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, 57 years after his introduction, making him so 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 featured the return of Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush, in her first full story following her cameo in The Power of the Doctor, with this story revealing that Mel now worked for UNIT.

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. It also seemingly answered 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

In Soho, 1925, Charles Banerjee enters a toy store to purchase a Stooky Bill doll for his employer. His employer, John Logie Baird, needs a test subject for the first few shots of his newest invention. The pair place the dummy's head under the bright lights and begin the test - the first ever television recording. Back in London, 2023, there's chaos everywhere, rioting in the streets, people insisting that they're right, all the time, and attempting to argue with them drives them into a rage. UNIT arrives on the scene and takes the Doctor and Donna to UNIT HQ where they're united with Shirley Anne Bingham, Kate Stewart, and Melanie Bush, all inoculated to the goings on due to a small armband created by UNIT. When these armbands are de-activated, a distortion becomes present in their normal brain activity - a waveform that wasn't there previously. Upon analyzing the waveform and playing it as a sound, they find that it corresponds to laughter, laughter that accompanies the first recording of Stooky Bill which has been hidden in every screen ever since, waiting until two says ago, when the launch of the KOSAT 5 satellite finally gave the whole of the human race access to the internet.

The Doctor and Donna trek back to 1925, searching for the cause of madness sweeping humanity, and trace Stooky Bill to the toy store, entering it and encountering the Toymaker. He recognizes his old foe, let into the world due to his invocation of a superstition - a line of salt - at the edge of the universe, and chases after him, telling Donna to return to the TARDIS. Donna doesn't, and the two become trapped in the Toymaker's funhouse labyrinth. The two become separated and have to stumble their way around. The Doctor encounters Charles Banerjee, turned into a marionette for losing a game to remove the giggle in his head, forced to dance on command as the Toymaker wills. Donna encounters living dolls, the family of Stooky Bill, and breaks them as they try to eat her.

The two reunite as they find themselves the guests of honor at the Toymaker's puppet show, an attempt to recount the Doctor's adventures since leaving Donna for her. The deaths of Amy Pond, Clara Oswald, and Bill Potts. As each are mentioned, the Doctor objects, none of them died under his care, all lived on in some form or fashion. The Toymaker is dismissive and treats the nitpicking with contempt, bringing up the Flux, and how it was killing everything under the watch of the Doctor. The Doctor, unable to take more, challenges him to a game. As they set up the game, the Toymaker brags about the fun he's had since arriving in the universe, defeating God and turning him into a Jack-in-the-Box, making a jigsaw out of the Doctor's history, being the Master's last hope of life, and sealing him inside a gold tooth when he lost. The two decide on a game to play, a simple cut of the deck, high card wins. The Doctor turns over an eight. The Toymaker, a king. As the Toymaker goes to claim his prize, the Doctor points out that long ago he was the one that won their game. So the two are tied, and the rules of games dictate that it must be best of 3. The Toymaker agrees, best of 2023, and disappears, causing the labyrinth to collapse around the remaining pair, the toy store folding up into a small toy box.

In 2023 UNIT manages to shoot down the KOSAT 5 satellite using their galvanic beam, breaking the chain of satellites forcing the giggle into people's heads. The Doctor arrives and hands Mel the box to look after, telling UNIT that they're facing an elemental force that can meddle with reality and can step from 1925 to now as easily as walking through a door, so they need to be careful. Of course, as he explains this, the Toymaker literally walks through a door he's created in the middle of the room doing a song and dance number. Everything UNIT attempts to interfere with him is completely ineffective, they collapse into bouncy balls if they try to touch him, their bullets turn into rose petals. When he finishes his song, he disappears through the floor before then showing up at the galvanic beam. The Doctor, begging him to stop, offers to leave with him, to take their games to the stars, the Time Lord and the Toymaker, just to leave this planet alone. The Toymaker is tempted, but declines - he considers Earth to be the ultimate playground.

The Doctor then insists that they finish their game, causing the Toymaker to fire the galvanic beam at him. As he played the first game with one Doctor, the second with this Doctor, it follows that the last game must be with the next Doctor. The Doctor begins to regenerate, and as he accepts the change, it dies away. He asks Donna and Mel to pull on him, something feels different this time. As they do, the Doctor breaks in two in a shimmer of regeneration energy, one being the Fourteenth Doctor, the other being the Fifteenth. Everyone is confused, not sure as to what happened, which the Fifteenth Doctor explains quickly - he's apparently bi-generated, though it's supposed to have been a myth.

The pair of Doctors, united, challenge the Toymaker to a game. Incensed, he decries that this is cheating, but as he caused this to happen they insist that it's part of his own games. Begrudgingly accepting the contest, the trio play a high stakes game of catch - the one who drops the ball loses. They dash across the helipad, tossing the ball back and forth, barely catching it many times, before ultimately a throw manages to slip out of the Toymaker's grasp and over the side of the building. The Fourteenth Doctor decrees that as his reward he wants the Toymaker gone from this universe forever. The Toymaker folds up like a paper doll and slots inside the toy box, which UNIT takes away to their deepest vault to bind in salt as the waveform inside people's minds dissipates.

In the TARDIS, the two Doctors talk about how things can work with two of them. The Fifteenth insists that the only reason he's stable is because the Fourteenth takes the time to fix himself. He needs to take the time to rest, something he's never done in his life. But Fourteen is hesitant, he could never bear to give up the TARDIS. Fifteen comes up with an idea. He still hasn't gotten his prize for winning yet, perhaps the Toymaker's domain is still lingering. He goes outside and taps the TARDIS with a mallet, splitting it in two. Fifteen then boards his new TARDIS and flies away, off for adventures.

Fourteen decides to stay on earth as is suggested, at least for the time being, staying with the Noble family and Mel. He ends up resting, with a family at last.

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
• Spy Master (archive voice) - Sacha Dhawan
• 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^{[statement unclear]} 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.
• Sabalom Glitz died at the age of 101 after tripping over a Whiskey bottle. He had a Viking-themed funeral.

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 Albion Chambers, an alleyway located in 1925 Soho, the Doctor and Donna pass 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 ^[+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"].
• Kate Stewart remains the Head of UNIT, a position she has held since The Power of Three ^[+]Loading...["The Power of Three (TV story)"].
• Shirley Anne Bingham is still UNIT's scientific advisor, as seen in The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"].
• The Doctor recalls how he played a game at the edge of the universe against the Not-things in Wild Blue Yonder ^[+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"], which he believed allowed the Toymaker into the universe.
• Kate remarks how with all of the world leaders succumbing to the Toymaker's control, they need permission from the Doctor to destroy the satellite. The Doctor has functioned as an emergency world leading authority before, notably being President of the World on multiple occasions during his twelfth incarnation in Death in Heaven ^[+]Loading...["Death in Heaven (TV story)"], The Zygon Invasion ^[+]Loading...["The Zygon Invasion (TV story)"] and The Pyramid at the End of the World ^[+]Loading...["The Pyramid at the End of the World (TV story)"].
• Donna mentions how the Doctor tends to keep traveling, refusing to confront or think back on things that have happened to him. Davros once made this same observation, that the Doctor keeps running because he dare not look back in Journey's End ^[+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"].
• The Toymaker mocks the Doctor's treatment of his companions, notably Amy Pond's demise against the Weeping Angels in The Angels Take Manhattan ^[+]Loading...["The Angels Take Manhattan (TV story)"], Clara Oswald's encounter with the Raven in Face the Raven ^[+]Loading...["Face the Raven (TV story)"], Bill Potts's battle with the Cybermen in The Doctor Falls ^[+]Loading...["The Doctor Falls (TV story)"]and then the universe's suffering during the Flux event in The Vanquishers ^[+]Loading...["The Vanquishers (TV story)"].
• The Doctor is aware of the survival of Bill's consciousness, which the Twelfth Doctor learnt in Twice Upon a Time ^[+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"], and Clara surviving in her last second of life, which the Doctor remembered in Twice Upon a Time after losing his memory of it in Hell Bent ^[+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)"].
• The Doctor and the Toymaker recall their previous game, where the Doctor won and escaped the Toymaker's control in The Celestial Toymaker ^[+]Loading...["The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)"].
• The Toymaker notes that the Doctor was a "different doctor" when they last met, recalling how their first in encounter in The Celestial Toymaker ^[+]Loading...["The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)"] was with the First Doctor.
• The Doctor remarks to Donna that he used to believe he was always right, remarking he has a sense of arrogance typical of his younger selves, recalling how he previously stated similar remarks in Time Crash ^[+]Loading...["Time Crash (TV story)"] and Twice Upon a Time ^[+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"].
• 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 flashforward.
• Some of the set dressing in the episode contains Easter Eggs to previous stories:
  • Posters are seen around 1925 Soho for Henrik's, the department store Rose Tyler worked for in Rose ^[+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"],
  • Although not visible in the final cut of the episode, one building was given Sanderson & Grainger branding, the department store the Eleventh Doctor briefly worked for in Closing Time ^[+]Loading...["Closing Time (TV story)"].
• When he bigenerates, the Fourteenth Doctor says "Allonsy", a catchphrase this and his tenth incarnation enjoyed saying in multiple adventures, like Voyage of the Damned ^[+]Loading...["Voyage of the Damned (TV story)"], Midnight ^[+]Loading...["Midnight (TV story)"] and The Star Beast ^[+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"].
• The Fifteenth Doctor recalls how so much suffering has impacted the Fourteenth Doctor, notably Adric's death against the Cybermen in Earthshock ^[+]Loading...["Earthshock (TV story)"], the Time War in The Day of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], the Flux in The Vanquishers ^[+]Loading...["The Vanquishers (TV story)"], losing Rose Tyler in a parallel universe in Doomsday ^[+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"], and Sarah Jane Smith having passed away in Farewell, Sarah Jane ^[+]Loading...["Farewell, Sarah Jane (webcast)"].

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