzle Double Danger depicted the Doctor asking an individual for help with the then-unnamed version of the Toymaker portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris.
• Colourised footage from The Celestial Toymaker ^[+]Loading...["The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)"] is shown when the Doctor identifies the Toymaker. One of the scenes appeared at the end of TV: The Daleks in Colour.
• Mel mentions Kate Stewart offering her a job, which was alluded to at the support group meeting in The Power of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"].
• Donna is also offered a job at UNIT, having lost her last one prior to the events of The Star Beast.

Home media releases

DVD and Blu-ray releases

This episode, along with The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"] and Wild Blue Yonder ^[+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"], was released on Region 2 DVD, and Region B Blu-ray and steelbook on 18 December 2023.

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  UK DVD cover

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  UK Blu-ray cover

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  UK steelbook cover

Gallery

to be added