The Giggle (TV story)

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The Giggle was the third and final of the three 2023 specials of Doctor Who, broadcast on 9 December 2023[1] 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 [+]Loading...["The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)"], 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 [+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"] movie.

The Master himself is also mentioned by name in the story, with it being revealed he had survived his last encounter with the Doctor following his defeat in The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"] and challenged the Toymaker to a game in a desperate attempt at preserving his life, but lost and was imprisoned in the Toymaker's gold tooth. After the Toymaker's defeat, the gold tooth containing him is shown being taken by an unknown individual, with the Master's laugh being provided by Anthony Ainley, John Simm, Michelle Gomez and Sacha Dhawan via archived audio.

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 [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"], with this story revealing that Mel now worked for UNIT.

Most notably, 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. Historically The Giggle introduced the very first bi-generation of the Doctor, resulting in the Fourteenth Doctor's regeneration story also acting as a Multi-Doctor story, and marking the first time since the Doctor Who TV movie that the Doctor regenerates part-way through the story rather than at the end. The story also marked the first time that both the preceding 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.

Therefore, The Giggle concluded the Fourteenth Doctor's story by showing him being the first incarnation to fully retire from travelling through space and time with the Noble family, while letting his successor continue in their place. It also 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.

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.[2]

Plot

In 1925 Soho, Charles Banerjee enters a toy store to purchase a Stooky Bill ventriloquist’s dummy. The store's owner is delighted to learn why Banerjee wants the doll: his employer, John Logie Baird, needs a subject to test his newest invention. Banerjee is disturbed by the shop owner, particularly when his German accent slips. Baird and Banerjee place the dummy's head before the camera and begin the test - the first ever television recording. The camera’s wheels spin and the bright lights burn and to the accompaniment of an arpeggioed giggle, the dummy bursts into flames.

Following their return from the edge of the universe, the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble find a 2023 London plagued by chaotic anarchy. A man annoyed by cars driving in his way tells the Doctor that everybody on Earth believes themselves to be right all the time and that arguing drives them into a rage. As the Toymaker (disguised as a gentleman speaking with a French accent) pulls the Doctor into a dance, UNIT arrives on the scene and takes the Doctor and Donna to UNIT HQ, where they are reunited with Shirley Bingham and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, both inoculated to the chaos thanks to a UNIT-created armband called a Zeedex. The Doctor deduces that he and the Vlinx, a robot, are immune due to their alienness, as are Donna and Melanie Bush, who recently joined UNIT, benefitting from the effects of long-term TARDIS travel. Kate orders her Zeedex deactivated to demonstrate the consequences: no longer suppressed, a distorted brainwave not previously present makes her paranoid and vengeful. Analysing the waveform and playing it as a sound, the group discovers it corresponds to the giggle accompanying the Stooky Bill recording. The recording has been hidden in every screen since, only triggered when the launch of the KOSAT 5 satellite finally connected all of humanity 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, the Doctor runs into the owner - the Toymaker, who talks about the oldest game, catch, while juggling balls. He recognises his old foe, let into the world due to his invocation of a superstition: a line of salt at the edge of the universe. The Doctor chases the Toymaker, telling Donna to return to the TARDIS. Donna insists on staying with him, and the two become trapped in the Toymaker's funhouse labyrinth, stumbling around and eventually becoming separated. The Doctor encounters Banerjee, turned into a marionette who dances on the Toymaker's command after losing a game to remove the giggle in his head. Donna encounters Stooky Bill's living doll family and breaks them as they try to eat her.

The Doctor and Donna reunite and find themselves the guests of honour at the Toymaker's puppet show: an attempt to recount to Donna the Doctor's adventures since leaving her. The Toymaker portrays the deaths of Amy Pond, Clara Oswald and Bill Potts, the Doctor objecting that none of them died under his care; all three lived on in some form. The Toymaker is dismissive and treats the nit-picking with contempt, mentioning how the Flux ravaged the universe under the Doctor's watch. Unable to take more, the Doctor challenges the Toymaker to a game. The Toymaker accepts, bragging as they prepare about his fun since arriving in the universe. He has defeated God and turned him into a Jack-in-the-Box, made a jigsaw out of the Doctor's history, and become the Master's last hope of life, sealing him inside a gold tooth when he lost his own game. There was one person the Toymaker did not face, "the one who waits", but he considers that a game for another day.

The Doctor and the Toymaker decide on a game: a simple cut of the deck where the highest card wins. The Doctor turns over an eight, then the Toymaker unveils a king. As the Toymaker moves to claim his prize, the Doctor points out that long ago, he won their game. The two are therefore tied, and per the rules of the game, a third game is required. The Toymaker agrees and disappears, causing the labyrinth to collapse around the Doctor and Donna and the toy store to fold into a small toy box. The duo escape, realising the Toymaker intends to play the third game in the present day.

In UNIT HQ in 2023, UNIT manages to shoot down the KOSAT 5 satellite using their galvanic beam, breaking the satellite chain triggering the giggle. The Doctor arrives and hands Mel the toy box, warning UNIT to be careful — the Toymaker is an elemental force who can meddle with reality, stepping from 1925 to the present as if walking through a door. The Toymaker promptly walks through a door he creates in the middle of the room, performing a dance number to "Spice Up Your Life" by the Spice Girls. UNIT's attempts to interfere are completely ineffective: two soldiers collapse into coloured bouncy balls upon touching the Toymaker, with one ball landing in Shirley's lap, which shows the screaming face of one of the unfortunate soldiers; and the other UNIT troops' bullets become harmless red rose petals. The Toymaker disappears through the floor before materialising on the helipad manning the galvanic beam. The Doctor begs the Toymaker to stop, offering to leave with him to take their game to the stars. The Toymaker is tempted, but declines; he considers Earth the ultimate playground.

The Doctor demands that the Toymaker finish their game, prompting the Toymaker to shoot him through his stomach with the galvanic beam. As he played the first game with one Doctor and the second with this Doctor, the rules dictate that a third Doctor must play the third game. The Doctor begins to regenerate, with Donna and Mel by his side and holding his hands, the Doctor accepts what is to come, reassuring the two of them that it's alright, saying a final "Allons-y" as he prepares to say goodbye to his familiar body once again. However, when he accepts the change, the regeneration light dies away... and the Doctor doesn't change. As Donna and Mel look at him in confusion the Doctor asks the both of them, still holding his hands, to pull on him - much to the Doctor's own confusion, something about the regeneration feels different this time. As Donna and Mel begin to pull, the Doctor begins to glow with regeneration energy again — and much to the shock and confusion of everyone watching, including the Toymaker, the Doctor's body begins splitting in half. The Doctor looks in shock and then confusion into the face of a dark-skinned man with a trim moustache, who quickly becomes excited at what is happening as they continue to separate, with the Doctor quickly realising that this man is in fact his next incarnation: the Fifteenth Doctor, and with encouragement from the new incarnation the two Doctors do one final push, causing both Doctors to completely separate from each other and finish the regeneration, resulting in both incarnations existing at the same time. The split also results in parts of the Fourteenth Doctor's clothes to be shared between the two incarnations, with the new Doctor wearing his predecessor's white shirt and grey tie over his boxer shorts along with the Fourteenth Doctor's shoes. The Doctors excitedly greet and hug each other, before the Fifteenth Doctor calms down from the excitement of what just happened and asks "Could someone tell me what the hell is going on here?", with Kate and Shirley also wanting to know — in particular with how it's even possible that the Doctor's regeneration resulted in him splitting in two. The Fifteenth Doctor quickly dispels everyone's confusion: he has bi-generated, explaining that such a regeneration isn't actually supposed to be a thing and it's something the Time Lords had thought to be a myth.

The Doctors both challenge the Toymaker to a game. They strike down his protest that this is cheating — the Fifteenth Doctor was brought into the game according to the rules. The Toymaker begrudgingly begins a high-stakes take on man's oldest game: a game of catch where the first player to drop the ball loses. The trio dash across the helipad, tossing the ball back and forth, barely catching it many times, before the Toymaker misses a throw that falls to the city below. The Doctors the winners, the Fourteenth Doctor claims his prize: forever banishing the Toymaker from existence. The Toymaker cries out that his legions will come for them before folding up like a paper doll and slotting inside his toy box, which UNIT takes to their deepest vault to bind in salt as the waveform dissipates. The Toymaker's gold tooth that contained the Master, is picked up by a mysterious unseen woman as the laugh of various incarnations of the Master is heard.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctors discuss how life will work with two Doctors simultaneously existing. The Fifteenth Doctor insists he is only stable because the Fourteenth Doctor spent time recovering from the Doctor's heavy experiences in their prior incarnations. Donna supports this, believing the Fourteenth Doctor regenerated into a form near-identical to the Tenth Doctor as a subconscious sign to "come home" and rest. The Fourteenth Doctor reluctantly agrees, but hesitates to part with the TARDIS. The Fifteenth Doctor realises the Toymaker's domain might be lingering and that he hasn't claimed his prize. He retrieves a mallet from under the TARDIS platform and hits the TARDIS, forging a new one. The Fourteenth Doctor bids farewell to his successor, both hugging each other and leaving by saluting each other. He boards the new TARDIS (which contains a jukebox) and dematerialises, leaving the original TARDIS with the Fourteenth Doctor.

The Fourteenth Doctor decides to live on Earth with the Nobles for the time being. He has a meal with them and Mel, recounting tales of his adventures. He remarks to Donna that he is the happiest he has been in his entire life because he finally knows what he has been fighting for: a normal life with a family. Elsewhere, the Fifteenth Doctor travels into the unknown, his next adventures soon to come.

Cast

And introducing Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor

Uncredited cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.
          

Note: Several of the camera department credits were given erroneously on broadcast due to an apparent formatting error. (More details here.)


Worldbuilding

This section needs a cleanup.

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

Regeneration

The Doctor

  • The Doctor remarks to Donna that he's a "billion years old". It is unclear if he takes into account the four and a half billion years he spent into the Confession Dial, as seen in Hell Bent [+]Loading...["Hell Bent (TV story)"].
  • The Toymaker remarks that he made a 'jigsaw' out of the Doctor's history, implying that he is, at the very least, partly responsible for any inconsistencies and changes in the Time Lord's past, such as his origins and the history of the Timeless Child.
  • 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 events of Logopolis [+]Loading...["Logopolis (TV story)"], Adric's death, the Last Great Time War, his wife River Song, the passing of Sarah Jane Smith and losing Rose Tyler.
  • The Fifteenth Doctor seemingly has knowledge of events that have not yet happened to the Fourteenth Doctor, specifically calling out that the Fifteenth is emotionally stable because the Fourteenth takes time to fix himself.

Technology

  • The Fifteenth Doctor's TARDIS is noticeably thinner than the Fourteenth Doctor's TARDIS. It is also a darker shade of blue.

People

Music

UNIT

London

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.[3]
  • Bernard Cribbins was originally intended to appear in The Giggle 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, and archive audio from The Poison Sky.
  • This is the only post-2005 regeneration episode not to feature either the Daleks or the Master, not counting the appearance of the Toymaker's gold tooth which the Toymaker claims the Master is trapped inside.
  • 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.
  • After the bigeneration splits the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors into two separate entities, the English (UK) captions on the Disney+ version incorrectly identity the Fourteenth Doctor as the Tenth.
  • 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, which Davies agreed was the right decision.[4]
  • Davies also reveals in the in-vision commentary that the Toymaker's remark about turning the Doctor's life into a 'jigsaw puzzle' is a reference to both the Timeless Child and half-human claims about the Doctor's origins, creating some ambiguity as to how much of the Doctor's past is true and how much was fabricated by the Toymaker.
  • Similar to most other instances of the Doctor regenerating outside the TARDIS, the Doctor receives assistance in doing so; in this case, Donna and Mel assist by pulling the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors apart to complete the bi-generation.
  • The Toymaker's marionette show, particularly his sarcastic "Well that's alright then" retort, quickly became the basis for a popular internet meme.

Comparison between BBC and Disney+ versions

There are slight differences between the version broadcast on BBC One and the one shown on Disney+:

  • The Whoniverse ident was shown at the beginning of the episode on the BBC version. However, on the Disney+ version, the BBC ident was shown.
  • The Disney ident was shown at the end of the episode on the Disney+ version.
  • The Executive Producers' credits were shown after the title sequence in the BBC version, however, they were shown in the end credits in the Disney+ version.
  • In the end board for the BBC version, the Bad Wolf logo was shown on the left and the BBC Studios Productions logo on the right. In the Disney+ version, they were switched.

Myths

  • Donna Noble would regenerate into the Fifteenth Doctor instead of the Fourteenth Doctor.[source needed] (This theory gained some attention before the airing of the 2023 specials, but was proven false during the first special)
  • The Toymaker would be revealed as the reason for the Fourteenth Doctor having the same face as the Tenth. (No connection was made between the two, with the Toymaker just telling the Doctor "I made a jigsaw out of your history", leaving it ambiguous what he meant by that)
  • The Fourteenth Doctor's regeneration would go wrong, causing the Fifteenth Doctor to physically separate from the Fourteenth, resulting in both incarnations existing at the same time. (This was partially true, as instead of the regeneration going wrong, the Fourteenth Doctor underwent a bigeneration that resulted in him "splitting" from the Fifteenth Doctor, delaying his physical change until after his healing with the Nobles.)
  • The First Doctor would appear in the story and interact with the Fifteenth Doctor, either in the form of David Bradley reprising the role, or a deepfaked version of William Hartnell. (The First Doctor only appears in the form of colourised flashback footage from The Celestial Toymaker, and does not interact with the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Doctors. This may have been fuelled by Ncuti Gatwa's teasing that a scene was coming up in which his Doctor would share a scene with the First Doctor, which turned out to be referring to the newly-filmed insert in the 60th Anniversary rebroadcast of An Adventure in Space and Time.)

Filming locations

Ratings

  • 4.62 million (UK overnight).[6]
  • 6.84 million (UK final).[7]
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.

Production errors

  • In certain shots, the green-screen erected for filming on Clare Street can be seen reflected in the window fronts of Grades, Mr Emporium, and a window of the building besides.
  • During the Doctor's bi-generation, in the shot that follows after the Fourteenth Doctor says "You're me", David Tennant can be seen mouthing the same line again before the Fifteenth Doctor says "No, I'm me", with his audio having clearly been removed.

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 The Daleks in Colour [+]Loading...["The Daleks in Colour (TV story)"]. The footage was colourised by Rich Tipple and Kieran Highman.[8]
  • When UNIT retrieved the TARDIS, they pick it up with a helicopter to transport it, something the group have done before in The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"] and Death in Heaven [+]Loading...["Death in Heaven (TV story)"].
  • When seeing Kate, the Doctor recalls how her father Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart once ran UNIT and worked to keep it a secret, as depicted in much of the Third Doctor's era from Spearhead from Space [+]Loading...["Spearhead from Space (TV story)"] to Planet of the Spiders [+]Loading...["Planet of the Spiders (TV story)"] as well as the Fourth Doctor's era from Robot [+]Loading...["Robot (TV story)"] to Terror of the Zygons [+]Loading...["Terror of the Zygons (TV story)"]
  • Anne notes that the South Korean satellite was not emitting a mind control link the way the Saxon Master's Archangel Network once controlled the Human race in The Sound of Drums [+]Loading...["The Sound of Drums (TV story)"].
  • Kate recalls how UNIT has fought Yetis in The Invasion [+]Loading...["The Invasion (TV story)"], Clones in The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"] and The Zygon Invasion [+]Loading...["The Zygon Invasion (TV story)"], Robots in Robot [+]Loading...["Robot (TV story)"] and insects in The Green Death [+]Loading...["The Green Death (TV story)"]
  • The Fourteenth Doctor once more wears his glasses, as shown in The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"] and Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"].
  • Kate recalls that she knows the Doctor has two hearts and can change his face, as depicted in The Power of Three [+]Loading...["The Power of Three (TV story)"], The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"] and The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"].
  • Mel mentions Kate Lethbridge-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 notes that she wasn't the first red-haired person to travel with the Doctor after meeting Mel. The Dream Lord once informed Amy Pond that she shouldn't believe she is the first red-haired person to travel with the Doctor, noting Queen Elizabeth 1st also wrongly thought so, as depicted in Amy's Choice [+]Loading...["Amy's Choice (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 remains the Head of UNIT, a position she has held since The Power of Three [+]Loading...["The Power of Three (TV story)"]. She has also reverted to using her full name, the same name the character was introduced under in Downtime [+]Loading...["Downtime (home video)"].
  • Trinity Wells appears as a news presenter again, but this time on her own eponymous news programme. She previously worked for American News Networks in World War Three [+]Loading...["World War Three (TV story)"], Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"], The Poison Sky [+]Loading...["The Poison Sky (TV story)"] and The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"].
  • Shirley Bingham is still UNIT's scientific advisor, as seen in The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"].
  • The Doctor recalls how Donna is the fastest keyboard typer in London; Donna prided herself on being able to type 100 words per minute while working as a temp in Chiswick, as shown in The Runaway Bride [+]Loading...["The Runaway Bride (TV story)"] and Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"].
  • The Toymaker remarks how the last human picks up the skull of his enemy as the "last ball" on earth before its destruction in the year 5 billion. The Ninth Doctor once showed the earth's destruction during that year to Rose Tyler in The End of the World [+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"].
  • Donna recalls her and the Tenth Doctor facing the Ood in Planet of the Ood [+]Loading...["Planet of the Ood"], Davros and the Daleks of the New Dalek Empire in The Stolen Earth [+]Loading...["The Stolen Earth (TV story)"], the Adipose in Partners in Crime [+]Loading...["Partners in Crime"], and the Dalek's use of the reality bomb in Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (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. He blames this error on him becoming clever, something the Tenth Doctor lamented as one of his greatest flaws in The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"].
  • 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)"].
  • Mel informs the Doctor about her travelling with Glitz and eventually leaving him as depicted in Head Games [+]Loading...["Head Games (novel)"].
  • 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)"], as did Tecteun in Survivors of the Flux [+]Loading...["Survivors of the Flux (TV story)"].
  • The Toymaker recalls that the Doctor met Amy Pond in The Eleventh Hour [+]Loading...["The Eleventh Hour (TV story)"] soon after his final encounter with Donna and her family in The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (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 fall to Cybermen during the Battle of Floor 0507 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 domain 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 encounter in The Celestial Toymaker [+]Loading...["The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)"] was with the First Doctor.
  • While playing their second game, the Toymaker reveals he played a game against the dying Master, and trapped him in his golden tooth. The Master was previously seen dying after his fight against the Thirteenth Doctor in The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"]. Furthermore, a hand picks up the golden tooth containing the Master's essence, recalling a similar situation after the Saxon Master's demise in Last of the Time Lords [+]Loading...["Last of the Time Lords (TV story)"].
  • 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 and people:
    • 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)"].
    • The building next door to the Toymaker's emporium carries the name "Grade's", which could be a reference to former controller of BBC1, Michael Grade.
  • The Fourteenth Doctor makes an offer to fight across the cosmos and conquer it with the Toymaker in an effort to make him leave earth and humanity alone. He once made a similar proposal as his tenth incarnation to the Saxon Master in The Sound of Drums [+]Loading...["The Sound of Drums (TV story)"], which he also turned down. His offer to help rather than fight also mirrors how his tenth incarnation tried to save Davros in Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"] as his war incarnation did before in The Third Wise Man [+]Loading...["The Third Wise Man (short story)"], and also how his eleventh incarnation tried to stop Rosanna Calvierri from taking her own life in The Vampires of Venice [+]Loading...["The Vampires of Venice (TV story)"].
  • When he starts to regenerate, Mel remarks that all of the Doctor's past selves were "fantastic". This was the catchphrase the Ninth Doctor used many times, as in Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"] and The Doctor Dances [+]Loading...["The Doctor Dances (TV story)"]. He also said it about himself, also when regenerating, in The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways"].
  • When he starts to regenerate, the Fourteenth Doctor remarks its not dying, contrasting how the Tenth Doctor thought it was in The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"].
  • When he bigenerates, the Fourteenth Doctor says "Here we go again. Allons-y". The former was uttered by Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart when seeing the Third Doctor begin to regenerate in Planet of the Spiders [+]Loading...["Planet of the Spiders (TV story)"], and also by Madame Vastra when she saw the newly-regenerated Twelfth Doctor in Deep Breath [+]Loading...["Deep Breath (TV story)"]. The latter is 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)"].
  • Upon bi-generating, the Fourteenth Doctor remarks that it "feels different this time". These are the exact same words the Fifth Doctor said just before changing into the Sixth Doctor in The Caves of Androzani [+]Loading...["The Caves of Androzani (TV story)"].
  • The bi-generation allows an incarnation of the Doctor to remain with a companion whilst another continues to travel the universe; this echoes the Tenth Doctor's aborted regeneration which created the Meta-Crisis Doctor, who stayed with Rose Tyler in Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"].
  • The Toymaker recalls facing the Guardians of Time, the masters of reality depicted in The Ribos Operation [+]Loading...["The Ribos Operation (TV story)"].
  • The voices of multiple incarnations of the Master are heard from the Toymaker's gold tooth when it is released, as Professor Yana had experienced when scrutinising the fob watch containing the War Master in Utopia [+]Loading...["Utopia (TV story)"]. Incidentally, both instances featured the laughter of the Tremas Master.
  • The Fifteenth Doctor recalls how so much suffering has impacted the Fourteenth Doctor: the Dalek Supreme's plan with the Time Destructor hinted through the name of Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master Plan [+]Loading...["The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)"], being put on trial in The War Games [+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"] and again in The Deadly Assassin [+]Loading...["The Deadly Assassin (TV story)"] as well as an epic one from The Mysterious Planet [+]Loading...["The Mysterious Planet (TV story)"] to The Ultimate Foe [+]Loading...["The Ultimate Foe (TV story)"], his time on Earth from Spearhead from Space [+]Loading...["Spearhead from Space (TV story)"] to The Three Doctors [+]Loading...["The Three Doctors (TV story)"], his quest for the Key to Time from The Ribos Operation [+]Loading...["The Ribos Operation (TV story)"] to The Armageddon Factor [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Factor (TV story)"], the Tremas Master's Entropic Enterprise in Logopolis [+]Loading...["Logopolis (TV story)"], Adric's death during the 2526 Cyber-Invasion of Earth in Earthshock [+]Loading...["Earthshock (TV story)"], fighting the Gods of Ragnarok in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy [+]Loading...["The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (TV story)"], the Time War from The Night of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Night of the Doctor (TV story)"] to The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], the Total Collapse Event Incident hinted through mentioning the Pandorica from The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"] to The Big Bang [+]Loading...["The Big Bang (TV story)"], the Flux in The Halloween Apocalypse [+]Loading...["The Halloween Apocalypse (TV story)"] to the The Vanquishers [+]Loading...["The Vanquishers (TV story)"], losing Rose Tyler to a parallel universe during the Battle of Canary Wharf in Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"], River Song from Silence in the Library [+]Loading...["Silence in the Library (TV story)"] to The Husbands of River Song [+]Loading...["The Husbands of River Song (TV story)"], and Sarah Jane Smith having passed away in Farewell, Sarah Jane [+]Loading...["Farewell, Sarah Jane (webcast)"].
  • The Fourteenth Doctor remains more open with his emotions, stating he loves Wilf and Donna, as previously said in The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"] and Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"]. He even remarks that he loved Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler, something the Tenth Doctor always struggled to say, as seen in Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"] and Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"].
  • Donna surmises the Fourteenth Doctor revisited his tenth incarnation's face to allow him to recover. The Curator once told the Eleventh Doctor after Gallifrey's salvation he would revisit faces as seen in The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], which the Twelfth Doctor also realised in The Girl Who Died [+]Loading...["The Girl Who Died (TV story)"].
  • The Fourteenth Doctor retires to live a normal life so he can rehabilitate before becoming the Fifteenth Doctor. The Doctor has previously dreaded the idea of living a normal life, as seen in Rose [+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"] and The Impossible Planet [+]Loading...["The Impossible Planet (TV story)"]; the Doctor outright believed he could never have one, as seen in School Reunion [+]Loading...["School Reunion (TV story)"], Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"], and The God Complex [+]Loading...["The God Complex (TV story)"]. Joan Redfern made the exact same remark in The Family of Blood [+]Loading...["The Family of Blood (TV story)"]. The Eleventh Doctor once believed that, in his final days, he may retire and take up watercolour or beekeeping, as seen in The Name of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Name of the Doctor (TV story)"].
  • The bi-generation from the Toymaker's meddling allows the Fourteenth Doctor to retain memories of meeting his successive incarnation; younger incarnations of the Doctor have previously been unable to do this because of the Laws of Time as seen in numerous multi-Doctor stories like The Three Doctors [+]Loading...["The Three Doctors (TV story)"], The Five Doctors [+]Loading...["The Five Doctors (TV story)"], The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"] and Twice Upon a Time [+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"].
  • The Fifteenth Doctor nearly leaves without saying goodbye, something the Doctor used to do because he doesn't like endings, as noted in Robot [+]Loading...["Robot (TV story)"], School Reunion [+]Loading...["School Reunion (TV story)"], Judgement of the Judoon [+]Loading...["Judgement of the Judoon (novel)"] and The Name of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Name of the Doctor (TV story)"].
  • The Fourteenth Doctor mentions a species that communicates with their eyebrows, which the Third Doctor also did in Spearhead from Space [+]Loading...["Spearhead from Space (TV story)"].
  • The Fourteenth Doctor remarks that he has ended up with a family, fulfilling Sarah Jane's remarks that he did have a family he could spend time with through his companions as seen in Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"].

Home media releases

DVD and Blu-Ray

This story was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the United Kingdom on 18 December 2023, along with The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"] and Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"].

Contents:

  • UK DVD cover

    UK DVD cover

  • UK Blu-ray cover

    UK Blu-ray cover

  • UK steelbook cover

    UK steelbook cover

Digital releases

This story is available on BBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom, in Ultra High-Def (4K). It is also available on Disney+ in other territories.

Gallery

to be added

Footnotes

Notes

Footnotes

  1. ↑ @bbcdoctorwho on twitter.com
  2. ↑ The Giggle: BBC Confirms Timeslot and Synopsis for Third Doctor Who Special on tvzoneuk.com
  3. ↑ DWM 598 - Preview of The Giggle, Page 17
  4. ↑ News Update, Radio Times. Accessed December 12, 2023.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Doctor Who in Bristol on google.com/maps
  6. ↑ Doctor Who - overnight ratings
  7. ↑ Doctor Who - consolidated ratings
  8. ↑ Status post, Far From All Lover. Accessed December 13, 2023
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