The Original Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker (Story 24, 1966)

The tenure of the First Doctor is noteworthy, of course, for introducing the character and his means of conveyance, as well as two of his most persistent and popular foes, the Daleks and the Cybermen. It also provided a set of villains who were regrettably seen again rarely, if ever. One of these was the Celestial Toymaker.



Played by the late Michael Gough, the Toymaker is one of the Doctor’s most frightening enemies, by virtue of his near omnipotent power. Passing through time and space after surviving the incident of the Ark, the Doctor is rendered invisible and immaterial by this malevolent force. It draws the TARDIS into an octagonal room, and the team of the Doctor, Steven and Dodo quickly learn that they are captives of the Toymaker. It seems that the Doctor and Toymaker have met before, but the former made a good decision to high-tail it as quickly as possible. Ever since the Toymaker has rued that day, for the Doctor is the only intellect that can offer him a challenge.

Nor are his challenges idle. The Toymaker hides the TARDIS and lays out his ultimatum: to leave, Steven and Dodo must defeat a set of simple games before the Doctor wins a complex “trilogic” game. If Doctor fails or the companions are too slow, then the whole lot of them will be trapped in the Toymaker’s realm forever. The Doctor will get off easy, being the Toymaker’s eternal opponent. The companions will be stuck as literal playthings, pulled out of the dollhouse when new contestants are abducted into the game. Previous victims are Steven and Dodo’s competitors, and they will do anything to win.

This is another serial, like The Time Meddler, which not only features a unique villain but also suffers William Hartnell’s vacation time. For much of the story, the Doctor is reduced to an invisible and immaterial form whose scant lines were conveniently pre-recorded. Not that it matters much, as this is one of the infamous lost stories, the original recordings of which were excised by the BBC. Only the fourth and final episode remains, available on the Lost in Time DVD. Otherwise, the audio tracks have been released on CD, narrated by Peter Purves.

With Hartnell absent, the story really belongs to the companions and is revealing of their personalities. For instance, Dodo is bloody annoying and thoughtless, frustrating both Steven and the listener with her refusal to take the game seriously. Sometimes she succumbs to her own sense of compassion, which is noble of itself. Other times, however, she’s just dim. Thankfully she is one of the least enduring companions, short of the ones who died almost immediately after being acquired.

More surprising is Steven’s ruthlessness. Diametrically opposed to Dodo, he is driven to win the games and find the TARDIS regardless of the cost to the other victims of the Toymaker. Steven has always been a bit interesting like that, though. On the one-for-one companion replacement plan that the Doctor has registered, Steven entered as Ian and Barbara left, having to fulfill both of their roles. In the personality graft, he inherited both of their combativeness with neither of their bemused, conciliatory attitudes. He’s the first companion to take none of the Doctor’s crap. As a consequence he has already walked out on the Doctor a number of times, and is being prepared for his final departure in a few short serials.

Like the Meddling Monk before and the Dream Lord since, the Toymaker is hoist by his own petard and the TARDIS moves on to its next destination. He does get in one last act of vengeance however. The final contest for the companions was against an insufferable man-child named Cyril who gave Dodo a bag of candies. The Doctor decides to partake of the goods and chips a tooth. This final spite forces the crew to find a good dentist, which takes them to Tombstone, Arizona on the eve of the most famous gunfight in history.