The Celestial Toymaker (TV story)

You may be looking for this story's titular character

The Celestial Toymaker was the seventh story of the third season of Doctor Who. It was famously the story that almost wrote William Hartnell out of the series. Producer John Wiles' original idea for dispensing with Hartnell's services was to have the Doctor disappear as Hartnell during the trilogic game, then reappear as another actor.

The larger truth, however, was that it was a serial that had, unlike most others, been shaped by two different production teams. Along the way it had generated unusual criticism from rights-holders of other properties — including Wiles' own boss — who were concerned that their characters were being unhelpfully, if not illegally, used within the production.

In fact, "The Final Test" was the only Doctor Who episode forced to have a continuity announcement to protect the BBC from legal action on behalf of a copyright holder.

Synopsis

The travellers arrive in a strange domain presided over by the Celestial Toymaker – an enigmatic, immortal entity who forces them to play a series of games; failure at which will render them his playthings for all eternity. The Doctor has to solve the complex Trilogic game while Steven and Dodo are faced with defeating a succession of apparently child-like but potentially lethal animated toys in contests such as 'blind man's buff', musical chairs and 'hunt the key'.

The Doctor finally overcomes the Toymaker by imitating his voice in order to complete the Trilogic game from within the TARDIS, which then dematerialises as his foe's universe is destroyed.

Plot

The Celestial Toyroom (1)

Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor suddenly vanishes from sight. The Doctor says it's some sort of powerful attack, leaving him invisible as well as intangible, unable to touch the TARDIS controls. He tells Dodo and Steven to turn on the scanner, but nothing appears. He has them open the doors and they head outside.

Steven and Dodo witness the Doctor's disappearing act

Steven and Dodo find the Doctor now visible. Steven sees images on a screen of himself on Kembel and in 16th century Paris. The Doctor realises that they are in the world of the Celestial Toymaker, and the screen is a trap designed to let him get into their minds. The Doctor explains that the Toymaker is an evil force that traps people and turns them into his playthings. The Toymaker appears and tries to get Dodo to watch the screen, which shows her on the day her mother died. Dodo suggests they escape in the TARDIS, prompting the Toymaker to show them hundreds of TARDISes on his screen, before vanishing with the Doctor.

The Toymaker sends two clown dolls from his doll house, Joey and Clara, which he makes into full-sized people, to play a game with Dodo and Steven while he plays a game with the Doctor. He explains that after each game Steven and Dodo win, they'll find a TARDIS which may or may not be the real one. They must find the real TARDIS before the Doctor has finished his game.

The game he assigns to the Doctor is called the Trilogic game, which appears to be identical to the classic puzzle Tower of Hanoi, using 10 discs. He tells the Doctor he has exactly 1023 moves to complete the game; one wrong move, and he will lose and be kept there forever. He points out a counter to keep track of how many moves the Doctor has taken. To prevent the Doctor from stalling in order to give Steven and Dodo more time, the Toymaker has the ability to command the Trilogic Game to move ahead to a specific move. The Toymaker explains that he specifically brought the Doctor to his world because he's been bored, and if he can trap the Doctor, he'll have a brilliant mind to play against for all time. The Toymaker mentions that he and the Doctor had met once before, but that the Doctor escaped before they could even play one game. The Doctor remarks that it was wise of himself to do so.

Steven and Dodo, meanwhile, are pitted against the two clowns in "Blind Man's Buff." One teammate will move around an obstacle course blindfolded, being guided only by coded buzzes from his partner. If the blindfolded person falls over, he loses. The Doctor tries to call out to warn Steven and Dodo about the game, but the Toymaker cuts him off, and, as punishment, makes him intangible once more (except for one hand, so he can still play his game). Joey goes first and effortlessly succeeds. Steven goes next, but has a hard time, especially because Joey has moved some obstacles around. Steven seems to fail, but they inspect Joey's blindfold, and it's see-through, meaning the clowns had been cheating all along. They demand a re-match, and this time Joey falls, and Clara suddenly collapses.

A TARDIS appears, but it's a fake. Steven and Dodo find a piece of paper with a riddle on it: "Four legs, no feet; Of arms no lack; It carries no burden on its back; Six deadly sisters, seven for choice; Call the servants without voice." They look back, only to see that Joey and Clara have reverted back to dolls.

The Hall of Dolls (2)

Steven and Dodo move on through the false TARDIS into the next room, which contains different sizes and shapes of chairs in two adjoining rooms - three in one room, four in the other. The Doctor, who is apparently familiar with the Toymaker's games, cries out, "It's chair number-" but is cut off by the Toymaker before he can give them the answer to the game. The Toymaker takes away the Doctor's ability to speak and commands the game to go to move 444. He picks up a deck of cards and declares that he will send the Hearts Family to play against Steven and Dodo next.

The pair are joined in the chair room by people dressed as the King, Queen, and Jack of Hearts, as well as the Joker. They realise that the line from the riddle they found earlier, "Six deadly sisters, seven for choice" means one chair is the correct choice, and the other six are deadly. They find seven dolls in TARDIS-shaped cabinets and decide to test out the chairs with them, assuming them to be the "servants without voice." The King and Queen see the dolls and demand they be shared, so Steven and Dodo hide three of them and the four players take one doll each. They split up between the rooms, and each try a chair. The King puts his doll in a chair, and the chair shakes violently until the doll's head falls off. Dodo throws her doll into a chair, and it is electrocuted. Steven tries another, and a blade cuts the doll in half. The King puts the last doll into a chair, and both chair and doll simply vanish.

Steven and Dodo have one chair left in their room, but left the extra three dolls in the room the King and Queen are in. As Steven heads for the other room, Dodo sits down in the remaining chair. The Toymaker taunts the Doctor, now on move 690, telling him Dodo has chosen the wrong chair - the "freezing" chair. Steven notices, and rushes to her. She says she suddenly feels cold, and cannot move. Steven manages to pull her free from the chair.

Meanwhile, the King and Queen try to convince the Joker to test a chair for them, but he catches on to their plan and runs away. Unable to agree on who should try a chair next, the two sit in one of the two remaining chairs together. For a moment, nothing happens, and it appears they won, until the chair suddenly collapses on them. Dodo suggests they go to help them, but Steven realises there's only one chair left, and sits in it, winning the game.

A TARDIS appears, but it's another fake. Recalling that they haven't solved the entire riddle, they try to "call the servants without voice" and call the remaining three dolls to them. Just then, the TARDIS' phone rings. Steven answers, and it is the Toymaker, delivering the next clue: "Hunt the key, to fit the door; That leads out on the dancing floor. Then escape the rhythmic beat; Or you'll forever tap your feet." The phone goes dead. They notice the King and Queen have become playing cards once more. As the two continue on, the three remaining dolls come to life and start to pursue them..

The Dancing Floor (3)

The Toymaker congratulates the Doctor on his choice of companions, and decides they have earned some amusement. He selects Sergeant Rugg and Mrs. Wiggs.

Steven and Dodo are at the next door, but can find no way in. Dodo is frightened at the appearance of the "servants without voice." However, the door suddenly opens on its own, and they go inside to discover a large old-fashioned kitchen populated by the familiar-looking Rugg and Mrs. Wiggs. Mrs. Wiggs directs them to the Dancing Floor, but the large oak door that separates them from it is locked. Though Steven is getting thoroughly annoyed at the characters sent at them, whose only job appears to be to "get his goat," Dodo appeals sweetly to Rugg. He helps them realise the game is "Hunt the Thimble;" the key to the door is hidden somewhere in the kitchen.

The Toymaker complains that the Doctor is not playing fast enough, and orders the advance of his game twice, to move 813.

Steven and Dodo discover a third character asleep in the kitchen, who looks uncannily like the Jack of Hearts. This character is stuffed into a kitchen boy's uniform. Dodo again appeals to Rugg and he chivalrously helps her and Steven search for the key. Mrs. Wiggs is getting more and more irritated at the three of them tearing apart her kitchen. She eventually loses her temper, even at Rugg, at the shattering of some of her plates and cups. Rugg and Mrs Wiggs quarrel violently, while the kitchen boy wakes and takes refuge under a table, but Steven tries to keep Dodo on task.

Soon food is being thrown around, whereupon Dodo tries to reconcile the two, unsuccessfully. Steven catches the kitchen boy trying to escape and tries to force him to tell him where the key is, but the kitchen boy escapes and locks himself in the pantry. As the food fight continues, Rugg threatens a pie that Mrs. Wiggs has made. She becomes very concerned and demands he put it down. Dodo realises that's one place they haven't looked, and when the pie is smashed on the ground, she finds the key in it. They open the door and go inside.

The Toymaker appears and angrily confronts the characters, exclaiming how they have wasted their "chance at life." He commands them to prevent Steven and Dodo finding the next TARDIS, or he will smash them to pieces like the plates. To demonstrate this, he shatters the last remaining plate.

Steven and Dodo arrive on the Dancing Floor to witness three ballerinas performing a dance. They see the TARDIS at the opposite end of the floor, but realise it can't be so easy to get there. When they place their hands curiously over the floor, music plays and the dolls begin to dance. As Rugg and Mrs. Wiggs enter, having "made up," Steven makes a dash for it, but once the music starts, he is forced to dance, and the dolls surround him. The Toymaker comments on this to the Doctor, who is at move 881.

Soon Dodo is pulled into the dancing, while Rugg and Mrs. Wiggs scheme to get to the "big cupboard" first. As Mrs. Wiggs begins to dance, the dolls change partners. Rugg finds he cannot resist and is soon dancing as well. Steven eventually becomes Dodo's partner, and they successfully jump off the floor and into the TARDIS as Rugg and Mrs. Wiggs dance on, left – as the rhyme says – to "forever tap their feet".

The TARDIS is another fake, of course. Dodo is firmly convinced that these characters are alive, but Steven is doubtful. Meanwhile, the Doctor is pleased with his companions, while the Toymaker is livid with his "too human" characters. He takes out a Cyril doll, an "innocent, fat, jolly schoolboy."

Steven and Dodo find the way out of the cupboard and another message: "Lady luck will show the way; win the game or here you'll stay." As they emerge from a passageway, Dodo screams when Cyril appears in front of them. Steven thinks he's seen Cyril before, and Cyril confirms this: he was previously the Knave of Hearts and the kitchen boy. As Cyril shakes Steven's hand, Steven is shocked by an electrode and pulls away; Cyril giggles mischievously. As they realise the Doctor has reached move 902, Cyril directs them to the next game, which will be played against him.

The Final Test (4)

TARDIS hopscotch

The last game is "TARDIS hopscotch." Each player rolls a die at their turn and moves the number of triangles indicated. First to reach the TARDIS is the winner. Steven is very suspicious at the apparent simplicity, but is pleased at the 2-to-1 odds. Cyril warns that the area between the triangles is electrified.

The Toymaker taunts that Cyril hates to lose, so he makes sure he never does. He pushes the Doctor's game to move 930. He further taunts that Steven and Dodo's places in the dolls' house are prepared; sure enough, there are chairs inside labelled STEVEN and DODO.

Dodo is allowed to go first, then Steven. When Cyril plays, he sweetly informs them that if anybody lands on an occupied triangle, the first player must return to the start. After one turn, Steven is ahead at triangle 7, having been given a free move by the die indicator. But Dodo's next turn lands her on Steven's triangle, and sends him back. To add insult, the die indicator tells Steven he loses a turn.

The Doctor is removed from his ban of silence by the Toymaker. The Doctor confidently states that his concentration will not be broken now.

Cyril appears behind Dodo wearing a gorilla mask, frightening her. In so doing he has landed on her triangle. Steven threateningly moves towards Cyril, but Cyril calls him a cheater for moving when it wasn't his turn. Steven and Dodo both must now go back to the start. Steven has had enough and tries to go on, but he runs into an invisible barrier and the Toymaker appears, saying that the barrier yields only to those who play the game by the rules. With no choice, they both jump back to the start and as they do, Cyril nails Steven with a catapult. Steven luckily rolls a six, but in his haste his momentum almost carries him onto the electrified floor. He asks if he gets a second turn for a six, but Cyril dismisses that idea.

The Doctor is pushed forward to move 1000.

Steven loses another turn. Dodo rolls a much-needed six as well. Cyril needs a three to get home; he rolls a two. Then, the die indicator tells him he must move to triangle 9, putting him behind Dodo. Dodo's turn is interrupted when Cyril starts to cry, and Dodo spots blood on his foot. She goes over to help him, despite angry warnings from Steven. It turns out to be a ruse; the 'blood' is really red ink. Cyril exclaims that Dodo is forced to go back to the start for moving off her triangle.

Cyril is exultant at his next roll, a five; he wins! As he reaches one of the last triangles, he slips off and is instantly electrocuted; all that is left of Cyril is a charred doll. Steven discovers slippery powder; Cyril must have placed it there himself. They must yet play the game to the end, so Dodo (ignoring Cyril's ruling) rolls a four from her triangle and makes it home, though almost slipping on the powder herself.

The Toymaker, unconcerned that the Doctor has returned.

The Doctor has been rematerialised fully, and at move 1022 sees that he will win the Trilogic Game. He activates the Toymaker's scanner to see that Steven and Dodo have won their game also. He happily goes to see if the real TARDIS is undamaged. Steven and Dodo hear the humming of the real TARDIS and the Doctor joins them. The Toymaker continues to tease the Doctor, and the Doctor is forced to admit that the three of them could be dragged down in defeat with him. When the Toymaker appears in the flesh, Steven moves to attack him, but his strength is turned against him, and the Doctor cools his temper and orders both his friends into the TARDIS.

The Toymaker offers the Doctor a chance to serve him and share in his power; the Doctor refuses and claims victory as he enters the TARDIS. The Doctor tries to take off, but the TARDIS controls fail to respond, and he re-emerges angrily to accuse the Toymaker of tampering with his ship. The Toymaker reminds him that the Trilogic Game is not over; he must make move 1023 in order to leave. The Doctor moves to do so, but realises he can't, for when he does the Toymaker's world will vanish, including everyone in it.

The Doctor explains to his companions that the Toymaker is immortal, and though his world may be destroyed he can merely build a new one. They must find a way to finish the game and leave safely. The Toymaker begs to be given the TARDIS, as "it would make such an interesting toy". The Doctor asks for the Trilogic Game to be moved inside the TARDIS, but the Toymaker refuses and tells them they must either stay there forever or make the last move and be destroyed.

The Doctor is suddenly inspired, and after presetting the controls, attempts to orally command the Trilogic Game to move forward, as the Toymaker had done. His first attempt fails, but then the Doctor imitates the Toymaker's voice and the move is made. He instantly commands Steven to throw the master switch, and the TARDIS safely dematerialises as the Toymaker's world ceases to exist.

They celebrate with a bag of sweets, given to Dodo by Cyril. The Doctor suddenly yelps in pain and grabs his jaw...

Cast

Crew

References

Steven sees himself on the planet Kembel and in 16th century Paris in flashbacks to The Daleks' Master Plan and The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve respectively, and also refers to the Monoids from The Ark. This was the first story to make use of flashbacks to past Doctor Who adventures.
Dodo initially speculates that the Doctor's intangibility is due to the Refusians.

Story notes

This story had working titles The Trilogic Game and The Toymaker. (REF: The First Doctor Handbook)
It was at one point considered writing out William Hartnell as The Doctor in this story, but the idea was vetoed.
The Celestial Toymaker was to return in The Nightmare Fair, and Michael Gough was approached to reprise his role, but this was never made due to BBC-1 Controller Michael Grade having unexpectedly decided to postpone the series for eighteen months. This was part of the unmade Season 23 in 1986, which was later made into a Target Missing Episodes novelisation and a The Lost Episodes audio story, the latter starring David Bailie as the Toymaker.
Radio Times credits 'Michael Gough as the Toymaker' for all four episodes and 'Dancers: Beryl Braham, Ann Harrison, Delia Lindon' for The Dancing Floor, with the other supporting cast members credited without specific roles under the heading 'with' in the programme listings for all four episodes.
In The Hall of Dolls, whilst deciding which of the seven chairs – six of which are deadly, while one remains safe – to choose, the King of Hearts recites a politically incorrect version of the children's counting rhyme "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" (used to select a person to be 'it' for games and similar purposes), which includes the racial slur "nigger" in the second line. On BBC Audio's CD release of the story, this offending section has been obscured by placing part of Peter Purves's narration over the top.
Though Gerry Davis and Innes Lloyd received their first credits for a full serial with Toymaker, both men had in fact worked on Doctor Who before. Evidence of Lloyd's presence in the production office extends at least back to 26 January 1966, when he sent scripts of the first two episodes of The Gunfighters to director Rex Tucker. This the same week that "War of God" first went in front of cameras. John Wiles, however, may still have been around for at least some of the recording of The Massacre. By 14 February, a few days before "The Steel Sky" recorded, Lloyd was fully in charge of the series. Thus he was known to have at least produced The Ark, and perhaps some of The Massacre, before receiving his first on-screen credit for Toymaker. Davis, meanwhile, had actually received a credit on "Bell of Doom".

Competition in the Toyroom

Producing Toymaker wasn't easy, even by Doctor Who standards. Most of the difficulties stemmed from the fact that it arose at a time of transition in the production office. Though commissioned by the team of producer John Wiles and script editor Donald Tosh, it was ultimately completed by the new team of Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis. The two sides simply had very different ideas about how the story should proceed.

All four episodes were in fact written three different times. Brian Hayles had delivered all four original scripts, likely in late 1965. Tosh and Wiles had immediately seen that the scripts could not be practically realised, and thus Tosh rewrote them entirely. By the time he was finished, though, he was no longer script editor. Davis, his replacement, now had to deal with the fact that Tosh had inserted the use of characters from a play by Gerald Savory without obtaining permission. Since Savory was now Head of Serials, and had the power to veto scripts, he quickly rejected Tosh's approach to The Celestial Toymaker.

Davis therefore had to tackle the scripts again. These rewrites got Savory's okay, but the old production team were left wondering what had happened to their scripts. Tosh opined that Davis' approach was "much lighter, more pantomime" than his own. The results were no more pleasing to John Wiles, who wrote a memo to Savory on 25 February 1966, after he had technically left the Doctor Who production office. In it, he claimed that the central battle of wills between the Doctor and the Toymaker had been downplayed to the benefit of new elements involving a more childish confrontation between the companions and the Toymaker's creations. Ultimately, Wiles would have liked to have seen the entire production halted, since its commissioning producer and script editor had gone — and with them, the original, more adult intent of the story. (REF: The First Doctor Handbook)

However, Toymaker's problems weren't over even after Davis' script had been recorded. After the transmission of "The Dancing Floor", the BBC had to field charges from the estate of Charles Hamilton that the character of Cyril was in fact meant to be his popular children's character, Billy Bunter. The problem was exacerbated that actor Peter Stephens had ad-libbed the line, "My friends call me Billy" during recording. Thus the BBC were forced to take a step never repeated before or since: they had to have a special continuity announcement at the end of "The Final Test" which declared that the character of Cyril was not meant to be Billy Bunter, but merely a character like Billy.^[1]

Ratings

The Celestial Toyroom - 8.0 million viewers
The Hall of Dolls - 8.0 million viewers
The Dancing Floor - 9.4 million viewers
The Final Test - 7.8 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

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.

When the Doctor is on move 905, he moves a piece so it counts as move 906. However, when the Celestial Toymaker asks the pieces to go to move 930, they only jump 21 times so it should be move 927.
In one spot of the Trilogic Game, the smallest piece can be seen to be on top of the 5 piece. In order to get the minimum 1023 moves for the game, the smallest piece can never be put on top of another odd numbered piece – so the Doctor shouldn't be able to do it in 1023 moves.
Also, at 1000 moves, there are pieces on all three edges of the board. In the optimum solution of 1023 moves, one of the edges should be blank at 1000 moves.
In a scene where the Doctor is playing the Trilogic Game, a shadow can be seen behind the game and there is only the Toymaker in the room.

Continuity

The Celestial Toymaker reappears in PDA: Divided Loyalties, DWM: Endgame, BFA: The Magic Mousetrap and TLE: The Nightmare Fair/BFA: The Nightmare Fair.
The Doctor cries out in pain in the cliffhanger that concludes the story; later revealed to be caused by a toothache triggered by biting into a hard candy, this event leads into the next serial, The Gunfighters. Despite the rather painful carryover, the next episode carries the title "A Holiday for the Doctor".

Timeline

This story occurs after DW: The Ark
This story occurs before DW: The Gunfighters

Home video and audio releases

The surviving episode, The Final Test, was released on VHS as part of Hartnell Years (with the "Next Episode" caption rather clumsily cut from the cliffhanger scene, as it was at the time missing from the existing 16mm Black & White Film telerecording).
The Final Test was also released in digitally re-mastered form on the Lost in Time DVD box set (with the "Next Episode" caption reconstructed and restored).
- Editing of surviving episodes DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.