“Vowld vide premiere!” The number of times I’ve heard NPH say those words, you’d think I was crazy. For the final special with Tennant and Tate, until the next Chibnall episode that needs to be drastically recovered from, Russell is once again in the writer’s chair for “The Giggle.” Directed by Chanya Button, Button is probably best known for period stuff and dramas, very little of which you’ll have probably seen or liked. This is a sequel to a 57-year-old episode that is mostly destroyed because, well, the BBC is about as great at keeping stuff as I am at keeping money.

In the most time-hopping of episodes this run, we get a little bit in 1925 with John Logie Baird, and the rest of it in the hellscape we call now. Baird’s assistant buys Stooky Bill from the wonderful camp Neil Patrick Harris, setting in motion the antics of The Toymaker, which we’ll get into later. Following almost directly from the end of last week, The Doctor, Donna, and Wilf are amongst the chaos created by The Toymaker. That is until UNIT steps in and Donna starts directing traffic: “Get him to safety. Alright? Never Mind about us, I want Grandad safe!”

It turns out that playing Stevie Wonder on your time-traveling jukebox of tricks brings lovely gay Americans to the show. Maybe it is the gold tooth or the tease we get at the end which I’ll have a groan about for reasons, but The Toymaker felt a bit more like a magical version of The Master. Which I don’t hate, but it does mean the game aspect and other more mundane aspects felt aged in the format, a bit more like a 50s-60s sci-fi resolution than a modern-day one. “The Giggle” still felt like a Russell episode, moving along in the blink of an eye.

I can’t get into the full review without saying that I love NHP almost as much as Russell loves Russell Tovey, and he fancies him. Don’t lie, Russell, we’ve read The Writer’s Tale. From Gone Girl, The Matrix 4, It’s a Sin, and The Smurfs, he can indeed be a “Sugar Daddy.” Arguably he was the best part of How I Met Your Mother, which wasn’t hard given how bleh that show was. Here, he just made a meal out of the simplest little things, from the over-the-top accents The Toymaker plays with to the bit where he’s dancing with Jemma Redgrave.

Though he wasn’t the one I let out an absolute cheer for when he came up. It may have only been for a second but when in UNIT, and we see how The Toymaker’s games are playing into our general black and white “I’m right,” “no, I’m right. You should be put to death for having a different opinion.” I may have let out a very loud cheer when Trinity Wells was very anti-Zeedex, an on-the-nose Alex Jones (not that one) lampoon, or a similarly modern J. Jonah Jameson-like twist for the former news reporter.

As an episode as a whole, “The Giggle” felt like a closing of that previous chapter Russell started and kicked off a whole new show at the same time. It was fun and energetic but also felt like it could have used a bit more time. We get the usual set-up from Russell, a good bit of backstory on what’s happening, and then we get another labyrinth but without a big bulge or a big David Tennant. The thing is, we don’t get enough time to play with that idea and get into the world of The Toymaker, at least in a realm he dominates.

We play the game of Scooby Doo with the many doors, we get Stooky Sue and her babies (Good luck Americans understanding that!), and the game of high-low. We even get a recap of the companions you care about, minus Graham. “What about the others?” as I say, the ones you care about, and no mention of Graham, or Rory for that matter. I’d have liked something more in there, something to give us a better sense of what The Toymaker does to the Doctor and generally play with the idea of it being a labyrinth.

Though, I’ve mentioned her a couple of times already, I think we need to go back to Ruth Madeley’s moment and something very raw. When the mind-bending nonsense leads everyone to go mad, nice touch to mention the Archangel Network by the way, we get a moment of Kate not using the neural inhibitors called Zeedex. It is almost a blink and you’ll miss it moment, but you have Ruth’s Shirley standing at her desk before you have Jemma Redgrave giving us another reason we need the UNIT spin-off.

A lot of people will either write it off as an able-bodied character saying something nasty to a disabled character, or just a line they didn’t really notice much because it was among other nastiness. However, I think it is an important line to highlight because Shirley is a wheelchair user, yes, but what we don’t often see with disabled characters in fiction is this ambulatoryness and the conclusions a lot of people jump to. The line is, “I’ve seen you walk, I know you’re lying,” a line that probably hit close for a lot of people.

The important part is, like a lot of things we’ll get into here in a minute, it didn’t go unchecked. I’m about to use a pejorative term, a slur might I say, as it needs to be noted: We’ve had a lot of Chibnall (I feel dirty saying it) these last few years, and with that we had characters have the big thing happen but none of the emotional pay-off. Almost immediately Kate apologizes for being so horrible, and it doesn’t make it right to say it, but it shows that it wasn’t the Kate that Shirley knows that has all that anger.

We saw another example of this last time, with Tennant basically having a meltdown over The Flux. I know, finally! Even here, we have mentions of The Flux and The Timeless Child, not just for canon bingo (Chibnall’s favorite game) but to give those moments a sense of weight. We know 14 is genuinely hurting from the fact that half the universe is missing, we can tell that’s a trauma. I’ve no idea if 13 felt that, we didn’t get it in the writing, and that was always the problem.

I’m calm, and I don’t want to talk about the awful mixing this week again. If I hadn’t rewatched the episode, I wouldn’t have heard Wilf’s line as UNIT takes him away. Calmness, chill, serenity, we don’t have to worry about that woman’s hand just yet. I think we can talk about balls and how NPH is good with a handful of balls. Admittedly, The Toymaker did say “Ah! Donna Noble. I wondered which one of you had ze balls.” So he’s not the only one that is good with the balls.

Right, let’s get into the big thing this week that probably annoyed some people: “The Celestial Toymaker,” why isn’t he called that anymore, and why isn’t he in those robes? As Davies says in the behind-the-scenes clips from Unleashed, he doesn’t think there was any honest ill-will by the creative team back in 1966 and I think that’s a good way of looking at it. However, despite there not being any direct hatred, the episodes, including those that are missing, do have what are easy to point at and say “Ok, you can’t do that anymore, and I’m surprised you got away with it then.”

Let’s skip over the use of the word Celestial for a second and reference my notes, shall we? “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, a racial slur, the BBC did show…” Yes beyond the costuming and casting, you have “The Hall of Dolls” which features the version of Eeny, meeny, miny, moe that got Jeremy Clarkson in trouble back in 2014, rightly so. The reason Celestial has been removed from the name is simply the fact it refers to the Celestial Empire, a name for China that is still used but in the 19th century referenced Chinese immigrants to the US, Canada, and Australia.

Put aside the fact it is a name that is partially still in use for certain reasons I don’t need to get into, why would we use that in the name of a character played by a White man? Last week it was wrong to race-swap a character because of historical inaccuracies (in Doctor Who, of all bloody things), but now it is supposed to be fine for White people to play someone who’s overtly supposed to be Asian? Make it make sense.

I’m not saying we need to scrub the history of Doctor Who. I’m saying that it is the 21st century, let’s hop in our TARDIS and be concurrent instead of stuck in the past. I’m a little iffy on the whole accent thing, at least how RTD explained it. I think tying it back to the original would be cleaner, but I think NHP had so much fun with it. Just the overtly pervy German, the slip into proper English, a slip into the American accent we’re used to hearing from him, it was playing with race from The Toymaker.

That said, the cancel culture line might have gone under the radar a little for some as it was very well done. When The Toymaker and 14 are cutting the deck and talking about these small humans and their insecurities, their vulnerabilities, and even earlier when 14 is in UNIT HQ talking about using our base aggression against us. Unlike a lot of “oh cancel culture” lines, I think this one works. That is a marvel within itself because everyone else makes it the focus, which pulls me out of the moment. This stayed amongst the dialog and kept me in it.

Something else done in the writing, on the page, is to actually make the evil dancing thing work. Three episodes ago, four if you count this special, we had The Master dancing about in a room full of Cybermen and Daleks to the tune of Boney M’s “Rasputin.” Here, we have The Toymaker prancing about and singing along to “Spice Up Your Life” by The Spice Girls. On a blank piece of paper, those two things described like that would suggest they are equal. One of them is infinitely better than the other because it isn’t just a joke, it isn’t a silly man doing a silly thing while blank faces watch on.

The Master pranced about and nothing happened because of it. It could have been cut and nothing would have been lost. Cut The Toymaker dancing to Spice Girls and you lose the menacing nature of a man bashing Kate against a wall, killing some men with guns, and generally playing with the reality of our world like it is one of his little games. It was a funny scene as he murdered and harmed the people we deem to be good, the difference is simply that something happened to show his recklessness towards life.

Going back to the companions thing, we got Amy, Clara, Bill, and that’s it. Why? Amy was zipped back in time by the Angels, Clara was killed by the Crow, and Bill was killed by the Cybermen, these are all big tragedies as Donna sits there watching the puppet show. The reason we didn’t get Graham, Yaz, Ryan, and Dan is simply because they walked away. There is nothing for The Doctor to care about when it comes to those companions because they walked away. Even if a previous Doctor was “Gay AF” for one of them, it wasn’t in the text.

The Toymaker dancing and the companions that have had tragic endings since 10 was around make those moments feel impactful because they mean something to 14. This is why I keep praising Davies a lot, we’ve just come out of several years of Doctor Who where it felt like she didn’t have anything meaningful. In those last few moments with Yaz, it was supposed to be impactful. It could have been something big, but we know how that ended. Yet, in a similar vein of a companion walking away, you see Tennant’s face light up when he recognizes Bonnie Langford.

Oh yes, I was happy to see Mel back. Not just because I am a fan of Big Finish, but because we have the computer programmer behind a desk and hired to be someone who presses buttons on a keyboard. Oh yeah, Chibnall isn’t the only one that is getting a kicking, Nathan-Turner was another one I wanted to sit down and say, “Do you actually know what you are doing?” She’s fun and she has just the right amount of energy for this type of story, which let me get into that thing before I get to the big thing.

We’ve seen what Ncuti’s first story is on Christmas Day, and we’ve seen the extended music video by Janis Goblin, we know about that. So do people who’ve never seen an episode of Doctor Who in a month of Sundays, or rather Saturdays. “Oh that’s awful,” “Ahh, it is weird,” “How can anyone watch that?” It is almost as if some people have forgotten “Voyage of the Damned” happened: If that broadcast today, Twitter would be lit up with “Oh, well that’s unrealistic and stupid.” It is almost as if people don’t know or have forgotten that Doctor Who is camp.

We’ve seen it a few times in this limited run alone: The Meep, the doubles, and probably some of the mad stuff from “The Giggle.” I don’t understand these people, it is as if whimsy and fun are not allowed anymore because some people watched Bryan Cranston throw a pizza on a roof and that’s the height of whimsy now. Yeah, I think the barrister’s wig from “The Star Beast” was a bit left-field, but it had a purpose in the end. The fun things like Nathaniel Curtis being hot (I have Tennant, Tate, and my editor all agreeing on that) that make sense, then I don’t care.

I think the camp-ness and frivolity of Doctor Who as a whole are important to it, and expecting Marvel-levels of seriousness is stupid. We’ve been trained to have these Pavlovian responses to bark when we collect the infinity stones that are pieces of canon, and growl in anger on our social media when something doesn’t personally represent how we’d respond if we were those characters in that situation. How anyone enjoys watching something by playing canon bingo or screaming into the void that is social media is beyond me. It is rich, given I’ve reviewed every episode of the new era.

I’ve spoken enough about the rest of the episode and I think it is only right that we get to the moment that has some people up in arms because a lovely Black man was in his underpants. Bi-regeneration, a myth that the Time Lords had speculated on but never found in reality. I like it. Yes, I’ve seen the comments online, sadly. We’ll get to them in a second because I need to make a point, but it is something that worked. I hate that I have to bring up Chibnall as an example, but I think we need to for something this big.

Chibnall created The Timeless Child canon thing, where Davies is doing this bi-regeneration thing. These are two similarly huge events. The one thing that separates them is the simple thing they do to the show as a whole: The Timeless Child looks back and says “There is more of you than you thought,” where bi-regeneration comes about because The Toymaker was playing with reality. Looking forward, it gives us a place to move on. 1-14 gets to sit with Donna, Rose, Sylvia, Shaun, Mel, and Wilf (when he’s not shooting moles) and process the trauma.

15, Ncuti, whatever we’re calling him, this Doctor we’re getting is carefree and energetic but has that Doctor-y compassion. I’m excited to see more of him, not just because he has that low, rolling-R thing in his accent that we have which it is so good to have at least a little bit of, but because he split from David and felt like a breath of fresh air from that moment. It also helps that he has raw sex appeal, and I think his coming out of the former “hot Doctor” is no mistake.

Is bi-regeneration different? Yes. Does it change the canon completely? No, as long as it doesn’t become the standard. The one thing I’ve seen stated a couple of times now is, “Well, it is stupid and just gives credence to people saying ‘well why can’t we just have David back since he’s still around’?” David’s Doctors have effectively retired, specifically 14. It is in the text and on the paper, that Doctor is settling. No more running or saving the day, that Doctor is tired and needs to rest.

“Well, does he age? Does he regenerate into Ncuti then? What happens? I need to know everything!” If you are coming into a show called Doctor Who and want all the questions answered, I don’t know what is wrong with you. Am I saying some of those questions aren’t warranted? No, I think establishing what happens later is worth visiting, just doing so… later. We didn’t know who River Song was in 2008, we just had to wait a while. This is the same thing, we’ll undoubtedly get it in a short story, a book, a Big Finish, a spin-off, and god only knows what else.

As for people wanting to see David again simply because he’s settled with Donna’s family, are you stupid and have been hit upside the head too many times? I’ve seen the clip multiple times this week of Eccleston stating what will get him back to the role on TV, and why has he stated that? Because people keep asking him to return. Would I love that? Yes, but do I expect it soon? No. More to the point, I’ve seen and heard as many people say Tom Baker should have returned as people asking for Tennant.

Saying now more people have validation for saying “This isn’t my Doctor! David/Tom/William/Matt/Paul’s Doctor needs to return,” doesn’t make sense. If they wanted to return (except William, he’s dead), I’m sure there is a multi-Doctor script sitting around somewhere. This brings me to another point/theory that makes David’s 14 splitting off working, The Curator. I’ve seen some say he’s supposed to become The Valeyard, and quite frankly, that pile of tripe of an idea can stay in the scrapyard for all I care.

When Tom Baker literally came back (hey, look, what I just said) as The Curator and said: “And in years to come, you might find yourself revisiting a few. But just the old favourites, eh?” Now, I’m no genius, especially for remembering a line from an episode only 60-odd stories ago, but I’m pretty sure David is one of “the old favourites.” It isn’t a confirmed thing, but it is drawing direct lines to the Doctor Who we’ve had referenced in this very episode. It not only gives us a happy ending for Tennant’s Doctor but a happy ending to his runs.

Maybe people were blinded by anger as they shouted on social media so the Daily Mail could write their article, but it is on the paper that 14 needed to stop. You have David asking why can’t he save everyone, and Ncuti in David’s underwear (we’ll get to it) just grabs him and hugs him. This is what I mean by “this Doctor already has compassion,” we’ve seen him have more emotion than Chibnall’s entire run. Then there is the moment in the TARDIS (we’ll get to it too) where 15 is telling 14, “You need to sit down and process everything.”

I did have to move up closer to the TV to see, “is David not wearing shoes?” It is a product of the bi-regeneration. While the Doctors and Toymaker were playing with a ball, they couldn’t rightfully let Ncuti free-ball it. Again, I like it, it felt raw and gives us a reason to have him in a Kilt on Christmas day. I think splitting the outfit and giving Ncuti the shoes, the socks, the shirt, the tie, and the skivvies makes it feel like he’s come into this world as fresh as he could be. However, just after that, we got the confirmation “You doubled us.”

As I said earlier, I think the ball game is a very 60s TV resolution, there isn’t much to say specifically about it. They threw a ball and ran around an arena, the one to drop it lost, and of course, The Toymaker lost. I think it is more important to point out that The Toymaker had The Master trapped in his gold tooth, a gold tooth that was picked up by a feminine hand with red nail polish. The same polish we’ve seen pick up a ring, I’m sure. Again, maybe I’m connecting dots where I shouldn’t, but has anyone got the details of that woman from Dubai who keeps buying Rose’s stuffed creatures?

So the TARDIS, finally someone said what I said last week and it still isn’t resolved because who needs a place to sit when you have ramps and a jukebox? I’ll go find a couch on the street if I have to! Other than the assumption and the blatant “you doubled us” comment, you have Ncuti pointing out that The Toymaker’s residual energy is still about, so he goes and gets a big comedic hammer, and makes a second TARDIS. Why, how? Because The Toymaker has been playing with the fundamentals of reality. We have it established multiple times, keep up and put social media down for a minute.

Though none of that was the most important piece of that whole scene, it was the ramp. I’ve seen the piece with Ruth in Unleashed and it genuinely makes me so happy to finally have that. Not for me, but knowing how important that is for everyone who is disabled and who is in a wheelchair, to finally say “I could be the companion, I could be the Doctor.” Whether or not it is used in the next two or three episodes, I don’t care. It is there for the future and it is hopefully there to stay.

I’ve waffled on enough, I think this short run of Doctor Who we’ve just had is what many of us who suffered through Chibnall needed. “The Star Beast,” “Wild Blue Yonder,” and “The Giggle” have all been fantastic endpoints to the last 18 years (146 stories) of Doctor Who, kickstarting something that begins December 25th. Separately, under a bit of re-evaluation, I think “Wild Blue Yonder” is the better episode but I had more fun with “The Star Beast” and “The Giggle,” even with the things we’ve got teased for later on. We’ve no idea who “The boss” is unless she’s called Voyevoda, and we’ve got The Toymaker saying “My legions are coming.”

Ultimately, “The Giggle” is a fantastic special that just didn’t have a solid mid-point in the labyrinthine section and the ball game was very 60s. You can tell the episode was built around Ncuti’s arrival, and oh, he came alright. So might I have. It was a little weak stacking up in terms of plot with the other two, but certainly has a lot going for it to effectively be the season finale of 18 years of Who and the pilot for what is next. This is what I’ve been missing for so long writing these reviews, an excitement for what is to come next with Doctor Who, and it is great.

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Doctor Who "The Giggle"

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Ncuti is wonderfully cast.
• NPH knew the role inside and out.
• David's Doctor is finally happy.
• The ramp.
• "No change there then."

Cons

• We could have spent more time in The Toymaker's domain.
• The ball game was very 60s.