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.

The episode notably marked the return of the Toymaker, 56 years after his introduction, making him thus far the Doctor Who antagonist with the longest gap between TV appearances. While the Toymaker himself had appeared in other media in the following years, The Giggle was the Toymaker's second onscreen appearance after The Celestial Toymaker, this time with a new appearance portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris, making the Toymaker the second established Doctor Who antagonist to be played by an American actor following Eric Roberts portraying The Master in the Doctor Who TV film.

The story also reveals The Master's fate following his last appearance in The Power of the Doctor, with the Toymaker revealing he had trapped the Master inside his gold tooth. However the story doesn't specify if the incarnation trapped inside the Toymaker's gold tooth is the Spy Master or a different incarnation entirely, with the gold tooth shown being picked up by a nail vanished hand following the Toymaker's defeat, mirroring Trefusis picking up the Saxon Master's emerald ring following his temporary death in Last of the Time Lords.

The story also reveals that the Doctor at some point discovered the fate of both Clara Oswald and Bill Potts while the Toymaker is taunting him over the deaths of Amy Pond as well as Clara and Bill, with the Doctor stating that Clara was currently enjoying her second chance at life while Bill's consciousness had survived after her physical death.

The story also featured the return of Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush, in her first full story following her cameo in The Power of the Doctor and after her last encounter with the Doctor in Death of the Doctor, with this story revealing that Mel now worked for UNIT.

The story also featured the first time the Doctor is shown acknowledging the death of Sarah Jane Smith, as mentioned in the story Farewell, Sarah Jane.

Most notably however, the story saw the final onscreen adventure of the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble, and featured the first televised appearance of Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, however it notably didn't feature the final appearance of David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor himself following his regeneration. Historically The Giggle introduced the concept and the very first depiction of Bi-generation, an extremely rare variant of the regeneration process that is said to have been thought of as a myth on Gallifrey due to how rarely it happens during the regeneration process, with a Bi-generation physically splitting the previous incarnation of a Time Lord from their succeeding incarnation, allowing both previous and newer incarnations to exist at the same time, with both incarnations retaining all their memories from their past incarnations up to the most current one. As such the story featured the first Bi-generation of the Doctor, resulting in the Fourteenth Doctor's regeneration story also acting as a Multi-Doctor story, while also marking the first time since the Doctor Who TV film that the Doctor regenerates part-way through the story rather than at the end. The story also marked the first time that both the proceeding and succeeding incarnations of the Doctor are shown to exist within the same timeline rather than the current incarnation teaming up with a past incarnation during a Multi-Doctor event, while also uniquely making The Giggle the first time that a regeneration story also acted as a post-regeneration story.

With it being established before that the TARDIS can undergo a regeneration of its own by repairing itself after extensive damage and completely changing the desktop theme, The Giggle also marked the first time that the TARDIS is shown undergoing a Bi-generation of its own, however in this case it was caused by the effects of the Toymaker's game still being in effect, allowing the Fifteenth Doctor to literally split the TARDIS in two as his prize for beating the Toymaker, and allowing both Doctors to retain ownership of their TARDIS.

With such a unique regeneration resulting in the continuing existence of two different incarnations of the Doctor, The Giggle concluded the Fourteenth Doctor's story by showing him being the first incarnation to fully retire from travelling through space and time while letting his successor continue in their place, with the Fourteenth Doctor himself shown being accepted as a surrogate family member of the Nobles and keeping in contact with Mel, while also seemingly answering the question as to why the Fourteenth Doctor had regenerated with the face of his tenth incarnation, with Donna believing the Doctor had subconsciously chosen the face of the Tenth Doctor so that he could not only find her again but finally settle down into a normal life, this would make it the second time the Doctor had subconsciously regenerated into a familiar face following the Twelfth Doctor having the same face as Lobus Caecilius after subconsciously regenerating with that face for a specific purpose.

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
• Tremas Master (archive voice) - Anthony Ainley
• Saxon Master (archive voice) - John Simm
• Missy (archive voice) - Michelle Gomez
• Female UNIT Officer - Megan Shirley

Crew

to be added

Worldbuilding

This section needs a cleanup.

Some of these points are phrased more like continuity so they should be moved to #Continuity.

Regeneration

• Bi-generation is an extremely rare mutation of regeneration that results in Timeless Child's species and Time Lords splitting into their current incarnation and the one they would have become. This doesn't result in temporal paradoxes as they are both the concurrent versions of the same person. It's unknown if this means the one who bigenerated has the same retaining regenerations.

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.

The Doctor

• The Doctor still remembers key things that happened in his past lives; such as his exile period working for UNIT, the Key to Time quest, the event of Logopolis, Adric's death, his wife River and losing Rose Tyler.

People

• Sarah Jane Smith is confirmed dead by 2023.
• The Toymaker says he turned the Guardians of Time into Voodoo dolls.
• The Master begged the Toymaker to save his life if he won a game, having been too badly injured on the Cyber-conversion planet to regenerate; he lost the game and was imprisoned in the Toymaker's gold tooth.

Music

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

UNIT

• When setting up the template in the sub-frame, Donna asks Mel if it is static or dynamic; she responds that it is the latter, as UNIT uses Triad.

London

• In the alleyway located in 1925 Soho the Doctor and Donna arrive in, there are posters for Henrik's and School of Motoring.

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

Rating

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 ^[+]Loading...["First Day of the Doctor (short story)"] contained an obscured snippet of a page of the Fifteenth Doctor's diary, containing a quote of his line "Someone tell me what the hell is going on here?"
  • The spot-the-difference puzzle Double Danger ^[+]Loading...["Double Danger (game)"] 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.
• Footage of Rose Noble during the garden party at the Nobles's home was used in the pre-titles sequence of The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"]; this episode contextualises the footage not as a flashback, but actually as a flashforwards.

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.

• 

  UK DVD cover

• 

  UK Blu-ray cover

• 

  UK steelbook cover

Gallery

to be added