User Reviews

A silent Doctor is left to the trilogic Game, whilst Steven and Dodo play a deadly game with dolls.

It is absolutely surreal, it's pretty much the stuff of nonsense, are Steven and Dodo playing anything tangible, it are events just a figment of a diseased imagination? Some nice ideas at play here, but it is really missing the presence of Hartnell.

It's a little overly whimsical, even when it seems like it's curtains for Dodo, it isn't really.

I'll take a minute to comment on the production values, I think it looks rather nice, some nice sets, smart costumes, I like the crazy dolls too.

Now you can hear that it's Carmen Silvera, that voice is unmistakable. How perfect would Christopher Biggins have been for the role of Cyril.

If this is ever found it will need to be edited, as the king of Hearts unfortunately uses an offensive word.

It's not bad, I'm just glad it's only four parts long. 6/10.

Review of all 4 parts:

The Celestial Toymaker is a 4 part story beginning with The Celestial Toyroom.

This story is the first instance of the series going off into pure fantasy with a whimsical, strange setting in which the TARDIS crew are tormented by a mysterious power with mind games and very odd goings on. Sound familiar? Well if you have seen The Mind Robber from the second Doctor's era or the episode Amy's Choice from the modern 11th Doctor's (Matt Smith) era then you will see that this is very much the story they are based upon.

This being a different kind of story to anything that went before is a big plus in the first part as it is unusual and therefore surprising and interesting. The character of the toymaker is also an interesting and well acted character with the smooth Michael Gough in his usual good form. However the strangeness and bizarre 'toyroom figures' they meet start to grate more and more in parts 2 and 3 with poor scenes and unimpressive acting from some silly guest characters. Part 3 is particularly weak and embarrassing, probably the worst Hartnell era episode. The mind games are not thrilling and the final part with things coming to a conclusion still fails to pick up the level above that of the unimpressive second part let alone to match the first part or to rescue the story. Writer Brian Hayles has not provided great material apart from the initial ideas. Gerry Davis and Innes Lloyd who were the new script editor/producer combination also seem to have neglected the first couple of stories they inherited from their predecessors letting this fall very flat.

Overall this is disappointing stuff after the good first part and could maybe have been a success given proper care or would have been better as a 2-parter with a lot of the nonsense cut out.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 8/10, Episode 2 - 5.5/10, Episode 3 - 3.5/10, Episode 4 - 5.5/10

Overall: 5.63/10